Teach a Man to Fish: Bil Moore at TEDxDetroit

A Michigander since birth, Bil was raised by wolves and educated by life. He is a speaker, salesperson and technology lover.

Give a man a fish
and he'll eat for a day,

but teach a man to fish
and he'll eat for a lifetime.

Nowhere is that proverb more true
than today's educational system.

Today, we are exposing kids to life,
but not teaching them how to live it.

We're giving them information,
but not teaching them how to use it.

We're giving them the "what",
but not teaching them the "why".

John Gardner agreed with me:

"Much education today
is monumentally ineffective.

All too often we are giving
young peeople cut flowers,

when we should be teaching them
to grow their own plants".

We should be teaching them to fish.

Now, what makes me feel
qualified to talk about this?

I sure as hell don't speak
from an ivory tower.

I speak from here.
This is where I grew up.

This is a trailer with a 6 foot
by 7 foot addition that was my bedroom.

And what you can't see
beyond there is a junkyard.

That's where I grew up,
in a trailer, in a junkyard.

Make all your jokes now.

(Laughter)

But it wasn't all bad.

I was voted smartest kid
in my fourth-grade class.

Two out of three years.

(Laughter)

But I had to teach myself how to fish.

This is today's educational system.

We are taking grade-school kids
in at the bottom,

and teaching them the basics:
reading, writing and arithmetic.

By the way, a little pet peeve of mine,

who the hell's bright idea
was it to call those the three R's?

(Laughter)

As they get older, we expose them
to more and more things.

And by the time they're in high school,

hopefully, we've exposed them to enough

that they can make some
decisions on what they want to be.

The problem is study,
after study, after study

tells us kids learn better
when they're younger.

I know that was definetely
the case with me.

In third grade, we had to take
a half an hour of Spanish once a week.

We had to take a half an hour
of sign language once a week.

And in high school, I took an hour
of French everyday, for two years.

That's twenty hours of sign language,

twenty hours of Spanish
and 400 hours of French.

What do you think I'm more fluent in?

See...

(Laughter)

How about, instead, we take that
triangle and turn it upside down,

and give kids a strong foundation
by exposing them to things

when they're young,
before their prejudices can set in?

Before they can say:
"Science isn't cool, Math isn't cool,

Art isn't cool."

They love this stuff when they're young,
but as they get older,

society tells them it's not
a good thing to do.

So, if we can expose that
to them when they're young,

they'll say: "Well, I'm interested
in this; I'm not interested in that.

I'm good at that; I suck at this,
so I'm going to avoid these things."

And by the time they get up to high school,

they've got a much better idea
of what they want to do,

because they're focused.

And if we can help them focus,
maybe we can increase this number.

My second idea -- this isn't a real program,

I just invented it on my couch
within the last couple of weeks --

Learn & Earn in Michigan.

I think the numbers work that...

they say that Michigan could say,
"We are going to pay anybody's tuition.

Books and tuition.

In exchange, you'll live
and work here for two years."

The taxes from those hiping jobs
would more than make up

for any tuition outlay
from the government.

And, by the time they get down
with four years of college

and eight years of payback,
they'll be thirty years old.

They'll have a house,
a spouse and 2.3 kids.

They will be here to stay,

and so will the businesses that are
attracted by educated people.

One half who graduate from college
never read another book.

That's an amazing statistic

and it was true,
and it's still true to a large degree.

But, thirty years ago, that was ok.

Thirty years ago, the shelf life
of a college education

was 15 to 25 years, which meant
whatever you learned

wouldn't become outdated
for at least 20 years.

The shelf life of a college
education now is 18 to 24 months,

which means whatever
you're learning today

you'll probably have to relearn
in a couple of years,

because the rate
of change is increasing.

So, colleges need to have
a little more flexibility,

they need to faster to the draw,

and use a little bit of what I call
"junkyard math".

Four equals one.

Instead of a four-year degree,
we do a one-year degree.

I mean, if you take the first two years
of a college degree,

it's pretty much basics anyway.

It's the three R's you should
have learned ten years ago.

And this another year full of electives,

underwater basket weaving
and poetry history.

Take those away, and you've got

12 to 18 months worth
of valid focused classes.

Now, I'm not talking about learning
for the sake of learning.

I'm talking about learning
for the sake of earning.

Before I get insulted by
all the educators out there,

let it be known that
the world is changing.

Instead of a four-year student, you can
now have an eight to twelve-year student,

because people change careers
6 to 8 times during their life.

And they can come back to you,
they need somebody to train them.

The "top 10" jobs today weren't
even invented ten years ago.

And that's going to continue.

And somebody's got to educate them.

So, instead of your revenue
being cut by 75%,

from a four-year degree
to a one-year degree,

it can be doubled or even tripled.

I'm sure the educators will love that.

Thomas Jefferson said every generation
needs a new revolution.

This can be our revolution.

Fixing the educational system
can be our revolution.

We can teach the youth of today
how to live in the world of tomorrow.

We can not only give them the "what",
we can teach them the "why".

All we need to do is teach them to fish.

"Gracias".
Thank you.

(Applause)