One of Footdown’s values is to “Influence leadership thinking and leadership development through this century and beyond”, so we are really excited about the up an coming TEDxYouth conference in Bath, where Bath Fifteen Member; Midge Ure, is one of the speakers.
Charlotte Calkin tells us all about TEDxYouth
“On November 17th 2011 I am hosting a TEDxYouth conference in Bath for students aged 17-19 from in and around Bath. Our conference is part of 60 worldwide TEDx events organized to celebrate TEDxYouth day. We have called our conference The Wider World and we have links on our website to a few of the other events taking place around the world. All on them share a common purpose; to inspire and empower tomorrow’s young leaders. Hence why I contacted Footdown.
Out of my conversations with Footdown I was asked to write this blog. For me, the conversations have been hugely supportive and validating and it has been lovely to be asked “Why are you hosting this event, what has motivated you?” It has been very good for me to air my thoughts out loud!
So why am I doing this?
I’ve been attending the TEDGlobal conferences in England since 2009. The first time I went to a TED conference I sat in the audience and had an overwhelming urge to suggest that we, the audience, should all give our tickets to an 18 year old for a session. I have spent years thinking about how difficult it is to help create a bridge between school and real life for kids and TED struck me as a force field of inspiration for the next generation. More to the point, so many of the people giving talks were young; young and inspired.
I go to TED to have my mind stretched and expanded in extra-ordinary ways; it’s like rehab for the conscience. When you leave TED you can no longer be a bystander; it asks of you to actively participate. Most of the audience are made up of people who are already actively engaged in sharing possible solutions and ideas; are part of the “zeitgeist of positivity.” They are philanthropists, inventors, philosophers and the people who run our techie worlds. I am not one of the aforementioned luminaries and I questioned why I was going and what I was giving back. Since 2009, the concept of TEDx has arrived.; creating your own TED-like experience. I love how they have expanded their platform by not only offering the TED talks online but also through creating TEDx’s where like-minded people can share the full experience of a conference and the wonderful spark of discussion which ensues. Over 2000 TEDx’s have been held since they initiated the idea. So I went back to my initial impulse of wanting to share this experience with our kids. They are, to use a borrowed phrase because I love it, “the caretakers of tomorrow”. I firmly believe that once you engage kids with the wider world you’ve got them for life.
Here’s an example: Last year, I came back from TEDGlobal 2010 fired with enthusiasm and brewing the kernel of an idea for a TEDxYouth event. I thought I’d try a mini trial run and asked my 19 year old daughter and her best friend, Kate, if I could have a couple of hours of their time. (TED send you an unedited version of the conference after the event.) I asked them if I could play them a few of my favourite talks (bear in mind they are all no longer than 18 minutes in length!) and, four hours later, we stopped. “Mum,” said my daughter, “I feel like such a numpty. I thought TED’d be full of lots of do-goody people who’d irritate me and it’s not that at all, it’s amazing.”
This year, in their break from their studies, she and Kate traveled to Bali for the summer (impressively paid for by themselves). Whilst there they phoned The Green School, an amazing place built by John Hardy and one of the talks that they had most loved, and asked if they could look around. They spent the day there, asked loads of questions, took loads of photo’s, discussed internships. Meanwhile, I had forgotten that the school was in Bali; that’s the power of telling young people about good ideas, they stick. As I said, once you’ve got them engaged, you’ve got them for life.
I’ve got four kids and despite the world changing radically since I left school it has struck me how little their schooling has changed in preparing them for this radically different outside world. I don’t think a lot has changed with their and my experience of the transition from school to life. My experience of independent schools is that it still seems to see its primary role as getting you into the best possible university to suit your academic capabilities. It is still the only yardstick by which you are truly measured; irrespective of whether that is what fires you. An independent school prides itself, first and foremost, on how many Oxbridge candidates it has got. There have been numerous articles written sharing my frustration that Oxbridge is seen as the highest/only pinnacle of aspiration. And are you seen as ‘less than’ if you don’t make it? And for whose benefit exactly; the schools or the students? There were kids at my school who knew from an early age what they wanted to be; a vet, doctor, lawyer, marine biologist but they were in the minority and goodness how I envied them and for the rest of us? We weren’t shown a window into different worlds and we were left floundering.
The chasm between school and real life still hasn’t really shifted. I remember thinking at school that what we were experiencing was pretend life. I didn’t know what my particular skill set was and I had barely any guidance. I have seen my experience, leaving school and not really knowing why I was studying what I was studying, repeated time and again by my children’s peers. Surely school nowadays should help them a little more than that?
Of course I realize that we parents are also responsible. But as much as I can help my children within the sphere of my knowledge and do research outside of that limited sphere, frankly I rely on others to help them when I know precious little of the subject matter. They are different people to me and I can’t foist my interests onto them simply because they are the sum of my own experience. I also found myself getting sucked into the competitive best university route, which I regret as I am not sure it was in my children’s best interests.
That’s why we’ve called our TEDx, The Wider World. There are realms and worlds of possibility out there for our children. They need access, a bit of steering and they do the rest for themselves; as Clem and Kate proved by visiting the Green School. As a parent I’ve done the best I can but the worlds I have accessed at TED have opened my eyes to the realms of different and extra-ordinary opportunities and experiences there are out there. We don’t know what it is that will be the spark to set us on a new journey until we find it; but we need as many opportunities as we can get when we are young to find out about the world.
I’ve practiced my own mini Ofsted with my kids: state and independent Primary School, state and independent Secondary School and a little bit of French schooling thrown in for good measure and I’m not really impressed with how schools are facing up to the challenges for our kids and their future. Policymakers are grasping this but is it filtering through to the schools? I am so impressed by the number of amazing initiatives out there for our kids and the number of people trying to create this bridge from school to life e.g Speakers For Schools.
Every company I talked to at the awards dinner for Business In The Community had great initiatives to support young people getting into the workplace. I’m not going to list loads but, for example, Channel Four’s Kickstart programme. But is this getting through to schools? Do they know about all this wealth of material? State school teachers seem so overwhelmed that it becomes yet more paperwork and yet they do seem to be offering a broader view for the future. At the recent Sunday Times Education Conference I barely heard education being discussed within the context of it being the stepping stone to the rest of your life; it seemed like education is this entirely separate, removed entity; spookily separate! I also think that a bit of external coaching brought into schools wouldn’t go amiss! But there is also TED, an amazing, free resource of “ideas worth spreading.”
Anyway, that’s why I am doing the TEDx. Because it took me so long to discover where my talents lay and what really fired me and I’m hoping that putting 120 interested young people in a room together to be introduced to people who’ve found their passion and pursued it will encourage them to do the same; that it might encourage them to think more about their choices and the footprints they want to make.
Many of the headteachers that I spoke to whilst preparing for this event had not heard of TED and that’s such a shame as it is such a great resource for kids. Not only is it a source of inspiration and exploration, but it can also show you the most cutting edge research in the topics of your interest if you already know which path you wish to pursue. And by listening to other people’s good ideas it may just be the spark for your own.”
Charlotte Calkin - TEDxYouth conference in Bath