1 00:00:01,942 --> 00:00:05,105 Thank you very much. 2 00:00:05,105 --> 00:00:07,326 I moved to America 12 years ago 3 00:00:07,326 --> 00:00:09,352 with my wife Terry and our two kids. 4 00:00:09,352 --> 00:00:15,788 Actually, truthfully, we moved to Los Angeles -- (Laughter) -- 5 00:00:15,788 --> 00:00:17,545 thinking we were moving to America, 6 00:00:17,545 --> 00:00:23,965 but anyway, it's a short plane ride from Los Angeles 7 00:00:23,965 --> 00:00:26,846 to America. 8 00:00:26,846 --> 00:00:29,059 I got here 12 years ago, 9 00:00:29,059 --> 00:00:32,869 and when I got here, I was told various things, 10 00:00:32,869 --> 00:00:38,319 like, "Americans don't get irony." 11 00:00:38,319 --> 00:00:41,139 Have you come across this idea? 12 00:00:41,139 --> 00:00:44,220 It's not true. I've traveled the whole length and breadth of this country. 13 00:00:44,220 --> 00:00:47,479 I have found no evidence that Americans don't get irony. 14 00:00:47,479 --> 00:00:50,074 It's one of those cultural myths, 15 00:00:50,074 --> 00:00:54,118 like, "The British are reserved." 16 00:00:54,118 --> 00:00:56,455 I don't know why people think this. 17 00:00:56,455 --> 00:00:58,966 We've invaded every country we've encountered. 18 00:00:58,966 --> 00:01:02,602 (Laughter) 19 00:01:02,602 --> 00:01:05,126 But it's not true Americans don't get irony, 20 00:01:05,126 --> 00:01:07,622 but I just want you to know that that's what people 21 00:01:07,622 --> 00:01:09,097 are saying about you behind your back. 22 00:01:09,097 --> 00:01:12,416 You know, so when you leave living rooms in Europe, 23 00:01:12,416 --> 00:01:16,889 people say, thankfully, nobody was ironic in your presence. 24 00:01:16,889 --> 00:01:19,619 But I knew that Americans get irony 25 00:01:19,619 --> 00:01:25,174 when I came across that legislation No Child Left Behind. 26 00:01:25,174 --> 00:01:30,191 Because whoever thought of that title gets irony, 27 00:01:30,191 --> 00:01:32,043 don't they, because -- 28 00:01:32,043 --> 00:01:37,866 (Laughter) (Applause) — 29 00:01:37,866 --> 00:01:41,413 because it's leaving millions of children behind. 30 00:01:41,413 --> 00:01:44,584 Now I can see that's not a very attractive name for legislation: 31 00:01:44,584 --> 00:01:48,208 Millions of Children Left Behind. I can see that. 32 00:01:48,208 --> 00:01:49,413 What's the plan? Well, we propose 33 00:01:49,413 --> 00:01:51,010 to leave millions of children behind, 34 00:01:51,010 --> 00:01:53,489 and here's how it's going to work. 35 00:01:53,489 --> 00:01:56,476 And it's working beautifully. 36 00:01:56,476 --> 00:01:57,670 In some parts of the country, 37 00:01:57,670 --> 00:02:01,677 60 percent of kids drop out of high school. 38 00:02:01,677 --> 00:02:03,175 In the Native American communities, 39 00:02:03,175 --> 00:02:05,403 it's 80 percent of kids. 40 00:02:05,403 --> 00:02:09,616 If we halved that number, one estimate is 41 00:02:09,616 --> 00:02:14,050 it would create a net gain to the U.S. economy 42 00:02:14,050 --> 00:02:18,902 over 10 years of nearly a trillion dollars. 43 00:02:18,902 --> 00:02:20,548 From an economic point of view, 44 00:02:20,548 --> 00:02:23,789 this is good math, isn't it, that we should do this? 45 00:02:23,789 --> 00:02:26,138 It actually costs an enormous amount 46 00:02:26,138 --> 00:02:30,300 to mop up the damage from the dropout crisis. 47 00:02:30,300 --> 00:02:34,029 But the dropout crisis is just the tip of an iceberg. 