FROM == http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/chi_hant/adora_svitak.html
NOW, I want to start with a question. When was the last time you were called childish? For kids like me, being called childish can be a frequent occurrence. Every time we make irrational demands, exhibit irresponsible behavior, or display any other signs of being normal American citizens, we are called childish. After all, take a look at there events
Ask yourself: who’s responsible? Adults.
Now, what have kids done?
Well, anne frank touched millions with her powerful account of holocaust.
Ruby bridges helped end segregation in the United States , and, most recently, Charlie Simpson helped to raise 120,000 pounds for Haiti on his little bike.
So, as you can see evidenced by such examples, age has absolutely nothing to do with it. The traits has word childish addresses are seen so often in adults that we should abolish this age-discriminatory word when it comes to criticizing behavior associated with irresponsibility and irrational thinking.
Then again, who’s to say that certain types of irrational thinking? Aren’t exactly what the world needs? Maybe you’ve had grand plans before, but stopped yourself, thinking: that’s impossible or that costs too much or that won’t benefit me. For better or worse, we kids aren’t hampered as much when it comes to thinking about reasons why not to do things. Kids can full of inspiring aspirations and hopeful thinking, like my wish that no one went hungry or that everything were free kind of utopia. How many of you still dream like that and believe in the possibilities? Sometimes a knowledge of history and the past failures of utopian ideals can be a burden because you know that if everything were free, that the food stocks would become depleted, and scarce and lead to chaos. On the other hand, we kids still dream about perfection and that’s a good thing because in order to make anything a reality, you have to dream about it first. In many ways, our audacity to imagine helps push the boundaries of possibility. For instance, the museum of glass in tacomam, Washington .
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Now, our inherent wisdom doesn’t have to be insider’s knowledge. Kids already do a lot of learning from adults, and we have a lot to share. I think that adults should start learning from kids. Now, I do most my speaking in front of an education crowd, teachers and students, and I like this analogy. It shouldn’t just be a teacher at head of classroom telling students do this, do that. The students should teach their teachers. Learning between grown ups and kids should be reciprocal. The reality, unfortunately, is a little different, and it has a lot to do with trust, or a lack of it. Now, if you don’t trust someone, you place restrictions on them, right. If I doubt my older sister’s ability to pay back the 10 percent interest I established on her last loan, I’m going to withhold her ability to get more money from me until she pays it back.
