Why Do I Need to Learn This A Student Approach to Redefining Education
when we think of the meaning
of education we often think of an
acquirement of knowledge
we see ourselves as these jars meant to
receive and hold on to information
sometimes this information is simple
facts to memorize and
other times it is understanding
difficult concepts
ideally this information is acquired
over a steady period of time
and sometimes it’s crammed the night
before an exam you may or may not have
done too well on
to contrast let’s look at the etymology
of the word
education education comes from the latin
root
educare which roughly translates to
lead forward or to bring forth
with this we can see that we are not
just jars meant to
hold onto information rather
we are vessels by which information
enters
is processed and is then given back
bringing forth a better version of
ourselves
i want us to really focus on that last
part
education is meant to bring forth
a better version of ourselves
now do we really live by this meaning
look i’m a college student and i can
tell you that this is not always the way
i approach my own education
and my time in a university setting has
shown me that
not many students do for this reason
i want to call on us all to redefine
what it means to receive an education
and how we can use
this new framework to better ourselves
and our world most discussions around
education are geared towards educators
and what they can do to better develop
their methods however the purpose of
this discussion
is to empower the student in all of us
to look at our education
a little differently to help with this i
asked a group of high school students to
tell me what they thought education was
in about one word
and you’ll see some of their responses
behind me as we go through this talk
so let’s set up our lesson plan first
we’ll look at why
education often seems so burdening then
we’ll see how learning
is a natural way and a powerful tool
to bring ourselves closer to our
passions and
each other then we’ll move to look at
how education is not just a tool
to help people but can be the motivation
to help people education is not just
a vehicle it’s not just the car we take
to change
education is the reason we get in the
car
in the first place and lastly we’ll look
at the social responsibility that comes
with education
if we are to truly see 2020 then
we ought to be seeing as both students
and citizens
we must be students in our classrooms
but we also must be students
in the broader world likewise we need to
be
citizens in the broader world but we
also
need to be citizens in our classrooms
and in our classrooms we often see
education as
very frustrating this rigid and
burdening institution in our lives now
is this because of the rigor of the
system
or something more pervasive like the way
we define ourselves and our capacity for
success
we grew up in a culture that loves to
use the word
smart when we use this word we instantly
define ourselves as either having an
innate capability to succeed or not
i want us to do away with the word
smart when we use words like this
we instantly put a cap on our potential
in fact there isn’t really such thing as
inherited intelligence
the concept of inherited intelligence
was pushed by researchers ernstein and
murray in their book
the bell curve intelligence and class
structure in american life
in which they pushed the idea that the
socio-economic structure of american
society
as well as its intersections with race
are the way they are because people in
poverty are
naturally less intelligent this theory
has
since then been debunked as research has
shown that environmental factors play a
much larger role in intelligence and
success
than an inherited set of genes so why do
we still define ourselves this way
if a student seems to grasp a concept
quicker than other students
this does not necessarily mean they are
smarter than their peers but
rather that they likely were exposed to
similar thinking or concepts
somewhere earlier in their lives
likewise in angela duckworth’s 2013 ted
talk titled grit
the power of passion she found in her
research that
iq had little correlation with student
success
rather it was their grit and resilience
that did
it’s not smart it’s effort
these same ideas pushed the research of
dr carol dwecks of mindworks coining the
terms
fixed and growth mindsets students with
a growth mindset see their education as
flexible dependent on what they put in
whereas students operating from a fixed
mindset
see their capacity for learning as
limited by an innate ability they also
found that
students that operate from a growth
mindset are more likely to take on
challenges
even with the fear of failure
this is important because if we tell
ourselves
we are smart if we fix ourselves to
these words
then we shy away from opportunities that
could bring failure
because it would threaten that title
however
if we tell ourselves that our capacity
for growth is in our own hands
we don’t fear failure we embrace it
many of my teachers in high school
especially in our science department
were
always trying to encourage us to adopt a
growth mindset
they taught us to love struggle
because that means that we’ve reached an
opportunity to learn
so when our education feels frustrating
and it will
sometimes we’ll feel like we just can’t
get it no matter how hard we try
don’t let this limit you rather
struggle but as my teachers would always
say
struggle well because
when we struggle well when we build from
what we do not yet know
we see growth and
who doesn’t love to grow right i mean i
know i would love to grow
these are heels and
similar to our love of growth believe it
or not
we actually love learning learning is an
essential part of human nature we often
think of learning and education as only
being possible within the institutions
of a classroom
but if we take a step back we can see
just how natural it really is
early on in our lives it is learning and
exploring the world around us that
allows us to
understand our own existence
contextualize our environment
discover what we love and build
relationships
in fact this is evident even in our
language for example when
we are describing a close relationship
we have with someone
we say that we know them this
shows that learning is precisely what
unites us
and if this is true what if we take this
idea a step further
if learning is what unites us then this
translates easily to the way that we
often sit in our classrooms
together if we begin to look at