48 00:02:34,029 --> 00:02:36,279 What it doesn't count are all the kids who are in school 49 00:02:36,279 --> 00:02:40,346 but being disengaged from it, who don't enjoy it, 50 00:02:40,346 --> 00:02:43,436 who don't get any real benefit from it. 51 00:02:43,436 --> 00:02:44,975 And the reason is 52 00:02:44,975 --> 00:02:46,614 not that we're not spending enough money. 53 00:02:46,614 --> 00:02:48,531 America spends more money on education 54 00:02:48,531 --> 00:02:50,103 than most other countries. 55 00:02:50,103 --> 00:02:53,529 Class sizes are smaller than in many countries. 56 00:02:53,529 --> 00:02:55,967 And there are hundreds of initiatives every year 57 00:02:55,967 --> 00:02:58,244 to try and improve education. 58 00:02:58,244 --> 00:03:02,765 The trouble is, it's all going in the wrong direction. 59 00:03:02,765 --> 00:03:03,934 There are three principles 60 00:03:03,934 --> 00:03:07,364 on which human life flourishes, 61 00:03:07,364 --> 00:03:11,375 and they are contradicted by the culture of education 62 00:03:11,375 --> 00:03:13,652 under which most teachers have to labor 63 00:03:13,652 --> 00:03:16,976 and most students have to endure. 64 00:03:16,976 --> 00:03:19,540 The first is this, that human beings 65 00:03:19,540 --> 00:03:24,228 are naturally different and diverse. 66 00:03:24,228 --> 00:03:25,529 Can I ask you, how many of you 67 00:03:25,529 --> 00:03:28,754 have got children of your own? 68 00:03:28,754 --> 00:03:31,905 Okay. Or grandchildren. 69 00:03:31,905 --> 00:03:35,645 How about two children or more? Right. 70 00:03:35,645 --> 00:03:37,652 And the rest of you have seen such children. 71 00:03:37,652 --> 00:03:40,525 (Laughter) 72 00:03:40,525 --> 00:03:43,542 Small people wandering about. 73 00:03:43,542 --> 00:03:45,636 I will make you a bet, 74 00:03:45,636 --> 00:03:47,066 and I am confident that I will win the bet. 75 00:03:47,066 --> 00:03:49,551 If you've got two children or more, 76 00:03:49,551 --> 00:03:53,380 I bet you they are completely different from each other. 77 00:03:53,380 --> 00:03:57,751 Aren't they? Aren't they? (Applause) 78 00:03:57,751 --> 00:04:00,354 You would never confuse them, would you? 79 00:04:00,354 --> 00:04:04,931 Like, "Which one are you? Remind me. 80 00:04:04,931 --> 00:04:06,263 Your mother and I are going to introduce 81 00:04:06,263 --> 00:04:09,522 some color-coding system, so we don't get confused." 82 00:04:09,522 --> 00:04:12,774 Education under No Child Left Behind 83 00:04:12,774 --> 00:04:17,818 is based on not diversity but conformity. 84 00:04:17,818 --> 00:04:20,376 What schools are encouraged to do is to find out 85 00:04:20,376 --> 00:04:24,736 what kids can do across a very narrow spectrum of achievement. 86 00:04:24,736 --> 00:04:27,130 One of the effects of No Child Left Behind 87 00:04:27,130 --> 00:04:29,086 has been to narrow the focus 88 00:04:29,086 --> 00:04:32,835 onto the so-called STEM disciplines. They're very important. 89 00:04:32,835 --> 00:04:34,954 I'm not here to argue against science and math. 90 00:04:34,954 --> 00:04:39,178 On the contrary, they're necessary but they're not sufficient. 91 00:04:39,178 --> 00:04:41,377 A real education has to give equal weight 92 00:04:41,377 --> 00:04:45,114 to the arts, the humanities, to physical education. 93 00:04:45,114 --> 00:04:52,298 An awful lot of kids, sorry, thank you — (Applause) — 94 00:04:52,298 --> 00:04:55,210 One estimate in America currently is that 95 00:04:55,210 --> 00:04:57,866 something like 10 percent of kids, getting on that way, 96 00:04:57,866 --> 00:05:02,180 are being diagnosed with various conditions 97 00:05:02,180 --> 00:05:06,502 under the broad title of attention deficit disorder. 