Tusinde tak til alle fra TED, især Chris og Amy. Jeg kan ikke fatte, at jeg er her. Jeg har ikke sovet i ugevis. Neil og jeg sad og sammenlignede, hvor lidt vi har sovet i forventning til i dag. Jeg har været så nervøs - og gør åbenbart sådan her, når jeg er nervøs. Jeg vil fortælle om, hvad vi gjorde i organisationen kaldet 826 Valencia, og så vil jeg snakke om, hvordan vi alle kan være med til at gøre lignende ting.
Thank you so much everyone from TED, and Chris and Amy in particular. I cannot believe I'm here. I have not slept in weeks. Neil and I were sitting there comparing how little we've slept in anticipation for this. I've never been so nervous -- and I do this when I'm nervous, I just realized. (Laughter) So, I'm going to talk about sort of what we did at this organization called 826 Valencia, and then I'm going to talk about how we all might join in and do similar things.
Tilbage i 2000 boede jeg i Brooklyn. Jeg prøvede at færdiggøre min første bog, jeg gik dagligt omtåget omkring, fordi jeg skrev fra midnat til 5 om morgenen. Så jeg var omtåget om dagen. Jeg evnede ikke rigtig at tænke om dagen, men jeg havde fleksible timer. I Park Slope kvarteret i Brooklyn, hvor jeg boede, er der mange forfattere - Antallet af forfattere i forhold til antallet af normale mennesker er meget højt. Nå, men jeg voksede op med mange lærere omkring mig. Min mor var lærer, min søster blev lærer og efter universitetet blev mange af mine venner lærere. Så jeg hørte dem altid snakke om deres liv, og hvor inspirerende de var, og de var virkelig de mest hårdt-arbejdende og konstant inspirerende mennesker, jeg kendte.
Back in about 2000, I was living in Brooklyn, I was trying to finish my first book, I was wandering around dazed every day because I wrote from 12 a.m. to 5 a.m. So I would walk around in a daze during the day. I had no mental acuity to speak of during the day, but I had flexible hours. In the Brooklyn neighborhood that I lived in, Park Slope, there are a lot of writers -- it's like a very high per capita ratio of writers to normal people. Meanwhile, I had grown up around a lot of teachers. My mom was a teacher, my sister became a teacher and after college so many of my friends went into teaching. And so I was always hearing them talk about their lives and how inspiring they were, and they were really sort of the most hard-working and constantly inspiring people I knew.
Men jeg kendte så mange af de ting, de var oppe imod, og så mange af de kampe, de måtte kæmpe. En af disse var, at så mange af mine venner der underviste i skoler i byen, havde problemer med at få eleverne til at nå et alderssvarende niveau, især i læsning og skrivning. Mange af disse elever kom fra hjem, hvor der ikke tales engelsk, og hvor mange af dem har særlige behov, problemer med at lære. Og de arbejde selvfølgelig på skoler, som sommetider og ofte er underfinancierede. Så de talte med mig om det og sagde, "Ved du hvad, det vi egentlig har brug for er bare flere folk, flere kroppe, mere en-til-en tid, flere timer, mere kundskab fra folk, der kan engelsk og kan arbejde med eleverne en-til-en."
But I knew so many of the things they were up against, so many of the struggles they were dealing with. And one of them was that so many of my friends that were teaching in city schools were having trouble with their students keeping up at grade level, in their reading and writing in particular. Now, so many of these students had come from households where English isn't spoken in the home, where a lot of them have different special needs, learning disabilities. And of course they're working in schools which sometimes and very often are under-funded. And so they would talk to me about this and say, "You know, what we really need is just more people, more bodies, more one-on-one attention, more hours, more expertise from people that have skills in English and can work with these students one-on-one."
Så sagde jeg altid, "Jamen, hvorfor arbejder I ikke bare med dem en-til-en?" Og de svarede, "Jamen, vi har fem klasser med 30 til 40 elever i hver. Det kan føre til 150, 180, 200 elever per dag. Hvordan skulle vi nogensinde kunne give hver elev blot en time af vores opmærksomhed om ugen?" Du ville være nødt til at udvide arbejdsugen enormt og klone lærerne. Så vi begyndte at tale om det. Og på samme tid, tænkte jeg på denne store gruppe mennesker jeg kendte: skribenter, redaktører, journalister, overbygningsstuderende, lektorer - alle mulige mennesker. Alle disse mennesker, som havde forholdsvis fleksible timer og interesse for det engelske sprog - Jeg har selv en interesse for det engelske sprog, men jeg taler det ikke særligt godt lige nu. Jeg prøver. Uret dér arbejder imod mig. Men alle, jeg kendte, havde en interesse i vigtigheden af det skrevne ord med henblik på at nære et demokrati, at nære et oplyst liv. Så de havde, I ved, deres tid og deres interesse, men samtidig var der så vidt jeg vidste ingen kanaler i mit samfund, som kunne koble disse to grupper sammen.
Now, I would say, "Well, why don't you just work with them one-on-one?" And they would say, "Well, we have five classes of 30 to 40 students each. This can lead up to 150, 180, 200 students a day. How can we possibly give each student even one hour a week of one-on-one attention?" You'd have to greatly multiply the workweek and clone the teachers. And so we started talking about this. And at the same time, I thought about this massive group of people I knew: writers, editors, journalists, graduate students, assistant professors, you name it. All these people that had sort of flexible daily hours and an interest in the English word -- I hope to have an interest in the English language, but I'm not speaking it well right now. (Laughter) I'm trying. That clock has got me. But everyone that I knew had an interest in the primacy of the written word in terms of nurturing a democracy, nurturing an enlightened life. And so they had, you know, their time and their interest, but at the same time there wasn't a conduit that I knew of in my community to bring these two communities together.
