1
00:00:02,183 --> 00:00:03,802
Thank you very much.

2
00:00:05,105 --> 00:00:09,506
I moved to America 12 years ago
with my wife Terry and our two kids.

3
00:00:09,530 --> 00:00:12,316
Actually, truthfully, we moved
to Los Angeles --

4
00:00:12,340 --> 00:00:15,764
(Laughter)

5
00:00:15,788 --> 00:00:18,122
thinking we were moving
to America, but anyway --

6
00:00:18,146 --> 00:00:20,081
(Laughter)

7
00:00:20,827 --> 00:00:25,085
It's a short plane ride
from Los Angeles to America.

8
00:00:25,109 --> 00:00:26,751
(Laughter)

9
00:00:27,304 --> 00:00:29,035
I got here 12 years ago,

10
00:00:29,059 --> 00:00:32,845
and when I got here,
I was told various things,

11
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like, "Americans don't get irony."

12
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(Laughter)

13
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Have you come across this idea?

14
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It's not true.

15
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I've traveled the whole length
and breadth of this country.

16
00:00:45,007 --> 00:00:47,633
I have found no evidence
that Americans don't get irony.

17
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It's one of those cultural myths,

18
00:00:50,258 --> 00:00:52,146
like, "The British are reserved."

19
00:00:52,480 --> 00:00:54,369
(Laughter)

20
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I don't know why people think this.

21
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We've invaded every country
we've encountered.

22
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(Laughter)

23
00:01:02,818 --> 00:01:05,102
But it's not true Americans
don't get irony,

24
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but I just want you to know
that that's what people

25
00:01:07,622 --> 00:01:09,432
are saying about you behind your back.

26
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You know, so when you leave
living rooms in Europe,

27
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people say, thankfully,
nobody was ironic in your presence.

28
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(Laughter)

29
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But I knew that Americans get irony

30
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when I came across that legislation,
"No Child Left Behind."

31
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(Laughter)

32
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Because whoever thought
of that title gets irony.

33
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(Laughter)

34
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Don't they?

35
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(Applause)

36
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Because it's leaving
millions of children behind.

37
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Now I can see that's not a very attractive
name for legislation:

38
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"Millions of Children Left Behind."

39
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I can see that.

40
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What's the plan?

41
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We propose to leave
millions of children behind,

42
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and here's how it's going to work.

43
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And it's working beautifully.

44
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(Laughter)

45
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In some parts of the country,

46
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60 percent of kids drop out
of high school.

47
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In the Native American communities,

48
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it's 80 percent of kids.

49
00:02:05,777 --> 00:02:08,344
If we halved that number,

50
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one estimate is it would create
a net gain to the U.S. economy

51
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over 10 years,
of nearly a trillion dollars.

52
00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:20,833
From an economic point of view,

53
00:02:20,857 --> 00:02:23,765
this is good math, isn't it,
that we should do this?

54
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It actually costs an enormous amount

55
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to mop up the damage
from the dropout crisis.

56
00:02:30,300 --> 00:02:34,005
But the dropout crisis
is just the tip of an iceberg.

57
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What it doesn't count
are all the kids who are in school

58
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but being disengaged
from it, who don't enjoy it,

59
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who don't get any real benefit from it.

60
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And the reason is not
that we're not spending enough money.

61
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America spends more money on education
than most other countries.

62
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Class sizes are smaller
than in many countries.

63
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And there are hundreds
of initiatives every year

64
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to try and improve education.

65
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The trouble is, it's all going
in the wrong direction.

66
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There are three principles
on which human life flourishes,

67
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and they are contradicted
by the culture of education

68
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under which most teachers have to labor

69
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and most students have to endure.

70
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The first is this, that human beings
are naturally different and diverse.

71
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Can I ask you, how many of you
have got children of your own?

72
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Okay. Or grandchildren.

73
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How about two children or more? Right.

74
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And the rest of you
have seen such children.

75
00:03:37,765 --> 00:03:40,501
(Laughter)

76
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Small people wandering about.

77
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(Laughter)

78
00:03:43,785 --> 00:03:45,612
I will make you a bet,

79
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and I am confident
that I will win the bet.