98 00:05:06,502 --> 00:05:10,179 ADHD. I'm not saying there's no such thing. 99 00:05:10,179 --> 00:05:13,154 I just don't believe it's an epidemic like this. 100 00:05:13,154 --> 00:05:15,970 If you sit kids down, hour after hour, 101 00:05:15,970 --> 00:05:19,146 doing low-grade clerical work, 102 00:05:19,146 --> 00:05:22,435 don't be surprised if they start to fidget, you know? 103 00:05:22,435 --> 00:05:29,913 (Laughter) (Applause) 104 00:05:29,913 --> 00:05:32,322 Children are not, for the most part, 105 00:05:32,322 --> 00:05:34,190 suffering from a psychological condition. 106 00:05:34,190 --> 00:05:40,379 They're suffering from childhood. (Laughter) 107 00:05:40,379 --> 00:05:42,452 And I know this because I spent my early life 108 00:05:42,452 --> 00:05:46,306 as a child. I went through the whole thing. 109 00:05:46,306 --> 00:05:49,315 Kids prosper best with a broad curriculum 110 00:05:49,315 --> 00:05:51,723 that celebrates their various talents, 111 00:05:51,723 --> 00:05:53,360 not just a small range of them. 112 00:05:53,360 --> 00:05:55,510 And by the way, the arts aren't just important 113 00:05:55,510 --> 00:05:56,784 because they improve math scores. 114 00:05:56,784 --> 00:05:58,635 They're important because they speak to parts 115 00:05:58,635 --> 00:06:02,150 of children's being which are otherwise untouched. 116 00:06:02,150 --> 00:06:08,562 The second, thank you — (Applause) 117 00:06:08,562 --> 00:06:12,725 The second principle that drives human life flourishing 118 00:06:12,725 --> 00:06:14,355 is curiosity. 119 00:06:14,355 --> 00:06:17,730 If you can light the spark of curiosity in a child, 120 00:06:17,730 --> 00:06:21,343 they will learn without any further assistance, very often. 121 00:06:21,343 --> 00:06:23,548 Children are natural learners. 122 00:06:23,548 --> 00:06:27,864 It's a real achievement to put that particular ability out, 123 00:06:27,864 --> 00:06:30,010 or to stifle it. 124 00:06:30,010 --> 00:06:34,235 Curiosity is the engine of achievement. 125 00:06:34,235 --> 00:06:36,487 Now the reason I say this is because 126 00:06:36,487 --> 00:06:40,879 one of the effects of the current culture here, if I can say so, 127 00:06:40,879 --> 00:06:44,698 has been to de-professionalize teachers. 128 00:06:44,698 --> 00:06:47,050 There is no system in the world 129 00:06:47,050 --> 00:06:49,930 or any school in the country 130 00:06:49,930 --> 00:06:53,028 that is better than its teachers. 131 00:06:53,028 --> 00:06:57,636 Teachers are the lifeblood of the success of schools. 132 00:06:57,636 --> 00:07:00,615 But teaching is a creative profession. 133 00:07:00,615 --> 00:07:04,048 Teaching, properly conceived, is not a delivery system. 134 00:07:04,048 --> 00:07:06,941 You know, you're not there just to pass on received information. 135 00:07:06,941 --> 00:07:09,498 Great teachers do that, 136 00:07:09,498 --> 00:07:12,361 but what great teachers also do is mentor, 137 00:07:12,361 --> 00:07:15,869 stimulate, provoke, engage. 138 00:07:15,869 --> 00:07:18,682 You see, in the end, education is about learning. 139 00:07:18,682 --> 00:07:20,402 If there's no learning going on, 140 00:07:20,402 --> 00:07:22,039 there's no education going on. 141 00:07:22,039 --> 00:07:23,881 And people can spend an awful lot of time 142 00:07:23,881 --> 00:07:26,297 discussing education without ever discussing learning. 143 00:07:26,297 --> 00:07:29,186 The whole point of education is to get people to learn. 