Så da jeg flyttede tilbage til San Francisco, lejede vi en bygning. Og ideen var at putte McSweeney's -- McSweeney's Quarterly, som vi udgav to eller tre gange årligt, og nogle få andre blade -- vi ville flytte det ind på et kontor for første gang. Det plejede at være i mit køkken i Brooklyn. Vi ville flytte det ind på et kontor, og dele pladsen med et tutor-center. Så vi tænkte, "Vi har alle disse skribenter og redaktører og -- en slags skrive-samfund, der alligevel er på kontoret dagligt, hvorfor åbner vi kke bare dørene, så elever kan komme ind efter skole, og få ekstra hjælp til de skriftlige lektier, så der faktisk ikke er nogen grænser mellem de to grupper?" Så ideen var, at vi ville arbejde med hvad vi nu arbejdede med, kl 14.30 ville eleverne komme, og man lægger hvad man laver, eller bytter, eller arbejder lidt senere eller hvad man nu gør. Man giver de timer om eftermiddagen til eleverne fra kvarteret.
So when I moved back to San Francisco, we rented this building. And the idea was to put McSweeney's -- McSweeney's Quarterly, that we published twice or three times a year, and a few other magazines -- we were going to move it into an office for the first time. It used to be in my kitchen in Brooklyn. We were going to move it into an office, and we were going to actually share space with a tutoring center. So we thought, "We'll have all these writers and editors and everybody -- sort of a writing community -- coming into the office every day anyway, why don't we just open up the front of the building for students to come in there after school, get extra help on their written homework, so you have basically no border between these two communities?" So the idea was that we would be working on whatever we're working on, at 2:30 p.m. the students flow in and you put down what you're doing, or you trade, or you work a little bit later or whatever it is. You give those hours in the afternoon to the students in the neighborhood.
Så, vi fandt det her sted, vi lejede det, udlejeren var med på det. Vi havde et vægmaleri, lavet af Chris Ware, der faktisk forklarer hele historien bag det trykte ord, igennem et vægmaleri -- det tager lang tid at fordøje, og man er nødt til at stå midt på vejen. Så vi lejede det her sted. Og alt var fantastisk bortset fra, at udlejeren sagde, "Området er forbeholdt handel; I må finde på noget. I må sælge noget. I kan ikke bare have et tutor-center." Så vi tænkte, "Ha ha! Virkelig!" Og vi kunne ikke umiddelbart finde på noget at sælge, men vi gjorde al den fornødne research. Lokalet plejede at være et rum til vægttræning, så der var gummimåtter nedenunder, akustiske lofte, lysstofrør. Vi rev det hele ned og fandt smukke trægulve, hvidkalkede bjælker, og det så ud som -- mens vi renoverede stedet var der én der sagde, "Ved I hvad, det ligner faktisk et skibsskrog." Og vi kiggede rundt og en anden sagde, "I burde sælge forsyninger til arbejdende sørøvere."
So, we had this place, we rented it, the landlord was all for it. We did this mural, that's a Chris Ware mural, that basically explains the entire history of the printed word, in mural form -- it takes a long time to digest and you have to stand in the middle of the road. So we rented this space. And everything was great except the landlord said, "Well, the space is zoned for retail; you have to come up with something. You've gotta sell something. You can't just have a tutoring center." So we thought, "Ha ha! Really!" And we couldn't think of anything necessarily to sell, but we did all the necessary research. It used to be a weight room, so there were rubber floors below, acoustic tile ceilings and fluorescent lights. We took all that down, and we found beautiful wooden floors, whitewashed beams and it had the look -- while we were renovating this place, somebody said, "You know, it really kind of looks like the hull of a ship." And we looked around and somebody else said, "Well, you should sell supplies to the working buccaneer." (Laughter)
Så det er, hvad vi gjorde. Det fik alle til at grine, og vi sagde, "Der er en pointe dér. Lad os sælge pirat-forsyninger." Dette er piratforsyningsbutikken. Det er fra en skitse, jeg lavede på en serviet. En fantastisk snedker byggede alt dette, og vi fik det til at se lidt piratforsyningsagtigt ud. Her ser I planker, der sælges som metervare, og vi har forsyninger til at bekæmpe skørbug; vi har træbenene her, de er håndlavede og tilpasses individuelt; øverst ses udstillingen af øjenklapper; den sorte søjle dér er til dagligt brug, en standard øjeklap, og så er der pastelfarver og andre farver til når du skal i byen -- særlige anledninger, bar mitzvaher og så videre.
And so this is what we did. So it made everybody laugh, and we said, "There's a point to that. Let's sell pirate supplies." This is the pirate supply store. You see, this is sort of a sketch I did on a napkin. A great carpenter built all this stuff and you see, we made it look sort of pirate supply-like. Here you see planks sold by the foot and we have supplies to combat scurvy. We have the peg legs there, that are all handmade and fitted to you. Up at the top, you see the eyepatch display, which is the black column there for everyday use for your eyepatch, and then you have the pastel and other colors for stepping out at night -- special occasions, bar mitzvahs and whatever.
Så vi åbnede det her sted. Og det her er en bøtte, som vi fylder med skatte, eleverne kan lede i: Her er reserveøjne i tilfælde af, at du mister et; Her er nogle af de skilte, vi har over det hele: "Spøg og skæmt med pirater." Mens man læser skiltet, trækker vi i et reb bag disken og otte moppehoveder falder ned i hovedet på én. Det var bare min ene ting -- Jeg sagde, at vi måtte have noget, der falder ned over folk. Det blev så moppehoveder. Og her er fiske-teateret, som bare er en saltvandstank med tre sæder, og lige bag dét lavede vi dette rum. Som var tutor-centeret. Så lige dér er tutor-centeret, og bag det er McSweeneys kontorer, hvor vi alle arbejdede på blade og bogredigering og så videre.