80
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If you've got two children or more,

81
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I bet you they are completely
different from each other.

82
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Aren't they?

83
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(Applause)

84
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You would never confuse them, would you?

85
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Like, "Which one are you? Remind me."

86
00:04:02,418 --> 00:04:04,196
(Laughter)

87
00:04:05,252 --> 00:04:07,665
"Your mother and I need
some color-coding system

88
00:04:07,689 --> 00:04:09,069
so we don't get confused."

89
00:04:10,052 --> 00:04:12,971
Education under "No Child Left Behind"

90
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is based on not diversity but conformity.

91
00:04:17,818 --> 00:04:20,352
What schools are encouraged
to do is to find out

92
00:04:20,376 --> 00:04:24,324
what kids can do across
a very narrow spectrum of achievement.

93
00:04:24,736 --> 00:04:27,404
One of the effects
of "No Child Left Behind"

94
00:04:27,428 --> 00:04:31,177
has been to narrow the focus
onto the so-called STEM disciplines.

95
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They're very important.

96
00:04:32,835 --> 00:04:35,074
I'm not here to argue
against science and math.

97
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On the contrary, they're necessary
but they're not sufficient.

98
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A real education has to give equal weight

99
00:04:41,377 --> 00:04:45,090
to the arts, the humanities,
to physical education.

100
00:04:45,114 --> 00:04:47,538
An awful lot of kids, sorry, thank you --

101
00:04:47,562 --> 00:04:52,664
(Applause)

102
00:04:52,688 --> 00:04:56,551
One estimate in America currently
is that something like 10 percent of kids,

103
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getting on that way,

104
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are being diagnosed
with various conditions

105
00:05:02,180 --> 00:05:06,157
under the broad title
of attention deficit disorder.

106
00:05:06,502 --> 00:05:07,702
ADHD.

107
00:05:08,234 --> 00:05:10,017
I'm not saying there's no such thing.

108
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I just don't believe
it's an epidemic like this.

109
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If you sit kids down, hour after hour,

110
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doing low-grade clerical work,

111
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don't be surprised if they start
to fidget, you know?

112
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(Laughter)

113
00:05:23,887 --> 00:05:30,065
(Applause)

114
00:05:30,089 --> 00:05:34,224
Children are not, for the most part,
suffering from a psychological condition.

115
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They're suffering from childhood.

116
00:05:36,261 --> 00:05:40,355
(Laughter)

117
00:05:40,379 --> 00:05:43,287
And I know this because
I spent my early life as a child.

118
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I went through the whole thing.

119
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Kids prosper best with a broad curriculum
that celebrates their various talents,

120
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not just a small range of them.

121
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And by the way, the arts
aren't just important

122
00:05:55,583 --> 00:05:57,193
because they improve math scores.

123
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They're important because they speak
to parts of children's being

124
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which are otherwise untouched.

125
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The second, thank you --

126
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(Applause)

127
00:06:08,562 --> 00:06:12,701
The second principle
that drives human life flourishing

128
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is curiosity.

129
00:06:14,512 --> 00:06:17,876
If you can light the spark
of curiosity in a child,

130
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they will learn without any further
assistance, very often.

131
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Children are natural learners.

132
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It's a real achievement
to put that particular ability out,

133
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or to stifle it.

134
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Curiosity is the engine of achievement.

135
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Now the reason I say this

136
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is because one of the effects
of the current culture here,

137
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if I can say so,

138
00:06:41,194 --> 00:06:44,077
has been to de-professionalize teachers.

139
00:06:44,876 --> 00:06:50,188
There is no system in the world
or any school in the country

140
00:06:50,212 --> 00:06:52,476
that is better than its teachers.

141
00:06:53,028 --> 00:06:57,334
Teachers are the lifeblood
of the success of schools.

142
00:06:57,723 --> 00:07:00,350
But teaching is a creative profession.

143
00:07:00,814 --> 00:07:03,701
Teaching, properly conceived,
is not a delivery system.

144
00:07:04,174 --> 00:07:07,222
You know, you're not there just
to pass on received information.