144 00:07:29,186 --> 00:07:31,875 A friend of mine, an old friend -- actually very old, 145 00:07:31,875 --> 00:07:35,672 he's dead. (Laughter) 146 00:07:35,672 --> 00:07:41,401 That's as old as it gets, I'm afraid. 147 00:07:41,401 --> 00:07:46,737 But a wonderful guy he was, wonderful philosopher. 148 00:07:46,737 --> 00:07:49,749 He used to talk about the difference between the task 149 00:07:49,749 --> 00:07:53,818 and achievement senses of verbs. 150 00:07:53,818 --> 00:07:55,622 You know, you can be engaged in the activity of something, 151 00:07:55,622 --> 00:07:57,213 but not really be achieving it, 152 00:07:57,213 --> 00:08:01,865 like dieting. It's a very good example, you know. 153 00:08:01,865 --> 00:08:06,531 There he is. He's dieting. Is he losing any weight? Not really. 154 00:08:06,531 --> 00:08:07,844 Teaching is a word like that. 155 00:08:07,844 --> 00:08:11,816 You can say, "There's Deborah, she's in room 34, she's teaching." 156 00:08:11,816 --> 00:08:13,551 But if nobody's learning anything, 157 00:08:13,551 --> 00:08:15,350 she may be engaged in the task of teaching 158 00:08:15,350 --> 00:08:18,419 but not actually fulfilling it. 159 00:08:18,419 --> 00:08:22,266 The role of a teacher is to facilitate learning. That's it. 160 00:08:22,266 --> 00:08:24,579 And part of the problem is, I think, 161 00:08:24,579 --> 00:08:28,035 that the dominant culture of education has come to focus 162 00:08:28,035 --> 00:08:31,703 on not teaching and learning, but testing. 163 00:08:31,703 --> 00:08:35,401 Now, testing is important. Standardized tests have a place. 164 00:08:35,401 --> 00:08:38,715 But they should not be the dominant culture of education. 165 00:08:38,715 --> 00:08:40,573 They should be diagnostic. They should help. 166 00:08:40,573 --> 00:08:48,139 (Applause) 167 00:08:48,139 --> 00:08:50,603 If I go for a medical examination, 168 00:08:50,603 --> 00:08:54,187 I want some standardized tests. I do. 169 00:08:54,187 --> 00:08:55,858 You know, I want to know what my cholesterol level is 170 00:08:55,858 --> 00:08:58,546 compared to everybody else's on a standard scale. 171 00:08:58,546 --> 00:08:59,984 I don't want to be told on some scale 172 00:08:59,984 --> 00:09:03,555 my doctor invented in the car. 173 00:09:03,555 --> 00:09:06,609 "Your cholesterol is what I call Level Orange." 174 00:09:06,609 --> 00:09:12,297 "Really? Is that good?""We don't know." 175 00:09:12,297 --> 00:09:17,364 But all that should support learning. It shouldn't obstruct it, 176 00:09:17,364 --> 00:09:19,275 which of course it often does. 177 00:09:19,275 --> 00:09:21,441 So in place of curiosity, what we have 178 00:09:21,441 --> 00:09:23,975 is a culture of compliance. 179 00:09:23,975 --> 00:09:26,900 Our children and teachers are encouraged 180 00:09:26,900 --> 00:09:29,499 to follow routine algorithms 181 00:09:29,499 --> 00:09:33,837 rather than to excite that power of imagination and curiosity. 182 00:09:33,837 --> 00:09:34,905 And the third principle is this: 183 00:09:34,905 --> 00:09:37,900 that human life is inherently creative. 184 00:09:37,900 --> 00:09:40,308 It's why we all have different résumés. 185 00:09:40,308 --> 00:09:42,094 We create our lives, 186 00:09:42,094 --> 00:09:44,432 and we can recreate them as we go through them. 187 00:09:44,432 --> 00:09:47,446 It's the common currency of being a human being. 188 00:09:47,446 --> 00:09:49,979 It's why human culture is so interesting and diverse 189 00:09:49,979 --> 00:09:51,325 and dynamic. 