So we opened this place. And this is a vat that we fill with treasures that students dig in. This is replacement eyes in case you lose one. These are some signs that we have all over the place: "Practical Joking with Pirates." While you're reading the sign, we pull a rope behind the counter and eight mop heads drop on your head. That was just my one thing -- I said we had to have something that drops on people's heads. It became mop heads. And this is the fish theater, which is just a saltwater tank with three seats, and then right behind it we set up this space, which was the tutoring center. So right there is the tutoring center, and then behind the curtain were the McSweeney's offices, where all of us would be working on the magazine and book editing and things like that.
Børnene kom -- eller rettere, vi troede, de ville komme. Jeg går lige lidt tilbage. Vi gjorde stedet klar, vi åbnede, vi brugte måneder på at renovere stedet. Vi havde borde, stole, computere, alt. Jeg tog til en dot-com auktion på et hotel i Palo Alto og købte 11 G4-computere ved at vifte med en padle. Nå, vi købte dem, satte alting op, og så ventede vi. Det blev startet med omkring 12 af mine venner, folk, jeg havde kendt i årevis, som var skribenter i kvarteret. Og vi ventede. Og kl. 14:30 satte vi et skilt ud på fortovet, hvor der stod "Gratis undervisning til dine engelsk- og skrive-relaterede behov -- Kom bare ind, det er helt gratis." Og vi tænkte, "Ah, de vil komme væltende de vil elske det." Det gjorde de ikke. Så vi ventede, vi sad ved bordene, og ventede og ventede. Og alle begyndte at miste modet. Fordi der gik uge efter uge med at vente, seriøst, hvor ingen kom ind.
The kids would come in -- or we thought they would come in. I should back up. We set the place up, we opened up, we spent months and months renovating this place. We had tables, chairs, computers, everything. I went to a dot-com auction at a Holiday Inn in Palo Alto and I bought 11 G4s with a stroke of a paddle. Anyway, we bought 'em, we set everything up and then we waited. It was started with about 12 of my friends, people that I had known for years that were writers in the neighborhood. And we sat. And at 2:30 p.m. we put a sandwich board out on the front sidewalk and it just said, "Free Tutoring for Your English-Related and Writing-Related Needs -- Just Come In, It's All Free." And we thought, "Oh, they're going to storm the gates, they're gonna love it." And they didn't. And so we waited, we sat at the tables, we waited and waited. And everybody was becoming very discouraged because it was weeks and weeks that we waited, really, where nobody came in.
Så var der nogen, der påpegede, at der måske var en tillidskløft, fordi vi drev en piratforsyningsbutik. Det var aldrig faldet os ind. Så på det tidspunkt overtalte jeg en kvinde ved navn Nineveh Caligari, en erfaren underviser fra San Francisco -- hun underviste i Mexico City, hun havde al den fornødne erfaring, kendte alt til undervisning, havde kontakt til alle folk og lærere i kvarteret. Jeg overtalte hende til at flytte op fra Mexico City, hvor hun underviste; Hun tog over som administrerende direktør. Hun fik øjeblikkeligt fat i lærerne og forældrene og eleverne og så videre, og pludselig var der faktisk fyldt op dagligt.
And then somebody alerted us to the fact that maybe there was a trust gap, because we were operating behind a pirate supply store. (Laughter) We never put it together, you know? And so then, around that time, I persuaded a woman named Nineveh Caligari, a longtime San Francisco educator -- she was teaching in Mexico City, she had all the experience necessary, knew everything about education, was connected with all the teachers and community members in the neighborhood -- I convinced her to move up from Mexico City where she was teaching. She took over as executive director. Immediately, she made the inroads with the teachers and the parents and the students and everything, and so suddenly it was actually full every day.
Og hvad vi prøvede at tilbyde hver dag var en-til-en undervisning. Målet var at have forholdet én til én med hver enkelt af eleverne. Det er jo bevist, at 35 til 40 timer om året med en-til-en undevisning kan løfte en elev ét klassetrin. Så de fleste af disse elever taler ikke engelsk derhjemme. De kom dér, ofte kom forældrene og -- man kan ikke se det, men der er en kirkebænk, som jeg købte på en auktion i Berkeley lige der -- deres forældre så nogle gange på, mens deres børn blev undervist. Så grundlaget for det hele var en-til-en undervisning. Og butikken blev fyldt med børn hver dag. Hvis du er på Valencia Gade i området omkring kl 14:00 eller 14:30, vil du ofte blive løbet over ende af børn med deres store rygsække osv., som faktisk løber til det her sted.
And what we were trying to offer every day was one-on-one attention. The goal was to have a one-to-one ratio with every one of these students. You know, it's been proven that 35 to 40 hours a year with one-on-one attention, a student can get one grade level higher. And so most of these students, English is not spoken in the home. They come there, many times their parents -- you can't see it, but there's a church pew that I bought in a Berkeley auction right there -- the parents will sometimes watch while their kids are being tutored. So that was the basis of it, was one-on-one attention. And we found ourselves full every day with kids. If you're on Valencia Street within those few blocks at around 2 p.m., 2:30 p.m., you will get run over, often, by the kids and their big backpacks, or whatever, actually running to this space,
Hvilket er meget underligt, fordi det er skole, på en måde. Men der sker noget psykologisk her, som er bare en smule anderledes. Og det forskellige var, at der ikke var noget stigma. Børn gik ikke ind på "Centeret-for-børn-der-har-brug-for-Hjælp" eller sådan noget. Det var 826 Valencia. For det første var det en piratforsyningsbutik, hvilket er vanvittigt. For det andet er der et forlag i baglokalet. Så vores praktikanter arbejdede faktisk ofte ved de samme borde, skulder ved skulder, computer ved computer med eleverne.
which is very strange, because it's school, in a way. But there was something psychological happening there that was just a little bit different. And the other thing was, there was no stigma. Kids weren't going into the "Center-for-Kids-That-Need-More-Help," or something like that. It was 826 Valencia. First of all, it was a pirate supply store, which is insane. And then secondly, there's a publishing company in the back. And so our interns were actually working at the same tables very often, and shoulder-to-shoulder, computer-next-to-computer with the students.
Så det blev til et tutor-center -- forlagscenter er, hvad vi kaldte det -- og et skrive-center. De går ind, og de arbejder måske med en gymnasieelev, som faktisk arbejder på en roman -- for vi havde også meget begavede børn. Så der er ikke noget stigma. De arbejder alle side om side. Det er alt sammen en kreativ bestræbelse. De ser voksne. De følger deres adfærd. Disse voksne, de arbejder inden for deres felt. De kan læne sig over og stille et spørgsmål til en af disse voksne, og på den måde vokser det hele ligesom af sig selv. Der sker en masse tværfaglig udvikling. Det eneste problem, især for de voksne, der arbejder ved McSweeney's, og som ikke nødvendigvis var med på ideen, da de begyndte der, var, at der kun var ét toilet. Med omkring 60 børn dagligt er dét et problem.
And so it became a tutoring center -- publishing center, is what we called it -- and a writing center. They go in, and they might be working with a high school student actually working on a novel -- because we had very gifted kids, too. So there's no stigma. They're all working next to each other. It's all a creative endeavor. They're seeing adults. They're modeling their behavior. These adults, they're working in their field. They can lean over, ask a question of one of these adults and it all sort of feeds on each other. There's a lot of cross-pollination. The only problem, especially for the adults working at McSweeney's who hadn't necessarily bought into all of this when they signed up, was that there was just the one bathroom. (Laughter) With like 60 kids a day, this is a problem.
Men der er noget ved, at børnene får lavet deres lektier på en given dag, får al denne opmærksomhed -- når de går hjem, er de færdige. De udskyder ikke, de laver ikke lektierne foran TV'et. De kan gå hjem kl 17:30, være sammen med familien, nyde deres hobbier, gå udenfor, lege. Og det skaber en lykkelig familie. En flok lykkelige familier i kvarteret skaber et lykkeligt samfund. En flok lykkelige samfund skaber sammen en lykkelig by og en lykkelig verden. Så nøglen til det hele er lektier! Det er hvad der skal til -- en-til-en undervisning.
But you know, there's something about the kids finishing their homework in a given day, working one-on-one, getting all this attention -- they go home, they're finished. They don't stall. They don't do their homework in front of the TV. They're allowed to go home at 5:30 p.m., enjoy their family, enjoy other hobbies, get outside, play. And that makes a happy family. A bunch of happy families in a neighborhood is a happy community. A bunch of happy communities tied together is a happy city and a happy world. So the key to it all is homework! (Laughter) (Applause) There you have it, you know -- one-on-one attention.
Vi begyndte med omkring 12 frivillige, og så havde vi omkring 50. og så et par hundrede. Og nu har vi 1400 frivillige på vores liste. Og vi gør det utrolig nemt at melde sig som frivillig. Sagen er, at selvom du kun har et par timer hver måned, så vil de to timer, skulder ved skulder ved siden af en elev - koncentreret opmærksomhed, med fokus på deres arbejde, på deres tanker og deres selv-udtryk, være utroligt formende, fordi så mange af eleverne ikke har oplevet det nogensinde før. Så vi sagde, "Selv om du kun har to timer én søndag hver 6. måned, er det ligemeget. Det er nok." Så det er en del af grunden til, at tutor-holdet voksede så hurtigt.
So we started off with about 12 volunteers, and then we had about 50, and then a couple hundred. And we now have 1,400 volunteers on our roster. And we make it incredibly easy to volunteer. The key thing is, even if you only have a couple of hours a month, those two hours shoulder-to-shoulder, next to one student, concentrated attention, shining this beam of light on their work, on their thoughts and their self-expression, is going to be absolutely transformative, because so many of the students have not had that ever before. So we said, "Even if you have two hours one Sunday every six months, it doesn't matter. That's going to be enough." So that's partly why the tutor corps grew so fast.
Så sagde vi, "Jamen, hvad skal vi gøre med rummet om dagen, det skulle jo bruges til noget før 14:30?" Så vi begyndte at trække klasser ind om dagen. Så hver dag var der en udflugt, hvor de sammen skaber en bog; I kan se den blive skrevet ind oppe ovenpå. Her er én af klasserne, der er alt for opstemte af at skrive. Hvis du peger et kamera på en klasse, vil det altid se sådan her ud. Så her er én af de bøger, de har lavet. Bemærk bogens titel, "Bogen, der aldrig blev lånt ud: Titanic." Og bogens første linje er, "Engang var der en bog, der hed Cindy, som handlede om Titanic." Så imens sidder der en voksen i bagved og skriver det her ind, og tager det helt alvorligt, hvilket slår benene væk under dem.
Then we said, "Well, what are we going to do with the space during the day, because it has to be used before 2:30 p.m.?" So we started bringing in classes during the day. So every day, there's a field trip where they together create a book -- you can see it being typed up above. This is one of the classes getting way too excited about writing. You just point a camera at a class, and it always looks like this. So this is one of the books that they do. Notice the title of the book, "The Book That Was Never Checked Out: Titanic." And the first line of that book is, "Once there was a book named Cindy that was about the Titanic." So, meanwhile, there's an adult in the back typing this up, taking it completely seriously, which blows their mind.
Men vi havde stadig flere tutorer at bruge. Her er et billede af nogle tutorer under en begivenhed. Lærerne, som vi arbejder med -- og alt er anderledes for lærere -- de fortæller, hvad vi skal gøre. Vi gik derind og tænkte, "Vi er grundlæggende komplet formbare. I instruerer os. Forældrene og folk i kvarteret vil fortælle os det, lærerne vil fortælle os, hvordan vi er til mest nytte."
So then we still had more tutors to use. This is a shot of just some of the tutors during one of the events. The teachers that we work with -- and everything is different to teachers -- they tell us what to do. We went in there thinking, "We're ultimately, completely malleable. You're going to tell us. The neighborhood's going to tell us, the parents are going to tell us. The teachers are going to tell us how we're most useful."
Så sagde de, "Hvorfor kommer I ikke ind på skolerne? For hvad med de elever, der ikke nødvendigvis kommer til jer, som ikke har aktive forældre, der kan bringe dem, eller som ikke bor tæt nok på?" Så begyndte vi at sige, "Vi har 1400 folk på vores liste. Lad os sprede ordet." En lærer kan sige "Jeg har brug for 12 undervisere de næste fem søndage. Vi arbejder på stile til universitetsoptagelsesprøverne. Send dem ind." Så vi sendte den besked ud: 1400 undervisere. Hvem end der kan, skriver sig på. De går ind omkring en halv time før timen. Læreren fortæller dem, hvad de skal gøre, hvordan det skal gøres, hvad deres niveau er, hvad projektet handler om. De arbejder under lærerens anvisninger, og det hele sker i ét stort rum. Og det er dybest set hvad vi gør, folk tager direkte fra arbejde, direkte fra deres hjem, direkte ind i klasselokalerne og arbejder direkte med eleverne. På den måde er vi i stand til at arbejde med tusindvis af elever. Så sagde en anden skole, "Hvad hvis vi bare giver jer et lokale, som I kan bemande hele dagen?"
So then they said, "Why don't you come into the schools? Because what about the students that wouldn't come to you, necessarily, who don't have really active parents that are bringing them in, or aren't close enough?" So then we started saying, "Well, we've got 1,400 people on our tutor roster. Let's just put out the word." A teacher will say, "I need 12 tutors for the next five Sundays. We're working on our college essays. Send them in." So we put that out on the wire: 1,400 tutors. Whoever can make it signs up. They go in about a half an hour before the class. The teacher tells them what to do, how to do it, what their training is, what their project is so far. They work under the teacher's guide, and it's all in one big room. And that's actually the brunt of what we do is, people going straight from their workplace, straight from home, straight into the classroom and working directly with the students. So then we're able to work with thousands and thousands of more students. Then another school said, "Well, what if we just give you a classroom and you can staff it all day?"
Så det her er Everett Mellemskoles Skribentrum, som vi udsmykkede i sørøverstilen. Det er lige ved biblioteket. Og derfra betjener vi alle 529 børn på mellemskolen. Her er deres avis, "Straight-Up News," som har en løbende klumme af borgmester Gavin Newsom på to sprog -- engelsk og spansk. Så en dag skrev Isabel Allende til os og sagde, "Hej, hvorfor sætter I ikke gymnasieeleverne til at skrive en bog? Jeg vil se dem skrive om, hvordan man opnår fred i en voldelig verden." Så vi gik ind på Thurgood Marshall High School, som er en skole, vi havde arbejdet med om nogle andre ting, og vi gav denne opgave til eleverne. Og sagde, "Isabel Allende vil læse alle jeres stile bagefter. Hun vil udgive dem i en bog. Hun vil sponsorere udgivelsen af bogen i paperback-udgave. Den vil være tilgængelig hos alle boghandlere i San Francisco Bay området, og i hele verden gennem Amazon." Så børnene arbejdede hårdere end de nogensinde havde på noget andet i deres liv, fordi der var sådan et udenforstående publikum, der var Isabel Allende i den anden ende. Jeg tror, vi havde omkring 170 undervisere, der arbejdede på denne bog med dem, så det her gik utrolig godt. Vi holdt en stor fest til sidst. Her er bogen, som kan findes overalt. Det førte til en serie. I kan se, at Amy Tan sponserede den næste, "Jeg kan måske nå steder Hen." Og det blev en tilbagevendende ting. Flere og flere bøger.
So this is the Everett Middle School Writers' Room, where we decorated it in buccaneer style. It's right off the library. And there we serve all 529 kids in this middle school. This is their newspaper, the "Straight-Up News," that has an ongoing column from Mayor Gavin Newsom in both languages -- English and Spanish. So then one day Isabel Allende wrote to us and said, "Hey, why don't you assign a book with high school students? I want them to write about how to achieve peace in a violent world." And so we went into Thurgood Marshall High School, which is a school that we had worked with on some other things, and we gave that assignment to the students. And we said, "Isabel Allende is going to read all your essays at the end. She's going to publish them in a book. She's going to sponsor the printing of this book in paperback form. It's going to be available in all the bookstores in the Bay Area and throughout the world, on Amazon and you name it." So these kids worked harder than they've ever worked on anything in their lives, because there was that outside audience, there was Isabel Allende on the other end. I think we had about 170 tutors that worked on this book with them and so this worked out incredibly well. We had a big party at the end. This is a book that you can find anywhere. So that led to a series of these. You can see Amy Tan sponsored the next one, "I Might Get Somewhere." And this became an ongoing thing. More and more books.
Nu er vi næsten afhængige af den her bog-ting. Børnene arbejder hårdere, end de nogensinde har gjort, hvis de ved, at det bliver til noget blivende, ved, at det ender på en hylde, ved, at ingen kan reducere, hvad de har tænkt og sagt, at vi har æret vores ord, æret deres tanker med hundreder af timer til fem udkast, seks udkast -- al den opmærksomhed, vi giver deres tanker. Og når de først opnår det niveau, når de først har skrevet på det niveau, så kan de ikke gå tilbage. Det er absolut omdannende. Så de bliver alle solgt i butikken. Det her er nær plankerne. Vi sælger alle de studerendes bøger. Hvor ville du ellers stille dem? Så vi sælger dem, og så begyndte noget underligt at ske i butikkerne. Butikken begyndte -- selvom vi startede den som en spøg -- butikken begyndte faktisk at tjene penge. Så den betalte huslejen. Og måske er det her bare en San Francisco ting -- Jeg ved det ikke, jeg vil ikke dømme. Men folk kom ind -- og det her var før alle piratfilmene og alting! Den tjente masser a penge. Ikke masser, men det betalte huslejen, betalte en fuldtidsmedarbejder. Det er søkortene, I kan se til venstre.
Now we're sort of addicted to the book thing. The kids will work harder than they've ever worked in their life if they know it's going to be permanent, know it's going to be on a shelf, know that nobody can diminish what they've thought and said, that we've honored their words, honored their thoughts with hundreds of hours of five drafts, six drafts -- all this attention that we give to their thoughts. And once they achieve that level, once they've written at that level, they can never go back. It's absolutely transformative. And so then they're all sold in the store. This is near the planks. We sell all the student books. Where else would you put them, right? So we sell 'em, and then something weird had been happening with the stores. The store, actually -- even though we started out as just a gag -- the store actually made money. So it was paying the rent. And maybe this is just a San Francisco thing -- I don't know, I don't want to judge. But people would come in -- and this was before the pirate movies and everything! It was making a lot of money. Not a lot of money, but it was paying the rent, paying a full-time staff member there. There's the ocean maps you can see on the left.
Og den blev en port for samfundet, Folk kom ind og sagde, "Hvad fa... --? Hvad er det her?" Jeg vil ikke bande på internettet. Er det en regel? Jeg ved det ikke. De sagde, "Hvad er det her?" Og folk kom ind og lærte mere om det. Og lige bagved -- der er som regel en lille kæde dér -- lige bagved kunne de se børnene blive undervist. Det her er en udflugt. Så shoppede de, og var måske mere tilbøjelige til at købe noget spæk, eller noget hirse til deres papegøje, eller, I ved, en krog, eller krog-beskytter til når man sover, alle ting vi sælger. Så butikken klarede sig faktisk rigtig godt. Men den bragte så mange mennesker ind: Lærere, gavegivere, frivillige, alle. Fordi den var på gadeniveau. Den var åben for offentligheden. Den var ikke en non-profit, I ved, skjult på 30. sal af en bygning i midtbyen. Den var midt i det kvarter, som den tjente, og den var altid åben for offentligheden. Så, det endte som et underligt, lykkeligt sammentræf.
And it became a gateway to the community. People would come in and say, "What the --? What is this?" I don't want to swear on the web. (Laughter) Is that a rule? I don't know. They would say, "What is this?" And people would come in and learn more about it. And then right beyond -- there's usually a little chain there -- right beyond, they would see the kids being tutored. This is a field trip going on. And so they would be shopping, and they might be more likely to buy some lard, or millet for their parrot, or, you know, a hook, or hook protector for nighttime, all of these things we sell. So the store actually did really well. But it brought in so many people -- teachers, donors, volunteers, everybody -- because it was street level. It was open to the public. It wasn't a non-profit buried, you know, on the 30th floor of some building downtown. It was right in the neighborhood that it was serving, and it was open all the time to the public. So, it became this sort of weird, happy accident.
Så alle de her folk jeg kendte i Brooklyn, de sagde, "Hvorfor har vi ikke sådan et sted her?" Og mange af dem havde været undervisere eller på vej til at blive det, så de mødtes med en masse lokale designere, lokale skribenter, og de tog ideen uafhængigt og gjorde det på deres egen måde. De ville ikke sælge piratforsyninger; de mente ikke, det ville fungere der. Så, bekendte med New Yorks forbrydelsesbekæmpende samfund åbnede de Brooklyn Superhelteforsyningsfirmaet. Her er Sam Pott's fantastiske design, som blev brugt. Og det her var for at få det til at ligne en af de nøglesmede, som reklamerer med enhver service de nogensinde har tilbudt, I ved, over det hele. Så de åbnede det her sted. Indeni er det som en Bilka for superhelte -- alle forsyninger i deres grundlæggende form. Disse er alle håndlavede. Disse er alle omskabte produkter, på en eller anden måde. Al indpakning er lavet af Sam Potts.
So all the people I used to know in Brooklyn, they said, "Well, why don't we have a place like that here?" And a lot of them had been former educators or would-be educators, so they combined with a lot of local designers, local writers, and they just took the idea independently and they did their own thing. They didn't want to sell pirate supplies. They didn't think that that was going to work there. So, knowing the crime-fighting community in New York, they opened the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company. This is Sam Potts' great design that did this. And this was to make it look sort of like one of those keysmith's shops that has to have every service they've ever offered, you know, all over there. So they opened this place. Inside, it's like a Costco for superheroes -- all the supplies in kind of basic form. These are all handmade. These are all sort of repurposed other products, or whatever. All the packaging is done by Sam Potts.
Her er så forbryder-tilbageholdelsesenheden, hvor børnene afleverer deres forældre. Her er kontoret. Her er et lille boksrum -- man lægger det, man vil købe derind, og det kører op i en lift og så siger fyren bag disken, at du skal recitere helteløftet, hvilket man skal, hvis man vil købe noget. Det begrænser virkelig deres salg. Personligt synes jeg, det er et problem. Fordi de skal gøre det med hånden på hjertet og det hele. Her er nogle af de andre produkter. De her er alle håndlavede. Her er et sæt til hemmelige identiteter. Hvis du vil påtage dig Sharon Boones identitet, en amerikansk, kvindelig markedsføringschef fra Hoboken, New Jersey. Der er et fuldt generalieblad med alt, hvad du har behov for at vide om Sharon Boone. Her er kapperiet, hvor du får tilpasset din kappe, og så går du op ad disse tre trappetrin af stål, og så tænder vi tre hydrauliske blæsere rundt om, så du kan se kappen i brug. Der er intet værre end, du ved, at gå derop og se kappen kludre sammen eller sådan noget. Så er der den hemmelige dør -- det her er en af hylderne, som du ikke bemærker, når du går ind, men den åbner langsomt. I kan se den dér i midten, ved siden af alle gribekrogene. Den åbner, og her bagved er tutor-centeret. Så her ser I den fulde effekt!
So then you have the villain containment unit, where kids put their parents. You have the office. This is a little vault -- you have to put your product in there, it goes up an electric lift and then the guy behind the counter tells you that you have to recite the vow of heroism, which you do, if you want to buy anything. And it limits, really, their sales. Personally, I think it's a problem. Because they have to do it hand on heart and everything. These are some of the products. These are all handmade. This is a secret identity kit. If you want to take on the identity of Sharon Boone, one American female marketing executive from Hoboken, New Jersey. It's a full dossier on everything you would need to know about Sharon Boone. So, this is the capery where you get fitted for your cape, and then you walk up these three steel-graded steps and then we turn on three hydraulic fans from every side and then you can see the cape in action. There's nothing worse than, you know, getting up there and the cape is bunching up or something like that. So then, the secret door -- this is one of the shelves you don't see when you walk in, but it slowly opens. You can see it there in the middle next to all the grappling hooks. It opens and then this is the tutoring center in the back. (Applause) So you can see the full effect!
Men det her er -- vil jeg lige understrege -- lokalt finanseret, lokalt bygget. alle designene, alle håndværkerne, alle var lokale, al tiden var pro bono. Jeg besøgte dem og sagde, "Ja, I klarer det glimrende," eller sådan noget. Det var det. I kan se klokken i alle fem bydele af New York bagved. Så her er lokalet i undervisningstiden. Der er meget travlt. Samme principper: en-til-en undervisning, komplet fokus på elevernes arbejde og ubegrænset optimisme og et potentiale for kreativitet og ideer. Og den her kontakt tændes i deres hoveder, når de går igennem de 6 meter af den besynderlige butik, ikke? Så det er skole, men det er ikke skole. Det er helt klart ikke skole, selvom de arbejder skulder ved skulder på borde med blyanter og papir osv.
But this is -- I just want to emphasize -- locally funded, locally built. All the designers, all of the builders, everybody was local, all the time was pro-bono. I just came and visited and said, "Yes, you guys are doing great," or whatever. That was it. You can see the time in all five boroughs of New York in the back. (Laughter) (Applause) So this is the space during tutoring hours. It's very busy. Same principles: one-on-one attention, complete devotion to the students' work and a boundless optimism and sort of a possibility of creativity and ideas. And this switch is flicked in their heads when they walk through those 18 feet of this bizarre store, right? So it's school, but it's not school. It's clearly not school, even though they're working shoulder-to-shoulder on tables, pencils and papers, whatever.
Her er en af eleverne, Khaled Hamdan. I kan læse dette citat. Afhængig af videospil og TV. Kunne ikke koncentrere sig hjemme. Kom ind. Fik denne koncentrerede opmærksomhed. Og han kunne ikke slippe væk. Så snart nok skrev han. Han færdiggjorde sine lektier tidligt -- blev helt afhængig af at blive tidligt færdig med lektierne. Det er en vanedannende ting at blive færdig med det, og få det gennemgået og vide, at han vil opnå det næste skridt og være forberedt på skole næste dag. Så han blev afhængig af det, og så begyndte han på andre ting. Nu er han udgivet i fem bøger. Han var medforfatter af en ironisk dokumentar om forfejlede superhelte kaldet "Super-Afdankede". Han skrev en serie om "Pingvin Balboa", som er en slåssende -- en boksende -- pingvin. Og så læste han højt for bare et par uger siden for 500 mennesker ved Symphony Space, ved en velgørende begivenhed for 826 New York. Så han er der hver dag. Han er evangelisk omkring det. Han tager kusiner og fætre med nu. Der er fire familiemedlemmer, som kommer hver dag.
This is one of the students, Khaled Hamdan. You can read this quote. Addicted to video games and TV. Couldn't concentrate at home. Came in. Got this concentrated attention. And he couldn't escape it. So, soon enough, he was writing. He would finish his homework early -- got really addicted to finishing his homework early. It's an addictive thing to sort of be done with it, and to have it checked, and to know he's going to achieve the next thing and be prepared for school the next day. So he got hooked on that, and then he started doing other things. He's now been published in five books. He co-wrote a mockumentary about failed superheroes called "Super-Has-Beens." He wrote a series on "Penguin Balboa," which is a fighting -- a boxing -- penguin. And then he read aloud just a few weeks ago to 500 people at Symphony Space, at a benefit for 826 New York. So he's there every day. He's evangelical about it. He brings his cousins in now. There's four family members that come in every day.
Så, jeg gennemgår lige hurtigt. Her er L.A., Echo Park Tidsrejsemarkedet: "Hvornår end du er, er vi der engang". Det er en slags døgnkiosk for tidsrejsende. Som I ser, er alting præcis som en 7-11 døgnkiosk. Igler. Mamutlunser. De har endda deres egen slush-ice maskine: "Virker ikke. Kom tilbage igår."
So, I'll go through really quickly. This is L.A., The Echo Park Time Travel Mart: "Whenever You Are, We're Already Then." (Laughter) This is sort of a 7-Eleven for time travelers. So you see everything: it's exactly as a 7-Eleven would be. Leeches. Mammoth chunks. They even have their own Slurpee machine: "Out of Order. Come Back Yesterday." (Laughter) (Applause)
I alt fald. Jeg vil springe fremad. Dette er lokaler, der er forbundet med os, som gør det samme: Word St. i Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Ink Spot i Cincinatti. Youth Speaks, San Francisco, California, hvilket inspirerede os. Studio St. Louis i St. Louis. Austin Bat Cave flagermusehulen i Austin. Fighting Words i Dublin, Irland, startet af Roddy Doyle; den åbner til April. Nu går jeg videre til TED ønsket -- er det ok?
Anyway. So I'm going to jump ahead. These are spaces that are only affiliated with us, doing this same thing: Word St. in Pittsfield, Massachusetts; Ink Spot in Cincinnati; Youth Speaks, San Francisco, California, which inspired us; Studio St. Louis in St. Louis; Austin Bat Cave in Austin; Fighting Words in Dublin, Ireland, started by Roddy Doyle, this will be open in April. Now I'm going to the TED Wish -- is that okay?
OK; jeg har et minut. Så, TED ønsket: Jeg ønsker at du -- du personligt og ethvert kreativt individ og organisation du kender -- vil finde en måde at engagere sig direkte i folkeskolen i dit område, og at du vil fortælle historien om, hvordan du blev involveret, sådan, at vi om et år har tusinde eksempler -- et tusinde! -- af omdannende samarbejder. Markante spring fremad! Og dette kan være ting som du allerede gør. Jeg kender så mange folk i dette lokale, som allerede gør spændende ting. Det ved jeg. Så fortæl os disse historier og inspirer andre på hjemmesiden.
All right, I've got a minute. So, the TED Wish: I wish that you -- you personally and every creative individual and organization you know -- will find a way to directly engage with a public school in your area and that you'll then tell the story of how you got involved, so that within a year we have a thousand examples -- a thousand! -- of transformative partnerships. Profound leaps forward! And these can be things that maybe you're already doing. I know that so many people in this room are already doing really interesting things. I know that for a fact. So, tell us these stories and inspire others on the website.
Vi lavede en hjemmeside, Jeg vil skifte til "vi" i stedet for "jeg" håber: Vi håber at deltagerne af denne konference vil indvarsle en ny æra af medvirken i vores folkeskoler. Vi håber, at I vil føre an og sammenføre jeres innovative ånd og ekspertise med den fra innovative undervisere i jeres samfund. Lad altid lærerne vise vejen. De fortæller dig, hvordan du kan være bevendt. Jeg håber, du vil gå ud og hjælpe. Der er en million måder. Du kan gå ind på din lokale skole og snakke med lærerne. De kan altid fortælle dig, hvordan du kan hjælpe. Så -- dette er med Hot Studio i San Francisco, De gjorde et fænomenalt stykke arbejde. Denne hjemmeside har allerede en masse historier, en masse ideer. Den hedder "Der var engang en Skole", hvilket jeg synes er en fantastisk titel. Hjemmesiden vil dokumentere alle de historier og projekter, der kommer ud af denne konference og rundt om verden. Så gå til hjemmesiden; se en masse ideer. Du kan blive inspireret af dem, og tilføje dine egne projekter, som du har startet. Hot Studio gjorde et fantastisk arbejde med en meget stram deadline, så besøg siden. Har I spørgsmål, kan i spørge denne fyr, som er vores leder af nationale programmer. Han vil være på telefonen. E-mail ham, han vil besvare ethvert af dine spørgsmål. Og han vil inspirere dig og få dig sat i gang, og lede dig gennem processen, så du kan skabe forandring.
We created a website. I'm going to switch to "we," and not "I," hope: We hope that the attendees of this conference will usher in a new era of participation in our public schools. We hope that you will take the lead in partnering your innovative spirit and expertise with that of innovative educators in your community. Always let the teachers lead the way. They will tell you how to be useful. I hope that you'll step in and help out. There are a million ways. You can walk up to your local school and consult with the teachers. They'll always tell you how to help. So, this is with Hot Studio in San Francisco, they did this phenomenal job. This website is already up, it's already got a bunch of stories, a lot of ideas. It's called "Once Upon a School," which is a great title, I think. This site will document every story, every project that comes out of this conference and around the world. So you go to the website, you see a bunch of ideas you can be inspired by and then you add your own projects once you get started. Hot Studio did a great job in a very tight deadline. So, visit the site. If you have any questions, you can ask this guy, who's our director of national programs. He'll be on the phone. You email him, he'll answer any question you possibly want. And he'll get you inspired and get you going and guide you through the process so that you can affect change.
Og det kan være sjovt! Det er pointen med denne tale -- det behøver ikke være sterilt. Behøver ikke være bureaukratisk uholdbart. Du kan gøre brug af de færdigheder, du har. Skolerne har brug for dig. Lærerne har brug for dig. Elever og forældre har brug for dig. De har brug for din person: din fysiske individualitet og dit åbne sind og åbne ører og grænseløse medfølelse, at du sidder ved siden af dem, lytter og nikker, og stiller spørgsmål i timevis. Nogle af disse børn ved simpelthen ikke hvor gode de er: hvor kloge, og hvor meget de har at sige. Du kan fortælle dem det. Du kan skinne det lys på dem, én menneskelig interaktion ad gangen. Så vi håber, du vil slutte dig til os. Tusinde tak.
And it can be fun! That's the point of this talk -- it needn't be sterile. It needn't be bureaucratically untenable. You can do and use the skills that you have. The schools need you. The teachers need you. Students and parents need you. They need your actual person: your physical personhood and your open minds and open ears and boundless compassion, sitting next to them, listening and nodding and asking questions for hours at a time. Some of these kids just don't plain know how good they are: how smart and how much they have to say. You can tell them. You can shine that light on them, one human interaction at a time. So we hope you'll join us. Thank you so much.