0:00:08.827,0:00:12.194
Give a man a fish [br]and he'll eat for a day,

0:00:12.194,0:00:16.022
but teach a man to fish [br]and he'll eat for a lifetime.

0:00:16.022,0:00:20.442
Nowhere is that proverb more true [br]than today's educational system.

0:00:20.442,0:00:25.605
Today, we are exposing kids to life, [br]but not teaching them how to live it.

0:00:25.605,0:00:30.461
We're giving them information, [br]but not teaching them how to use it.

0:00:30.461,0:00:35.858
We're giving them the "what", [br]but not teaching them the "why".

0:00:36.320,0:00:38.578
John Gardner agreed with me:

0:00:38.578,0:00:41.772
"Much education today [br]is monumentally ineffective.

0:00:41.772,0:00:44.790
All too often we are giving [br]young peeople cut flowers,

0:00:44.790,0:00:48.776
when we should be teaching them [br]to grow their own plants".

0:00:48.776,0:00:51.869
We should be teaching them to fish.

0:00:51.869,0:00:54.591
Now, what makes me feel [br]qualified to talk about this?

0:00:54.591,0:00:56.766
I sure as hell don't speak [br]from an ivory tower.

0:00:56.766,0:01:00.420
I speak from here. [br]This is where I grew up.

0:01:00.420,0:01:04.776
This is a trailer with a 6 foot [br]by 7 foot addition that was my bedroom.

0:01:04.776,0:01:08.352
And what you can't see [br]beyond there is a junkyard.

0:01:08.352,0:01:10.571
That's where I grew up, [br]in a trailer, in a junkyard.

0:01:10.571,0:01:12.065
Make all your jokes now.

0:01:12.065,0:01:14.039
(Laughter)

0:01:14.059,0:01:15.054
But it wasn't all bad.

0:01:15.054,0:01:18.504
I was voted smartest kid [br]in my fourth-grade class.

0:01:18.984,0:01:20.741
Two out of three years.

0:01:20.741,0:01:24.768
(Laughter)

0:01:24.838,0:01:27.998
But I had to teach myself how to fish.

0:01:28.808,0:01:30.670
This is today's educational system.

0:01:30.670,0:01:33.464
We are taking grade-school kids [br]in at the bottom,

0:01:33.464,0:01:36.804
and teaching them the basics: [br]reading, writing and arithmetic.

0:01:36.804,0:01:38.332
By the way, a little pet peeve of mine,

0:01:38.332,0:01:40.986
who the hell's bright idea [br]was it to call those the three R's?

0:01:40.986,0:01:42.850
(Laughter)

0:01:42.850,0:01:46.295
As they get older, we expose them [br]to more and more things.

0:01:46.295,0:01:47.671
And by the time they're in high school, [br]

0:01:47.671,0:01:49.065
hopefully, we've exposed them to enough

0:01:49.065,0:01:51.701
that they can make some [br]decisions on what they want to be.

0:01:52.691,0:01:55.250
The problem is study, [br]after study, after study

0:01:55.250,0:02:00.033
tells us kids learn better [br]when they're younger.

0:02:00.863,0:02:03.116
I know that was definetely [br]the case with me.

0:02:03.116,0:02:07.392
In third grade, we had to take [br]a half an hour of Spanish once a week.

0:02:07.392,0:02:10.651
We had to take a half an hour [br]of sign language once a week.

0:02:11.391,0:02:14.773
And in high school, I took an hour [br]of French everyday, for two years.

0:02:14.973,0:02:16.980
That's twenty hours of sign language,

0:02:16.980,0:02:21.541
twenty hours of Spanish [br]and 400 hours of French.

0:02:21.541,0:02:23.313
What do you think I'm more fluent in?

0:02:24.083,0:02:25.565
See...

0:02:25.565,0:02:28.679
(Laughter)

0:02:28.716,0:02:33.119
How about, instead, we take that [br]triangle and turn it upside down,

0:02:33.119,0:02:36.858
and give kids a strong foundation [br]by exposing them to things

0:02:36.858,0:02:39.420
when they're young, [br]before their prejudices can set in?

0:02:40.480,0:02:43.625
Before they can say: [br]"Science isn't cool, Math isn't cool,

0:02:44.705,0:02:47.124
Art isn't cool."

0:02:47.124,0:02:49.711
They love this stuff when they're young, [br]but as they get older,

0:02:49.711,0:02:53.096
society tells them it's not [br]a good thing to do.

0:02:53.676,0:02:56.614
So, if we can expose that [br]to them when they're young,

0:02:56.614,0:03:00.545
they'll say: "Well, I'm interested [br]in this; I'm not interested in that.

0:03:00.545,0:03:04.620
I'm good at that; I suck at this, [br]so I'm going to avoid these things."

0:03:04.620,0:03:06.221
And by the time they get up to high school,

0:03:06.221,0:03:08.542
they've got a much better idea[br]of what they want to do,

0:03:08.542,0:03:10.113
because they're focused.

0:03:11.163,0:03:16.239
And if we can help them focus, [br]maybe we can increase this number.