190 00:09:51,325 --> 00:09:54,334 I mean, other animals may well have imaginations 191 00:09:54,334 --> 00:09:56,614 and creativity, but it's not so much in evidence, 192 00:09:56,614 --> 00:09:58,062 is it, as ours? 193 00:09:58,062 --> 00:10:00,638 I mean, you may have a dog. 194 00:10:00,638 --> 00:10:03,644 And your dog may get depressed. 195 00:10:03,644 --> 00:10:06,099 You know, but it doesn't listen to Radiohead, does it? 196 00:10:06,099 --> 00:10:10,019 (Laughter) 197 00:10:10,019 --> 00:10:12,531 And sit staring out the window with a bottle of Jack Daniels. 198 00:10:12,531 --> 00:10:16,955 (Laughter) 199 00:10:16,955 --> 00:10:18,616 And you say, "Would you like to come for a walk?" 200 00:10:18,616 --> 00:10:21,747 He says, "No, I'm fine. 201 00:10:21,747 --> 00:10:27,519 You go. I'll wait. But take pictures." 202 00:10:27,519 --> 00:10:30,433 We all create our own lives through this restless process 203 00:10:30,433 --> 00:10:32,442 of imagining alternatives and possibilities, 204 00:10:32,442 --> 00:10:34,681 and what one of the roles of education 205 00:10:34,681 --> 00:10:38,717 is to awaken and develop these powers of creativity. 206 00:10:38,717 --> 00:10:42,277 Instead, what we have is a culture of standardization. 207 00:10:42,277 --> 00:10:46,384 Now, it doesn't have to be that way. It really doesn't. 208 00:10:46,384 --> 00:10:49,936 Finland regularly comes out on top 209 00:10:49,936 --> 00:10:51,311 in math, science and reading. 210 00:10:51,311 --> 00:10:53,927 Now, we only know that's what they do well at 211 00:10:53,927 --> 00:10:55,791 because that's all that's being tested currently. 212 00:10:55,791 --> 00:10:57,432 That's one of the problems of the test. 213 00:10:57,432 --> 00:11:00,591 They don't look for other things that matter just as much. 214 00:11:00,591 --> 00:11:03,095 The thing about work in Finland is this: 215 00:11:03,095 --> 00:11:06,474 they don't obsess about those disciplines. 216 00:11:06,474 --> 00:11:08,237 They have a very broad approach to education 217 00:11:08,237 --> 00:11:12,775 which includes humanities, physical education, the arts. 218 00:11:12,775 --> 00:11:18,511 Second, there is no standardized testing in Finland. 219 00:11:18,511 --> 00:11:20,271 I mean, there's a bit, 220 00:11:20,271 --> 00:11:21,822 but it's not what gets people up in the morning. 221 00:11:21,822 --> 00:11:24,027 It's not what keeps them at their desks. 222 00:11:24,027 --> 00:11:25,860 And the third thing, and I was at a meeting recently 223 00:11:25,860 --> 00:11:29,287 with some people from Finland, actual Finnish people, 224 00:11:29,287 --> 00:11:32,090 and somebody from the American system 225 00:11:32,090 --> 00:11:33,863 was saying to the people in Finland, 226 00:11:33,863 --> 00:11:37,782 "What do you do about the dropout rate in Finland?" 227 00:11:37,782 --> 00:11:39,403 And they all looked a bit bemused, and said, 228 00:11:39,403 --> 00:11:42,252 "Well, we don't have one. 229 00:11:42,252 --> 00:11:44,591 Why would you drop out? 230 00:11:44,591 --> 00:11:46,856 If people are in trouble, we get to them quite quickly 231 00:11:46,856 --> 00:11:48,441 and help them and we support them." 232 00:11:48,441 --> 00:11:50,335 Now people always say, "Well, you know, 233 00:11:50,335 --> 00:11:53,463 you can't compare Finland to America." 234 00:11:53,463 --> 00:11:54,858 No. I think there's a population 235 00:11:54,858 --> 00:11:56,986 of around five million in Finland. 236 00:11:56,986 --> 00:12:00,815 But you can compare it to a state in America. 