How can we create an education system that works for kids, instead of against them? Watch eight inspiring talks from TED's May 2013 PBS special, given in their entirety.

2013 TED Prize winner Sugata Mitra is an educator who helps kids learn to teach themselves. Here are 5 talks that align with his vision of education's future.

As a country, how can we better inspire our students — and support our educators? To explore ideas, TED, WNET, PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting teamed up for a brand-new one-hour special, funded by CPB's "American Graduate: Let's Make It Happen." TED Talks Education was an exhilarating night of talks hosted by John Legend.

Education legend Sir Ken Robinson picked the talks he loves — all full of insight, bright ideas and, of course, creativity.

Learning doesn't end when you throw your graduation cap in the air. These talks celebrate education beyond the classroom.

Better education for generations to come means a brighter future for us all. These TED speakers have some great ideas for how we can solve our current education crisis.

Here's what can happen when we bring education online ... and open it up to anyone.

Bill Gates hopes to solve some of the world's biggest problems using a new kind of philanthropy. In a passionate and, yes, funny 18 minutes, he asks us to consider two big questions and how we might answer them. (And see the Q&A on the TED Blog.)

All over the world, there's growing consensus that our education systems are broken. These educators share big ideas on how we might re-imagine school.

In far too many countries around the world, an education is not a given for girls. These moving talks are from those facing great risk to change that.

The TED-Ed project — TED's education initiative — makes short video lessons worth sharing, aimed at educators and students. Within TED-Ed’s growing library of lessons, you will find carefully curated educational videos, many of which are collaborations between educators and animators nominated through the TED-Ed platform.

In this talk from RSA Animate, Sir Ken Robinson lays out the link between 3 troubling trends: rising drop-out rates, schools' dwindling stake in the arts, and ADHD. An important, timely talk for parents and teachers.

You probably didn't learn this in sex education...

Education scientist Sugata Mitra tackles one of the greatest problems of education -- the best teachers and schools don't exist where they're needed most. In a series of real-life experiments from New Delhi to South Africa to Italy, he gave kids self-supervised access to the web and saw results that could revolutionize how we think about teaching.

Stressed about what you want to study? Let these guide you down a path of inspiration and passion in fields from mathematics to space archaeology.

Charles Leadbeater went looking for radical new forms of education -- and found them in the slums of Rio and Kibera, where some of the world's poorest kids are finding transformative new ways to learn. And this informal, disruptive new kind of school, he says, is what all schools need to become.

Accepting his 2005 TED Prize, photographer Edward Burtynsky makes a wish: that his images -- stunning landscapes that document humanity's impact on the world -- help persuade millions to join a global conversation on sustainability.

Speaking to an audience of students, US First Lady Michelle Obama reminds each one to take their education seriously -- and never take it for granted. This new, brilliant generation, she tells us, is the one that could close the gap between the world as it is and the world as it should be.

Sharpen your pencils! It’s time to hit the books again, with these TED Talks that take you through a busy day of math, history, gym, lunch, English, science and art. No finals required.

The joy of a new semester: picking classes you never knew existed. These are talks we wish were courses.

Bennington president Liz Coleman delivers a call-to-arms for radical reform in higher education. Bucking the trend to push students toward increasingly narrow areas of study, she proposes a truly cross-disciplinary education -- one that dynamically combines all areas of study to address the great problems of our day.

Daphne Koller is enticing top universities to put their most intriguing courses online for free -- not just as a service, but as a way to research how people learn. With Coursera (cofounded by Andrew Ng), each keystroke, quiz, peer-to-peer discussion and self-graded assignment builds an unprecedented pool of data on how knowledge is processed.

Created in collaboration with Wiley, TED Studies use TED talks as a jumping-off point for a structured educational experience. They're designed to help students, professors, and self-guided learners explore important topics in higher education. On TED.com, each TED Study includes a curated video collection, as well as an introductory essay and s...

TED-Ed Weekend events are special gatherings of students from TED-Ed Clubs worldwide for a chance to take over TED Headquarters in New York City.

Salman Khan talks about how and why he created the remarkable Khan Academy, a carefully structured series of educational videos offering complete curricula in math and, now, other subjects. He shows the power of interactive exercises, and calls for teachers to consider flipping the traditional classroom script -- give students video lectures to ...

Define students by what they contribute, not what they lack -- especially those with difficult upbringings, says educator Victor Rios. Interweaved with his personal tale of perseverance as an inner-city youth, Rios identifies three straightforward strategies to shift attitudes in education and calls for fellow educators to see "at-risk" students...

Shai Reshef wants to democratize higher education.

Nadia Lopez is the founding principal of Mott Hall Bridges Academy, where she is showing the world how underprivileged communities can beat the odds and create positive institutions that have a global impact.

Welcome to the global archive of TED Talks! To dive in, start with these popular talks.

If you were in the marching band, jazz ensemble or choir, music is a part of you — whether you still play or not. Let these talks tap into that.