0:03:19.214,0:03:20.962
My second idea -- this isn't a real program,

0:03:20.962,0:03:23.453
I just invented it on my couch [br]within the last couple of weeks --

0:03:23.453,0:03:25.350
Learn & Earn in Michigan.

0:03:25.350,0:03:27.014
I think the numbers work that...

0:03:27.014,0:03:31.458
they say that Michigan could say, [br]"We are going to pay anybody's tuition.

0:03:31.458,0:03:33.461
Books and tuition.

0:03:33.461,0:03:36.804
In exchange, you'll live [br]and work here for two years."

0:03:38.154,0:03:41.791
The taxes from those hiping jobs [br]would more than make up

0:03:42.941,0:03:47.271
for any tuition outlay [br]from the government.

0:03:47.271,0:03:50.113
And, by the time they get down [br]with four years of college

0:03:50.113,0:03:53.703
and eight years of payback, [br]they'll be thirty years old.

0:03:53.703,0:03:56.311
They'll have a house, [br]a spouse and 2.3 kids.

0:03:56.311,0:03:58.584
They will be here to stay,

0:03:59.484,0:04:03.932
and so will the businesses that are [br]attracted by educated people.

0:04:06.475,0:04:10.218
One half who graduate from college [br]never read another book.

0:04:10.986,0:04:14.495
That's an amazing statistic

0:04:14.825,0:04:19.344
and it was true, [br]and it's still true to a large degree.

0:04:19.344,0:04:22.505
But, thirty years ago, that was ok.

0:04:22.936,0:04:25.526
Thirty years ago, the shelf life[br]of a college education

0:04:25.526,0:04:29.316
was 15 to 25 years, which meant [br]whatever you learned

0:04:29.316,0:04:31.767
wouldn't become outdated[br]for at least 20 years.

0:04:33.692,0:04:36.949
The shelf life of a college [br]education now is 18 to 24 months,

0:04:37.629,0:04:39.600
which means whatever [br]you're learning today

0:04:39.600,0:04:41.852
you'll probably have to relearn [br]in a couple of years,

0:04:42.212,0:04:45.103
because the rate [br]of change is increasing.

0:04:46.771,0:04:49.243
So, colleges need to have [br]a little more flexibility,

0:04:49.243,0:04:51.228
they need to faster to the draw,

0:04:52.475,0:04:55.720
and use a little bit of what I call [br]"junkyard math".

0:04:56.386,0:04:57.971
Four equals one.

0:04:57.971,0:05:00.236
Instead of a four-year degree, [br]we do a one-year degree.

0:05:01.916,0:05:04.681
I mean, if you take the first two years [br]of a college degree,

0:05:04.681,0:05:06.055
it's pretty much basics anyway.

0:05:06.055,0:05:10.017
It's the three R's you should [br]have learned ten years ago.

0:05:10.402,0:05:12.001
And this another year full of electives,

0:05:12.001,0:05:15.554
underwater basket weaving [br]and poetry history.

0:05:17.274,0:05:18.683
Take those away, and you've got

0:05:18.683,0:05:22.472
12 to 18 months worth[br]of valid focused classes.

0:05:22.472,0:05:25.073
Now, I'm not talking about learning [br]for the sake of learning.

0:05:25.073,0:05:28.280
I'm talking about learning [br]for the sake of earning.

0:05:33.302,0:05:38.191
Before I get insulted by [br]all the educators out there,

0:05:38.697,0:05:41.999
let it be known that [br]the world is changing.

0:05:41.999,0:05:45.852
Instead of a four-year student, you can [br]now have an eight to twelve-year student,

0:05:45.852,0:05:50.175
because people change careers [br]6 to 8 times during their life.

0:05:51.125,0:05:54.186
And they can come back to you, [br]they need somebody to train them.

0:05:54.186,0:05:58.029
The "top 10" jobs today weren't [br]even invented ten years ago.

0:05:58.029,0:06:00.625
And that's going to continue.

0:06:00.625,0:06:03.464
And somebody's got to educate them.

0:06:03.464,0:06:05.915
So, instead of your revenue [br]being cut by 75%, [br]

0:06:05.915,0:06:07.905
from a four-year degree [br]to a one-year degree,

0:06:07.905,0:06:11.155
it can be doubled or even tripled.

0:06:11.155,0:06:14.367
I'm sure the educators will love that.

0:06:14.768,0:06:18.775
Thomas Jefferson said every generation [br]needs a new revolution.

0:06:18.775,0:06:21.371
This can be our revolution.

0:06:22.321,0:06:25.720
Fixing the educational system [br]can be our revolution.

0:06:28.686,0:06:35.268
We can teach the youth of today [br]how to live in the world of tomorrow.

0:06:36.440,0:06:39.806
We can not only give them the "what", [br]we can teach them the "why".

0:06:40.596,0:06:44.056
All we need to do is teach them to fish.

0:06:44.056,0:06:46.186
"Gracias". [br]Thank you.

0:06:46.186,0:06:49.049
(Applause)