145
00:07:07,246 --> 00:07:09,474
Great teachers do that,

146
00:07:09,498 --> 00:07:12,543
but what great teachers also do is mentor,

147
00:07:12,567 --> 00:07:15,595
stimulate, provoke, engage.

148
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You see, in the end,
education is about learning.

149
00:07:18,881 --> 00:07:21,971
If there's no learning going on,
there's no education going on.

150
00:07:21,995 --> 00:07:23,968
And people can spend an awful lot of time

151
00:07:23,992 --> 00:07:26,565
discussing education
without ever discussing learning.

152
00:07:26,589 --> 00:07:29,162
The whole point of education
is to get people to learn.

153
00:07:29,186 --> 00:07:32,952
An old friend of mine --
actually very old, he's dead.

154
00:07:32,976 --> 00:07:35,648
(Laughter)

155
00:07:35,672 --> 00:07:38,149
That's as old as it gets, I'm afraid.

156
00:07:38,173 --> 00:07:40,129
(Laughter)

157
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But a wonderful guy he was,
wonderful philosopher.

158
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He used to talk about the difference

159
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between the task
and achievement senses of verbs.

160
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You can be engaged
in the activity of something,

161
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but not really be
achieving it, like dieting.

162
00:07:59,086 --> 00:08:00,087
(Laughter)

163
00:08:00,111 --> 00:08:01,841
It's a very good example.

164
00:08:01,865 --> 00:08:03,212
There he is. He's dieting.

165
00:08:03,236 --> 00:08:05,105
Is he losing any weight? Not really.

166
00:08:05,129 --> 00:08:06,721
(Laughter)

167
00:08:06,745 --> 00:08:08,212
Teaching is a word like that.

168
00:08:08,236 --> 00:08:11,424
You can say, "There's Deborah,
she's in room 34, she's teaching."

169
00:08:11,902 --> 00:08:13,751
But if nobody's learning anything,

170
00:08:13,775 --> 00:08:17,590
she may be engaged in the task of teaching
but not actually fulfilling it.

171
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The role of a teacher
is to facilitate learning.

172
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That's it.

173
00:08:22,679 --> 00:08:24,555
And part of the problem is, I think,

174
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that the dominant culture
of education has come to focus

175
00:08:28,035 --> 00:08:31,124
on not teaching and learning, but testing.

176
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Now, testing is important.

177
00:08:33,485 --> 00:08:35,200
Standardized tests have a place.

178
00:08:35,798 --> 00:08:38,691
But they should not be
the dominant culture of education.

179
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They should be diagnostic.
They should help.

180
00:08:40,835 --> 00:08:47,835
(Applause)

181
00:08:48,247 --> 00:08:52,769
If I go for a medical examination,
I want some standardized tests.

182
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I do.

183
00:08:54,387 --> 00:08:56,474
I want to know
what my cholesterol level is

184
00:08:56,498 --> 00:08:58,855
compared to everybody else's
on a standard scale.

185
00:08:58,879 --> 00:09:02,121
I don't want to be told on some scale
my doctor invented in the car.

186
00:09:02,145 --> 00:09:03,533
(Laughter)

187
00:09:04,246 --> 00:09:06,469
"Your cholesterol
is what I call Level Orange."

188
00:09:06,493 --> 00:09:07,676
"Really?"

189
00:09:07,700 --> 00:09:09,477
(Laughter)

190
00:09:09,501 --> 00:09:11,144
"Is that good?" "We don't know."

191
00:09:11,168 --> 00:09:12,722
(Laughter)

192
00:09:12,746 --> 00:09:15,312
But all that should support learning.

193
00:09:15,336 --> 00:09:18,844
It shouldn't obstruct it,
which of course it often does.

194
00:09:19,275 --> 00:09:23,362
So in place of curiosity,
what we have is a culture of compliance.

195
00:09:23,975 --> 00:09:29,475
Our children and teachers are encouraged
to follow routine algorithms

196
00:09:29,499 --> 00:09:34,036
rather than to excite that power
of imagination and curiosity.

197
00:09:34,060 --> 00:09:37,692
And the third principle is this:
that human life is inherently creative.

198
00:09:38,065 --> 00:09:40,429
It's why we all have different résumés.