237 00:12:00,815 --> 00:12:04,719 Many states in America have fewer people in them than that. 238 00:12:04,719 --> 00:12:06,386 I mean, I've been to some states in America 239 00:12:06,386 --> 00:12:10,199 and I was the only person there. (Laughter) 240 00:12:10,199 --> 00:12:14,572 Really. Really. I was asked to lock up when I left. 241 00:12:14,572 --> 00:12:18,603 (Laughter) 242 00:12:18,603 --> 00:12:22,536 But what all the high-performing systems in the world do 243 00:12:22,536 --> 00:12:26,718 is currently what is not evident, sadly, 244 00:12:26,718 --> 00:12:30,703 across the systems in America -- I mean, as a whole. 245 00:12:30,703 --> 00:12:35,637 One is this: They individualize teaching and learning. 246 00:12:35,637 --> 00:12:39,103 They recognize that it's students who are learning 247 00:12:39,103 --> 00:12:42,761 and the system has to engage them, their curiosity, 248 00:12:42,761 --> 00:12:45,338 their individuality, and their creativity. 249 00:12:45,338 --> 00:12:47,697 That's how you get them to learn. 250 00:12:47,697 --> 00:12:51,784 The second is that they attribute a very high status 251 00:12:51,784 --> 00:12:54,065 to the teaching profession. 252 00:12:54,065 --> 00:12:57,009 They recognize that you can't improve education 253 00:12:57,009 --> 00:12:58,658 if you don't pick great people to teach 254 00:12:58,658 --> 00:13:00,517 and if you don't keep giving them constant support 255 00:13:00,517 --> 00:13:02,282 and professional development. 256 00:13:02,282 --> 00:13:05,219 Investing in professional development is not a cost. 257 00:13:05,219 --> 00:13:06,625 It's an investment, 258 00:13:06,625 --> 00:13:09,556 and every other country that's succeeding well knows that, 259 00:13:09,556 --> 00:13:14,515 whether it's Australia, Canada, South Korea, Singapore, 260 00:13:14,515 --> 00:13:17,961 Hong Kong or Shanghai. They know that to be the case. 261 00:13:17,961 --> 00:13:21,504 And the third is, they devolve responsibility 262 00:13:21,504 --> 00:13:25,243 to the school level for getting the job done. 263 00:13:25,243 --> 00:13:27,621 You see, there's a big difference here between 264 00:13:27,621 --> 00:13:31,385 going into a mode of command and control in education -- 265 00:13:31,385 --> 00:13:32,985 That's what happens in some systems. 266 00:13:32,985 --> 00:13:34,306 You know, central governments decide 267 00:13:34,306 --> 00:13:35,596 or state governments decide 268 00:13:35,596 --> 00:13:38,591 they know best and they're going to tell you what to do. 269 00:13:38,591 --> 00:13:42,318 The trouble is that education doesn't go on 270 00:13:42,318 --> 00:13:45,196 in the committee rooms of our legislative buildings. 271 00:13:45,196 --> 00:13:48,284 It happens in classrooms and schools, 272 00:13:48,284 --> 00:13:51,357 and the people who do it are the teachers and the students, 273 00:13:51,357 --> 00:13:54,765 and if you remove their discretion, it stops working. 274 00:13:54,765 --> 00:13:57,815 You have to put it back to the people. 275 00:13:57,815 --> 00:14:02,644 (Applause) 276 00:14:02,644 --> 00:14:05,356 There is wonderful work happening in this country. 277 00:14:05,356 --> 00:14:07,499 But I have to say it's happening 278 00:14:07,499 --> 00:14:10,065 in spite of the dominant culture of education, 279 00:14:10,065 --> 00:14:11,466 not because of it. 280 00:14:11,466 --> 00:14:15,070 It's like people are sailing into a headwind all the time. 281 00:14:15,070 --> 00:14:17,531 And the reason I think is this: 282 00:14:17,531 --> 00:14:20,868 that many of the current policies are based on 283 00:14:20,868 --> 00:14:23,909 mechanistic conceptions of education. 