emory web design certificate
when you're a kid, you get asked this oneparticular question a lot. it really gets kind of annoying. "what do you want to bewhen you grow up?" now, adults are hoping for answers like "i want to be an astronaut" or "i want to be a neurosurgeon". you adults andyour imaginations. (laughter) kids,
they are more likely to answer withpro skateboarder surfer or minecraft player. i asked my little brother,and he said, "seriously dude, i'm 10,i have no idea, probably a pro skier. let's go get some ice cream!" (laughter) see, us kids are going to answer with something we're stoked on
what we think is cool. what we have experience with, and that's typically the oppositeof what adults want to hear. but if you ask a little kid, sometimes you'll get the best answer, something so simple,so obvious, and really profound. "when i grow up,i want to be happy". for me, when i grow up,
i want to continue to be happy like i am now. i'm stoked to be here at tedx, i've been watching ted videos for as long as i can remember. but i never thought i'd make iton stage here so soon. i mean,i just became a teenager, and like most teenage boys, i spend most of my time wondering:
"how did my room get so messyall on its own?" (laughter) did i take a shower today?(laughter) and the most perplexing of all, how do i get girls to like me?(laughter) neuroscientists say thatthe teenage brain is pretty weird. our prefrontal cortex is underdeveloped, but we actually havemore neurons than adults. which is why we can be so creative,and impulsive, and moody, and get bummed out.
but what bums me outis to know that a lot of kids today arejust wishing to be happy, to be healthy, to be safe, not bullied, and be loved for who they are. so it seems to me when adults say, they just assume that you'll automatically be happy and healthy. but maybe that's not the case. go to school. go to college. get a job. get married. boom!
then you'll be happy, right? we don't seem to make learninghow to be happy and healthy a priority in our schools. it's separated from schools, and for some kids,it doesn't exist at all. but what if we didn't make it separate? what if we based education on the study and practice of being happy and healthy? because that's what it is, a practice.
and a simple practice like that. education is important, but why is being happy and healthy not considered education? i just don't get it. i've been studying the scienceof being happy and healthy. it really comes down to practicingthese 8 things: exercise, diet and nutrition, time in nature, contributionand service to others,
relationships, recreation, relaxation and stress management, and religious or spiritual involvement. yes, i got that one.(laugther) so these 8 things comefrom dr. roger walsh. he calls them"therapeutic lifestyle changes" or tlcs for short, he's a scientist that studieshow to be happy and healthy. in researching this talk,
i got a chance to ask hima few questions like: "do you think that our schools todayare making these 8 tlcs a priority?" his response was no surprise. it was essentially "no". but he did say that many people do tryto get this kind of education outside of the traditional arena through reading or practicessuch as meditation or yoga. but what i thought was his best response
was that much of education is oriented, for better or worse, towards making a livingrather than making a life. in 2006, sir ken robinson gave the most popular ted talk of all time, "schools kill creativity." his message is that creativity isas important as literacy, and we should treat itwith the same status. a lot of parents watched those videos,
some of those parents like minecounted it as one of the reasons they felt confident to pull their kidsfrom traditional school, to try something different. i realize that i am part of this smallbut growing revolution of kids who are going abouttheir education differently. and you know what?it freaks a lot of people out. even though i was only 9 when my parents pulled me outof the school system, i can still remember my mom being in tears
when some of her friends told hershe was crazy, and it was a stupid idea. looking back, i'm thankfulshe didn't cave to peer pressure, and i think she is too. so out of the 200 million people that have watched sir ken robinson's talk, why aren't there more kidslike me out there? shane mcconkey is my hero. i loved him becausehe was the world's best skier. but then one day i realizedwhat i really loved about shane.
he was a hacker. not a computer hacker, he hacked skiing. his creativity and inventions madeskiing what it is today, and why i love to ski. a lot of people think of hackersas geeky computer nerds who live in their parent's basement,and spread computer viruses. but, i don't see it that way. hackers are innovators.