199
00:09:40,453 --> 00:09:42,070
We create our lives,

200
00:09:42,094 --> 00:09:44,673
and we can recreate them
as we go through them.

201
00:09:44,697 --> 00:09:47,278
It's the common currency
of being a human being.

202
00:09:47,302 --> 00:09:51,445
It's why human culture
is so interesting and diverse and dynamic.

203
00:09:51,469 --> 00:09:55,306
I mean, other animals may well have
imaginations and creativity,

204
00:09:55,330 --> 00:09:58,038
but it's not so much
in evidence, is it, as ours?

205
00:09:58,062 --> 00:09:59,566
I mean, you may have a dog.

206
00:10:00,780 --> 00:10:03,174
And your dog may get depressed.

207
00:10:03,644 --> 00:10:06,216
You know, but it doesn't listen
to Radiohead, does it?

208
00:10:06,240 --> 00:10:09,995
(Laughter)

209
00:10:10,019 --> 00:10:12,924
And sit staring out the window
with a bottle of Jack Daniels.

210
00:10:12,948 --> 00:10:17,121
(Laughter)

211
00:10:17,145 --> 00:10:18,947
"Would you like to come for a walk?"

212
00:10:18,971 --> 00:10:20,172
"No, I'm fine."

213
00:10:20,196 --> 00:10:21,930
(Laughter)

214
00:10:21,954 --> 00:10:25,771
"You go. I'll wait. But take pictures."

215
00:10:25,795 --> 00:10:27,636
(Laughter)

216
00:10:27,660 --> 00:10:30,409
We all create our own lives
through this restless process

217
00:10:30,433 --> 00:10:32,529
of imagining alternatives
and possibilities,

218
00:10:32,553 --> 00:10:34,995
and one of the roles of education

219
00:10:35,019 --> 00:10:38,693
is to awaken and develop
these powers of creativity.

220
00:10:38,717 --> 00:10:41,755
Instead, what we have
is a culture of standardization.

221
00:10:42,417 --> 00:10:44,639
Now, it doesn't have to be that way.

222
00:10:44,663 --> 00:10:46,248
It really doesn't.

223
00:10:46,637 --> 00:10:51,317
Finland regularly comes out on top
in math, science and reading.

224
00:10:51,341 --> 00:10:53,611
Now, we only know
that's what they do well at,

225
00:10:53,635 --> 00:10:55,767
because that's all that's being tested.

226
00:10:55,791 --> 00:10:57,649
That's one of the problems of the test.

227
00:10:57,673 --> 00:11:00,411
They don't look for other things
that matter just as much.

228
00:11:00,752 --> 00:11:04,078
The thing about work in Finland is this:

229
00:11:04,102 --> 00:11:06,450
they don't obsess about those disciplines.

230
00:11:06,474 --> 00:11:08,570
They have a very broad
approach to education,

231
00:11:08,594 --> 00:11:11,964
which includes humanities,
physical education, the arts.

232
00:11:13,064 --> 00:11:17,817
Second, there is no standardized
testing in Finland.

233
00:11:18,511 --> 00:11:20,128
I mean, there's a bit,

234
00:11:20,152 --> 00:11:22,438
but it's not what gets
people up in the morning,

235
00:11:22,462 --> 00:11:24,009
what keeps them at their desks.

236
00:11:24,342 --> 00:11:26,698
The third thing --
and I was at a meeting recently

237
00:11:26,722 --> 00:11:29,263
with some people from Finland,
actual Finnish people,

238
00:11:29,287 --> 00:11:34,159
and somebody from the American system
was saying to the people in Finland,

239
00:11:34,183 --> 00:11:37,132
"What do you do
about the drop-out rate in Finland?"

240
00:11:37,782 --> 00:11:40,188
And they all looked a bit
bemused, and said,

241
00:11:40,212 --> 00:11:41,514
"Well, we don't have one.

242
00:11:42,522 --> 00:11:43,885
Why would you drop out?

243
00:11:44,591 --> 00:11:47,141
If people are in trouble,
we get to them quite quickly

244
00:11:47,165 --> 00:11:48,633
and we help and support them."