284 00:14:23,909 --> 00:14:27,677 It's like education is an industrial process 285 00:14:27,677 --> 00:14:30,684 that can be improved just by having better data, 286 00:14:30,684 --> 00:14:32,351 and somewhere in, I think, the back of the mind 287 00:14:32,351 --> 00:14:34,487 of some policy makers is this idea that 288 00:14:34,487 --> 00:14:37,805 if we fine-tune it well enough, if we just get it right, 289 00:14:37,805 --> 00:14:40,436 it will all hum along perfectly into the future. 290 00:14:40,436 --> 00:14:43,657 It won't, and it never did. 291 00:14:43,657 --> 00:14:47,756 The point is that education is not a mechanical system. 292 00:14:47,756 --> 00:14:51,653 It's a human system. It's about people, 293 00:14:51,653 --> 00:14:54,708 people who either do want to learn or don't want to learn. 294 00:14:54,708 --> 00:14:59,523 Every student who drops out of school has a reason for it 295 00:14:59,523 --> 00:15:01,844 which is rooted in their own biography. 296 00:15:01,844 --> 00:15:04,867 They may find it boring. They may find it irrelevant. 297 00:15:04,867 --> 00:15:07,381 They may find that it's at odds 298 00:15:07,381 --> 00:15:09,925 with the life they're living outside of school. 299 00:15:09,925 --> 00:15:13,764 There are trends, but the stories are always unique. 300 00:15:13,764 --> 00:15:16,765 I was at a meeting recently in Los Angeles of -- 301 00:15:16,765 --> 00:15:19,010 they're called alternative education programs. 302 00:15:19,010 --> 00:15:22,413 These are programs designed to get kids back into education. 303 00:15:22,413 --> 00:15:24,357 They have certain common features. 304 00:15:24,357 --> 00:15:26,389 They're very personalized. 305 00:15:26,389 --> 00:15:29,599 They have strong support for the teachers, 306 00:15:29,599 --> 00:15:31,860 close links with the community 307 00:15:31,860 --> 00:15:33,486 and a broad and diverse curriculum, 308 00:15:33,486 --> 00:15:36,117 and often programs which involve students 309 00:15:36,117 --> 00:15:38,790 outside school as well as inside school. 310 00:15:38,790 --> 00:15:40,500 And they work. 311 00:15:40,500 --> 00:15:41,902 What's interesting to me is, 312 00:15:41,902 --> 00:15:45,088 these are called "alternative education." 313 00:15:45,088 --> 00:15:47,270 You know? 314 00:15:47,270 --> 00:15:49,046 And all the evidence from around the world is, 315 00:15:49,046 --> 00:15:53,272 if we all did that, there'd be no need for the alternative. 316 00:15:53,272 --> 00:16:01,692 (Applause) 317 00:16:01,692 --> 00:16:04,540 So I think we have to embrace a different metaphor. 318 00:16:04,540 --> 00:16:07,197 We have to recognize that it's a human system, 319 00:16:07,197 --> 00:16:10,793 and there are conditions under which people thrive, 320 00:16:10,793 --> 00:16:13,698 and conditions under which they don't. 321 00:16:13,698 --> 00:16:16,623 We are after all organic creatures, 322 00:16:16,623 --> 00:16:21,269 and the culture of the school is absolutely essential. 323 00:16:21,269 --> 00:16:23,697 Culture is an organic term, isn't it? 324 00:16:23,697 --> 00:16:27,426 Not far from where I live is a place called Death Valley. 325 00:16:27,426 --> 00:16:33,098 Death Valley is the hottest, driest place in America, 326 00:16:33,098 --> 00:16:35,900 and nothing grows there. 327 00:16:35,900 --> 00:16:38,524 Nothing grows there because it doesn't rain. 328 00:16:38,524 --> 00:16:40,917 Hence, Death Valley. 