My students and I were exploring ted.com during science seminar and just had to watch the “Terry Moore: How to tie your shoes” video.
We learned that most of us did not know the correct way to tie our shoes and that we had something to learn. What a great lesson – to find out that we didn’t know something. We were ignorant! Fantastic! We also figured out an even easier way to tie our shoes the right way for those of us who really learned it incorrectly. Hard to describe in writing, but I’ll be glad to share our easy solution with you if you contact me. Â (And if you really want to learn something, go to YouTube and look for “How to Tie Your Shoelaces Really Fast” for even more on this important subject.)
While you may not be having shoe-tying problems, you may be like me and find out that there may be things that you don’t know or that you have wrong. Ted.com is just one place to shed your ignorance! I love it, and if you care about education, I suggest you start by watching Sir Kenneth Robinson. In Changing Education Paradigms, Sir Ken Robinson lays out the link between 3 troubling trends: rising drop-out rates, schools’ dwindling stake in the arts, and ADHD. Watching It might help you see why I am so worked up about proficiency-based education.
Terry Moore not only taught me how to tie my shoes, he said something I’d forgotten, and he said it better than I would have. He said, “sometimes a small advantage someplace in life can yield tremendous results someplace else.” What a great lesson.
Maybe Al Boliska got it right when he said “Do you realize if it weren’t for Edison we’d be watching TV by candlelight?”.
What do you think?
Posted by Mr. Mark Siegel on Tuesday July 5, 2011 at 04:15PM