What Adults Can Learn From Kids: "Don't Underestimate Our Ability" - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

What Adults Can Learn From Kids: "Don't Underestimate Our Ability" - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

What Adults Can Learn From Kids: "Don't Underestimate Our Ability"

April 5, 2010 1:29 PM

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Student Advocate. Literacy Advocate. Kid Advocate.
And She Is Only Twelve.

This weekend I spoke with a mom who was just seething about an incident during a recent parent-teacher conference. When told by the math teacher that her 12 year old daughter was not paying attention in class, the mother asked if the teacher had talked to her after class about it to gain more insight or perspective such as - was she bored? Or, was she lost? The teacher said, "What would a 12 year old know about why she wasn't paying attention?" In other words, the teacher made the parent feel like it was an inappropriate request. After all, her daughter was just a "kid".

So when I came across this new TED talk from 12 year old Adora Svitak, I thought not only we will post it, but let's just say I will be sending it personally to the mom and maybe it will make its way to the school. Sometimes I think we (adults) are too lenient with kids about discipline and comportment, and then we act like taskmasters when it comes to intellectual challenges and