WEBVTT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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John Gardner agreed with me:

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"Much education today 
is monumentally ineffective.

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All too often we are giving 
young peeople cut flowers,

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

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We should be teaching them to fish.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Make all your jokes now.

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(Laughter)

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But it wasn't all bad.

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

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Two out of three years.

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(Laughter)

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But I had to teach myself how to fish.

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This is today's educational system.

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

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

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By the way, a little pet peeve of mine,

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

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(Laughter)

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

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And by the time they're in high school, 


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hopefully, we've exposed them to enough

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

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The problem is study, 
after study, after study

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tells us kids learn better 
when they're younger.

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I know that was definetely 
the case with me.

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

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

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

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That's twenty hours of sign language,

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twenty hours of Spanish 
and 400 hours of French.

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What do you think I'm more fluent in?

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See...

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(Laughter)

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

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and give kids a strong foundation 
by exposing them to things

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

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

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Art isn't cool."

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

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

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

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

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

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And by the time they get up to high school,

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

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because they're focused.

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

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

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

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Learn & Earn in Michigan.

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I think the numbers work that...

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

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Books and tuition.

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

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The taxes from those hiping jobs 
would more than make up

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for any tuition outlay 
from the government.

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

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

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

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They will be here to stay,

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

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One half who graduate from college 
never read another book.

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That's an amazing statistic

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

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But, thirty years ago, that was ok.

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Thirty years ago, the shelf life
of a college education

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was 15 to 25 years, which meant 
whatever you learned

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wouldn't become outdated
for at least 20 years.

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

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which means whatever 
you're learning today

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

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because the rate 
of change is increasing.

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So, colleges need to have 
a little more flexibility,

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they need to faster to the draw,

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

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Four equals one.

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

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

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it's pretty much basics anyway.

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

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And this another year full of electives,

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underwater basket weaving 
and poetry history.

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Take those away, and you've got

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12 to 18 months worth
of valid focused classes.

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

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

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Before I get insulted by 
all the educators out there,

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let it be known that 
the world is changing.

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

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

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

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

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And that's going to continue.

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And somebody's got to educate them.

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


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

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it can be doubled or even tripled.

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I'm sure the educators will love that.

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Thomas Jefferson said every generation 
needs a new revolution.

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This can be our revolution.

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Fixing the educational system 
can be our revolution.

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

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

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All we need to do is teach them to fish.

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"Gracias". 
Thank you.

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(Applause)