hackers are people who challengeand change the systems to make them work differently,to make them work better. it's just how they think,it's a mindset. i'm growing up in a world that needs more peoplewith the hacker mindset, and not just for technology. everything is up for being hacked,even skiing, even education. so whether it's steve jobs,
mark zuckerberg or shane mcconkey, having the hacker mindsetcan change the world. healthy, happy, creativity, and the hacker mindset areall a large part of my education. i call it "hack-schooling". i don't use any oneparticular curriculum, and i'm not dedicated toanyone's particular approach. i hack my education. i take advantage of opportunitiesin my community,
and through a networkof my friends and family. i take advantage of opportunitiesto experience what i'm learning. and i'm not afraid to look for shortcuts or hacks to get a better,faster result. it's like a remixor a mashup of learning. it's flexible, opportunistic, and it never loses sight of making happy, healthy and creativity a priority. and here's the cool partbecause it's a mindset
not a system. hack-schooling can be used by anyoneeven traditional schools, so, what does my school look like? well it looks like starbucksa lot of the time. (laughter) but, like most kids, i study a lot of math, science,history, and writing. i didn't used to like to write because my teachers made mewrite about butterflies and rainbows. and i wanted to write about skiing.
it was a relief when my good friend's mom started the squaw valley kids institute where i got to write throughmy experiences and my interests while connecting with great speakersfrom around the nation and that sparked my love of writing. i realize that once you're motivated to learn something, you can get a lot donein a short amount of time and on your own.
starbucks is pretty great for that. hacking physics was fun. we learned all aboutnewton and galileo, and we experienced somebasic physics concepts like kinetic energy though experimentingand making mistakes. my favorite was the giant newton's cradlethat we made out of bocci balls. we experimented with a lot of otherthings like bowling balls and even giant jawbreakers. project discovery's ropes courseis awesome
and slightly stressful. when you're 60 feet off the ground, you have to learnhow to handle your fears, communicate clearly andmost importantly, trust each other. community organizations playa big part in my education. a high fives foundationsb.a.s.i.c.s. program: "being aware and safein critical situations" we spent a day with thesquaw valley ski patrol to learn more about mountain safety.
the next day we switchedto the science of snow, weather, and avalanches. but most importantly, we learned that makingbad decision puts you and your friends at risk. young chautauqua brings history to life. you study a famous character in history, so you can stand on stageand perform as that character. and answer any questionabout their lifetime.
in this photo, you see al capone and bob marley getting grilled with questions at the historical piper's operahouse in virginia city. the same stage whereharry houdini got his start. time in nature is reallyimportant to me. it's calm, quiet, andi get to just log out of reality. i spend one day a week outside all day. at my foxwalker classes,
our goal is to be able to survivein the wilderness with just a knife. we learn to listen to nature,we learn to sense our surroundings, and i've gaineda spiritual connection to nature that i never knew existed. but the best part isthat we get to make spears, bows and arrows,fires with just a bow drill, and survival shelters for thesnowy nights when we camp out. hanging out at the moment factory where they hand make skisand design clothes,
has really inspired me toone day have my own business. the guys at the factory have showed mewhy i need to be good at math, be creative and get good at sewing. so i got an internshipat bigtruck brand to get better at design and sewing. between fetching lunch,scrubbing toilets, and breaking their vacuum cleaner, i'm getting to contributeto clothing design, customizing hats, and selling them.
the people who work there arehappy, healthy, creative and stoked to be doingwhat they're doing. this is by far,my favorite class. so, this is where i'm really happy, powder days. and it's a good metaphor for my life, my education, my hack-schooling. if everyone skied this mountain
like most people think of education, everyone would be skiing the same line, probably the safest, and most of the "powder"would go untouched. i look at this and seea thousand possibilites. dropping the cornice,shredding the spine, looking for a trannyfrom cliff to cliff. skiing to me is freedom,and so it's my education. it's about being creative,doing things differently.
it's about community,and helping each other, it's about being happy and healthy among my very best friends. so i'm starting to think i know what i might want to dowhen i grow up. but if you ask mewhat do i want to be when i grow up, i'll always know thati want to be happy. thank you.(applause)
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar