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.
The author of "Investing in Kids," Timothy Bartik studies state and local economies -- and analyzes the benefits of preschool as an economic development program.
Speaking at LIFT 2007, Sugata Mitra talks about his Hole in the Wall project. Young kids in this project figured out how to use a PC on their own -- and then taught other kids. He asks, what else can children teach themselves?
Sometimes, talking with kids about certain subjects is hard. We’re here for you with these gentle lead-ins to help get those tough conversations started.
Rita Pierson, a teacher for 40 years, once heard a colleague say, "They don't pay me to like the kids." Her response: "Kids don't learn from people they don't like.'" A rousing call to educators to believe in their students and actually connect with them on a real, human, personal level.
Speaking at the 2007 EG conference, "renegade lunch lady" Ann Cooper talks about the coming revolution in the way kids eat at school -- local, sustainable, seasonal and even educational food.
Are video games eroding our minds? These TED Talks suggest the opposite -- that video games can improve our brain function, and even help better the world.
The path to adulthood is, at times, a rough one. These talks offer words of comfort and heaps of advice for those moments when life feels way too overwhelming.
Kids don't come with a manual, and parents don't get grades to affirm they're doing things right. These talks speak to the complexities of parenthood, offering unusual insights and hard-won advice.
Temple Grandin, diagnosed with autism as a child, talks about how her mind works -- sharing her ability to "think in pictures," which helps her solve problems that neurotypical brains might miss. She makes the case that the world needs people on the autism spectrum: visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, verbal thinkers, and all kinds of smart geeky...
It’s the dream of kids all around the world to see giant beasts walk the Earth again. Could -- and should -- that dream be realized? Hendrik Poinar talks about the next big thing: the quest to engineer a creature that looks very much like our furry friend, the woolly mammoth. The first step, to sequence the woolly genome, is nearly complete. And...
Our kids are our future, and it's crucial they believe it themselves. That's why Nadia Lopez opened an academic oasis in Brownsville, Brooklyn, one of the most underserved and violent neighborhoods in New York -- because she believes in every child's brilliance and capabilities. In this short, energizing talk, the founding principal of Mott Hall...
In this well-argued talk, Timothy Bartik makes the macro-economic case for preschool education -- and explains why you should be happy to invest in it, even if you don't have kids that age (or kids at all). The economic benefits of well-educated kids, it turns out, go well beyond the altruistic.
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.
Author and illustrator Maira Kalman talks about her life and work, from her covers for The New Yorker to her books for children and grown-ups. She is as wonderful, as wise and as deliciously off-kilter in person as she is on paper.
Losing children to illness, disease or acts of violence is devastating and endlessly difficult to cope with. These talks come from parents who have experienced such loss and found a way to make it through.
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...
By loading kids with high expectations and micromanaging their lives at every turn, parents aren't actually helping. At least, that's how Julie Lythcott-Haims sees it. With passion and wry humor, the former Dean of Freshmen at Stanford makes the case for parents to stop defining their children's success via grades and test scores. Instead, she s...