329 00:16:40,917 --> 00:16:48,064 In the winter of 2004, it rained in Death Valley. 330 00:16:48,064 --> 00:16:51,836 Seven inches of rain fell over a very short period. 331 00:16:51,836 --> 00:16:57,038 And in the spring of 2005, there was a phenomenon. 332 00:16:57,038 --> 00:17:01,672 The whole floor of Death Valley was carpeted in flowers 333 00:17:01,672 --> 00:17:03,428 for a while. 334 00:17:03,428 --> 00:17:08,722 What it proved is this: that Death Valley isn't dead. 335 00:17:08,722 --> 00:17:11,593 It's dormant. 336 00:17:11,593 --> 00:17:14,838 Right beneath the surface are these seeds of possibility 337 00:17:14,838 --> 00:17:18,613 waiting for the right conditions to come about, 338 00:17:18,613 --> 00:17:21,956 and with organic systems, if the conditions are right, 339 00:17:21,956 --> 00:17:25,685 life is inevitable. It happens all the time. 340 00:17:25,685 --> 00:17:28,285 You take an area, a school, a district, 341 00:17:28,285 --> 00:17:31,325 you change the conditions, give people a different sense of possibility, 342 00:17:31,325 --> 00:17:32,987 a different set of expectations, 343 00:17:32,987 --> 00:17:34,743 a broader range of opportunities, 344 00:17:34,743 --> 00:17:37,994 you cherish and value the relationships between teachers and learners, 345 00:17:37,994 --> 00:17:40,304 you offer people the discretion to be creative 346 00:17:40,304 --> 00:17:42,058 and to innovate in what they do, 347 00:17:42,058 --> 00:17:45,669 and schools that were once bereft spring to life. 348 00:17:45,669 --> 00:17:47,331 Great leaders know that. 349 00:17:47,331 --> 00:17:49,787 The real role of leadership in education -- 350 00:17:49,787 --> 00:17:52,344 and I think it's true at the national level, the state level, 351 00:17:52,344 --> 00:17:53,902 at the school level -- 352 00:17:53,902 --> 00:17:58,302 is not and should not be command and control. 353 00:17:58,302 --> 00:18:02,307 The real role of leadership is climate control, 354 00:18:02,307 --> 00:18:04,909 creating a climate of possibility. 355 00:18:04,909 --> 00:18:07,306 And if you do that, people will rise to it 356 00:18:07,306 --> 00:18:10,325 and achieve things that you completely did not anticipate 357 00:18:10,325 --> 00:18:12,125 and couldn't have expected. 358 00:18:12,125 --> 00:18:14,492 There's a wonderful quote from Benjamin Franklin. 359 00:18:14,492 --> 00:18:17,355 "There are three sorts of people in the world: 360 00:18:17,355 --> 00:18:19,733 Those who are immovable, 361 00:18:19,733 --> 00:18:21,604 people who don't get it, they don't want to get it, 362 00:18:21,604 --> 00:18:23,001 they're not going to do anything about it; 363 00:18:23,001 --> 00:18:24,904 there are people who are movable, 364 00:18:24,904 --> 00:18:26,226 people who see the need for change 365 00:18:26,226 --> 00:18:28,872 and are prepared to listen to it; 366 00:18:28,872 --> 00:18:30,723 and there are people who move, 367 00:18:30,723 --> 00:18:32,503 people who make things happen." 368 00:18:32,503 --> 00:18:34,673 And if we can encourage more people, 369 00:18:34,673 --> 00:18:37,339 that will be a movement. 370 00:18:37,339 --> 00:18:39,526 And if the movement is strong enough, 371 00:18:39,526 --> 00:18:42,668 that's, in the best sense of the word, a revolution. 372 00:18:42,668 --> 00:18:44,447 And that's what we need. 373 00:18:44,447 --> 00:18:45,680 Thank you very much. 374 00:18:45,680 --> 00:18:48,863 (Applause) 375 00:18:48,863 --> 00:18:53,894 Thank you very much. (Applause)