education
recognizing it in these more intimate
and everyday forms
we can begin to appreciate it in the
classroom as well
oftentimes we see education in the
outside world and the classroom as
two completely different things and
while i definitely can’t claim that our
education system is structured perfectly
it is still possible to enjoy both
because they’re fundamentally about
something that we
naturally enjoy doing learning
and i know a lot of us also struggle
with another burning question
well what if i like learning but i just
don’t really care about what i’m
learning
and this is very understandable but
in cal newport’s book be so good they
can’t ignore you
he finds that passion is not always a
prerequisite for enjoying the work we do
in fact it’s often the hard work and
determination we put in towards
mastering a concept or developing a
skill
that engenders within us a passion and
love of the work we’re doing
that means that the same work that can
get us past frustration
as we mentioned before is the same work
that can get us past
disinterest this is a powerful thing
especially when we are learning about
each other or
how the world works or why in history
this happened
or happens or will happen education
allows us to tap into this expansive
network of collected growth and
experiences of the world around us
further uniting us the moment our
ancestors began to record their history
they created a bridge that spans
centuries and continents
because now we can learn from them too
connecting their past and our future
if we approach our lecture halls even
the ones that feel like
dungeons like mausoleums or like the dmv
if we approach our lecture halls with
these ideas then suddenly
sitting there becomes so much more than
listening into a professor drone on
and on it becomes you and everyone
sitting there with you
expanding your shared network of
knowledge
so now that we have examined a new
framework of education that frees us
from our own limitations
and looked at how learning can be
natural and uniting
let’s elevate this idea to a concept
that is especially
critical today social responsibility
education is a mechanism not only to
gain knowledge about a cause we can grow
to care about
but also gain the tools to bring about
change
and bringing about change takes us back
to what we discussed as the original
meaning of education
to bring forth education is not meant to
end with us
in many ways it starts with us
this idea of social responsibility is
also greatly influenced by the fact that
most things that i’m talking about today
are due to the fact that
not everyone in the world has the same
opportunities with education
those of us here who are lucky enough to
receive or have received quality
education
are incredibly privileged on a national
and international level when we look at
the sheer inequality of educational
opportunities based on race
class gender geography among other
factors
this alone can make us instantly
appreciate what we
have again i cannot ignore that almost
everything i have said on this stage
today still only applies to a handful of
individuals
let that be motivation to be
and do better and to be
and do better again we must see as both
students
and citizens because when we have the
eyes of a student
we have the heart of a learner and we
combine this
with the eyes of a citizen we have the
mind of someone who is ready to take
that knowledge
outside of the classroom and it’s
interesting to be giving this talk today
when this tedx event was originally
scheduled to take place in
january of 2020 with the idea of looking
into this new decade with
20 20 vision
when in reality a lot of the ideas
presented today
not only by me but by most of the
speakers here
are better understood because hindsight
is 20 20.
i think we can all agree that the events
we have seen
unfold in our world this year
demonstrate the importance of public
consciousness better than
any speech ever could we saw experts in
so many different fields come together
in this critical moment
with the coven 19 pandemic we saw public
health officials and health care
providers fighting
on the front lines of this pandemic
political leaders
ideally setting mandates and bringing
our communities together
economists looking at the impacts this
can have on our economy and people’s
livelihoods for years to come artists
and designers
making informational graphics that we
all spread to get protective knowledge
to the masses
with the black lives matter protests we
long overdue began to examine
racism particularly anti-blackness in
virtually
every sphere how does racism
affect medical education and care or
hiring practices
or barriers in academia or the way we
see ourselves in arts and media
we began to look at race both
sociologically
and genetically we saw how
even artificial intelligence can adopt
racial biases
ultimately we live in such a connected
world
that every way or discipline of learning
is related to someone’s way of living
likewise when we watch events unfold in
our homes
our communities nations and world
we must be ready to engage as citizens
and learn and listen but we also must be
ready
to mobilize as citizens
education gives us the power
to do both
our time here today has consisted of
looking at how
education and our culture around it has
created a mindset
in us that limits our potential we then
looked at a new framework to be able to
unleash our potential in these
opportunities
then we looked at how learning exists in
so many forms in our lives many of which
we already enjoy
making it easier for us to appreciate
them even
in more structured contexts lastly we
looked at how
education not only enables us and
empowers us
but requires us to make change if we are
to live by its true
meaning so education can seem
frustrating but in reality it is that
effort
and that struggle that allows us to
achieve growth
and this growth is essential in building
a better future
for us and our world and to make that
change education gives us that power
for my family education has meant
everything
my uncle was an incredibly hard working
man who
used his education to bring the rest of
my family to the united states decades
ago
education is the way that my siblings
and i
are able to honor the sacrifices my
parents made as immigrants
it’s the reason we have had every
opportunity we have been given
education is for many reasons
why i am on this stage today so i hope
education
in any of its many forms enables
us all to find fulfillment in every form
thank you
you