245
00:11:48,657 --> 00:11:50,224
Now people always say,

246
00:11:50,248 --> 00:11:53,006
"Well, you know, you can't compare
Finland to America."

247
00:11:53,463 --> 00:11:56,847
No. I think there's a population
of around five million in Finland.

248
00:11:57,230 --> 00:12:00,185
But you can compare it
to a state in America.

249
00:12:00,815 --> 00:12:04,225
Many states in America
have fewer people in them than that.

250
00:12:04,719 --> 00:12:06,767
I mean, I've been
to some states in America

251
00:12:06,791 --> 00:12:08,348
and I was the only person there.

252
00:12:08,372 --> 00:12:10,175
(Laughter)

253
00:12:10,199 --> 00:12:12,800
Really. Really.

254
00:12:12,824 --> 00:12:14,778
I was asked to lock up when I left.

255
00:12:14,802 --> 00:12:18,048
(Laughter)

256
00:12:18,897 --> 00:12:22,806
But what all the high-performing
systems in the world do

257
00:12:22,830 --> 00:12:26,694
is currently what is not evident, sadly,

258
00:12:26,718 --> 00:12:28,959
across the systems in America --

259
00:12:28,983 --> 00:12:30,250
I mean, as a whole.

260
00:12:30,703 --> 00:12:32,012
One is this:

261
00:12:32,036 --> 00:12:35,053
they individualize teaching and learning.

262
00:12:35,797 --> 00:12:39,430
They recognize that it's students
who are learning

263
00:12:39,454 --> 00:12:41,586
and the system has to engage them,

264
00:12:41,610 --> 00:12:44,996
their curiosity, their individuality,
and their creativity.

265
00:12:45,305 --> 00:12:46,931
That's how you get them to learn.

266
00:12:47,570 --> 00:12:51,760
The second is that they attribute
a very high status

267
00:12:51,784 --> 00:12:53,627
to the teaching profession.

268
00:12:54,353 --> 00:12:56,985
They recognize
that you can't improve education

269
00:12:57,009 --> 00:12:59,978
if you don't pick great people to teach
and keep giving them

270
00:13:00,002 --> 00:13:02,199
constant support
and professional development.

271
00:13:02,501 --> 00:13:05,195
Investing in professional
development is not a cost.

272
00:13:05,219 --> 00:13:06,808
It's an investment,

273
00:13:06,832 --> 00:13:09,577
and every other country
that's succeeding well knows that,

274
00:13:09,601 --> 00:13:12,031
whether it's Australia, Canada,

275
00:13:12,055 --> 00:13:16,482
South Korea, Singapore,
Hong Kong or Shanghai.

276
00:13:16,506 --> 00:13:18,171
They know that to be the case.

277
00:13:18,195 --> 00:13:19,561
And the third is,

278
00:13:19,585 --> 00:13:23,315
they devolve responsibility
to the school level

279
00:13:23,339 --> 00:13:24,592
for getting the job done.

280
00:13:25,243 --> 00:13:27,348
You see, there's a big difference here

281
00:13:27,372 --> 00:13:31,361
between going into a mode of command
and control in education --

282
00:13:31,385 --> 00:13:33,113
That's what happens in some systems.

283
00:13:33,137 --> 00:13:35,736
Central or state governments decide,

284
00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:38,418
they know best and they're going
to tell you what to do.

285
00:13:38,799 --> 00:13:42,294
The trouble is that education
doesn't go on

286
00:13:42,318 --> 00:13:45,226
in the committee rooms
of our legislative buildings.

287
00:13:45,250 --> 00:13:48,260
It happens in classrooms and schools,

288
00:13:48,284 --> 00:13:51,333
and the people who do it
are the teachers and the students,

289
00:13:51,357 --> 00:13:54,606
and if you remove their discretion,
it stops working.

290
00:13:55,117 --> 00:13:57,791
You have to put it back to the people.

291
00:13:57,815 --> 00:14:02,967
(Applause)

292
00:14:02,991 --> 00:14:05,332
There is wonderful work
happening in this country.

293
00:14:05,918 --> 00:14:07,475
But I have to say it's happening

294
00:14:07,499 --> 00:14:10,041
in spite of the dominant
culture of education,

295
00:14:10,065 --> 00:14:11,442
not because of it.

296
00:14:11,466 --> 00:14:14,713
It's like people are sailing
into a headwind all the time.

297
00:14:15,070 --> 00:14:17,708
And the reason I think is this:

298
00:14:17,732 --> 00:14:19,740
that many of the current policies

299
00:14:19,764 --> 00:14:23,885
are based on mechanistic
conceptions of education.

300
00:14:23,909 --> 00:14:27,653
It's like education
is an industrial process

301
00:14:27,677 --> 00:14:30,660
that can be improved
just by having better data,

302
00:14:30,684 --> 00:14:33,600
and somewhere in the back of the mind
of some policy makers

303
00:14:33,624 --> 00:14:37,734
is this idea that if we fine-tune it
well enough, if we just get it right,

304
00:14:37,758 --> 00:14:40,019
it will all hum along perfectly
into the future.

305
00:14:40,576 --> 00:14:42,291
It won't, and it never did.

306
00:14:43,805 --> 00:14:47,732
The point is that education
is not a mechanical system.

307
00:14:47,756 --> 00:14:49,555
It's a human system.

308
00:14:49,927 --> 00:14:51,856
It's about people,

309
00:14:51,880 --> 00:14:54,684
people who either do want
to learn or don't want to learn.

310
00:14:54,708 --> 00:14:59,499
Every student who drops
out of school has a reason for it

311
00:14:59,523 --> 00:15:01,820
which is rooted in their own biography.

312
00:15:01,844 --> 00:15:03,422
They may find it boring.

313
00:15:03,446 --> 00:15:05,142
They may find it irrelevant.

314
00:15:05,166 --> 00:15:09,980
They may find that it's at odds with
the life they're living outside of school.

315
00:15:10,286 --> 00:15:13,454
There are trends,
but the stories are always unique.

316
00:15:14,087 --> 00:15:16,741
I was at a meeting recently
in Los Angeles of --

317
00:15:16,765 --> 00:15:19,200
they're called alternative
education programs.

318
00:15:19,224 --> 00:15:22,528
These are programs designed
to get kids back into education.

319
00:15:22,552 --> 00:15:24,333
They have certain common features.

320
00:15:24,357 --> 00:15:25,889
They're very personalized.

321
00:15:26,548 --> 00:15:29,960
They have strong support for the teachers,

322
00:15:29,984 --> 00:15:33,527
close links with the community
and a broad and diverse curriculum,

323
00:15:33,551 --> 00:15:38,447
and often programs which involve students
outside school as well as inside school.

324
00:15:38,790 --> 00:15:40,004
And they work.

325
00:15:40,674 --> 00:15:44,347
What's interesting to me is,
these are called "alternative education."

326
00:15:44,371 --> 00:15:45,419
(Laughter)

327
00:15:45,443 --> 00:15:46,647
You know?

328
00:15:47,714 --> 00:15:49,909
And all the evidence
from around the world is,

329
00:15:49,933 --> 00:15:52,865
if we all did that, there'd be
no need for the alternative.

330
00:15:53,406 --> 00:15:56,262
(Applause)

331
00:16:01,135 --> 00:16:02,136
(Applause ends)

332
00:16:02,160 --> 00:16:04,640
So I think we have to embrace
a different metaphor.

333
00:16:04,664 --> 00:16:07,173
We have to recognize
that it's a human system,

334
00:16:07,197 --> 00:16:11,053
and there are conditions
under which people thrive,

335
00:16:11,077 --> 00:16:13,674
and conditions under which they don't.

336
00:16:13,698 --> 00:16:16,945
We are after all organic creatures,

337
00:16:16,969 --> 00:16:21,245
and the culture of the school
is absolutely essential.

338
00:16:21,269 --> 00:16:23,344
Culture is an organic term, isn't it?

339
00:16:23,937 --> 00:16:26,972
Not far from where I live
is a place called Death Valley.

340
00:16:27,627 --> 00:16:33,267
Death Valley is the hottest,
driest place in America,

341
00:16:33,291 --> 00:16:35,110
and nothing grows there.

342
00:16:36,219 --> 00:16:38,306
Nothing grows there
because it doesn't rain.

343
00:16:38,664 --> 00:16:40,280
Hence, Death Valley.

344
00:16:40,917 --> 00:16:47,670
In the winter of 2004,
it rained in Death Valley.

345
00:16:48,064 --> 00:16:51,201
Seven inches of rain fell
over a very short period.

346
00:16:52,010 --> 00:16:56,705
And in the spring of 2005,
there was a phenomenon.

347
00:16:57,038 --> 00:17:02,660
The whole floor of Death Valley
was carpeted in flowers for a while.

348
00:17:03,664 --> 00:17:05,426
What it proved is this:

349
00:17:05,450 --> 00:17:08,084
that Death Valley isn't dead.

350
00:17:09,424 --> 00:17:10,693
It's dormant.

351
00:17:11,569 --> 00:17:15,027
Right beneath the surface
are these seeds of possibility

352
00:17:15,051 --> 00:17:18,589
waiting for the right conditions
to come about,

353
00:17:18,613 --> 00:17:22,075
and with organic systems,
if the conditions are right,

354
00:17:22,099 --> 00:17:23,974
life is inevitable.

355
00:17:24,290 --> 00:17:25,661
It happens all the time.

356
00:17:25,685 --> 00:17:28,246
You take an area, a school, a district,

357
00:17:28,270 --> 00:17:31,674
you change the conditions, give people
a different sense of possibility,

358
00:17:31,698 --> 00:17:34,816
a different set of expectations,
a broader range of opportunities,

359
00:17:34,840 --> 00:17:38,126
you cherish and value the relationships
between teachers and learners,

360
00:17:38,150 --> 00:17:40,341
you offer people
the discretion to be creative

361
00:17:40,365 --> 00:17:42,184
and to innovate in what they do,

362
00:17:42,208 --> 00:17:45,645
and schools that were once
bereft spring to life.

363
00:17:45,669 --> 00:17:47,154
Great leaders know that.

364
00:17:47,662 --> 00:17:49,763
The real role of leadership
in education --

365
00:17:49,787 --> 00:17:51,884
and I think it's true
at the national level,

366
00:17:51,908 --> 00:17:53,878
the state level, at the school level --

367
00:17:53,902 --> 00:17:57,376
is not and should not be
command and control.

368
00:17:58,302 --> 00:18:02,525
The real role of leadership
is climate control,

369
00:18:02,549 --> 00:18:04,828
creating a climate of possibility.

370
00:18:04,852 --> 00:18:07,282
And if you do that, people will rise to it

371
00:18:07,306 --> 00:18:10,515
and achieve things
that you completely did not anticipate

372
00:18:10,539 --> 00:18:12,482
and couldn't have expected.

373
00:18:12,506 --> 00:18:14,859
There's a wonderful quote
from Benjamin Franklin.

374
00:18:14,883 --> 00:18:17,462
"There are three sorts
of people in the world:

375
00:18:17,486 --> 00:18:20,002
Those who are immovable,

376
00:18:20,026 --> 00:18:21,249
people who don't get it,

377
00:18:21,273 --> 00:18:23,144
or don't want to do anything about it;

378
00:18:23,168 --> 00:18:24,880
there are people who are movable,

379
00:18:24,904 --> 00:18:26,524
people who see the need for change

380
00:18:26,548 --> 00:18:28,848
and are prepared to listen to it;

381
00:18:28,872 --> 00:18:30,699
and there are people who move,

382
00:18:30,723 --> 00:18:32,479
people who make things happen."

383
00:18:32,796 --> 00:18:36,718
And if we can encourage more people,
that will be a movement.

384
00:18:37,339 --> 00:18:39,502
And if the movement is strong enough,

385
00:18:39,526 --> 00:18:42,251
that's, in the best sense
of the word, a revolution.

386
00:18:42,866 --> 00:18:44,423
And that's what we need.

387
00:18:44,447 --> 00:18:45,656
Thank you very much.

388
00:18:45,680 --> 00:18:49,545
(Applause)

389
00:18:49,569 --> 00:18:50,795
Thank you very much.

390
00:18:50,819 --> 00:18:53,396
(Applause)