Jeg er meget heldig at være her. Jeg føler mig så heldig. Jeg er blevet så imponeret over den venlighed der er blevet vist mig. Jeg ringede til min kone, Leslie, og sagde "Ved du hvad, der er så mange gode mennesker der prøver at gøre så meget godt. Det føles som om jeg har landet i en koloni af engle." Det er en ægte følelse. Men lad mig komme til talen -- jeg kan se at tiden går.
I'm very fortunate to be here. I feel so fortunate. I've been so impressed by the kindness expressed to me. I called my wife Leslie, and I said, "You know, there's so many good people trying to do so much good. It feels like I've landed in a colony of angels." It's a true feeling. But let me get to the talk -- I see the clock is running.
Jeg er en offentlig skolelærer, og jeg vil gerne lige dele en historie om min overlærer.™ Hun hedder Pam Moran i Albemarle kommune, Virginia, ved foden af Blue Ridge bjergene. Og hun er en meget høj-teknologisk overlærer. Hun bruger digitale tavler, hun blogger, hun Twitrer, hun bruger Facebook, hun gør alle de her slags høj-teknologiske sager. Hun er en teknologi-leder og instruktions-leder. Men på hendes kontor står der det her gamle, vejrslidte bord, køkkenbord -- den grønne maling skaller, det er lidt ustabilt. Og jeg sagde til hende "Pam, du er en så moderne, nymodens person. Hvorfor er det her gamle bord på dit kontor?
I'm a public school teacher, and I just want to share a story of my superintendent. Her name is Pam Moran in Albemarle County, Virginia, the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. And she's a very high-tech superintendent. She uses smart boards, she blogs, she Tweets, she does Facebook, she does all this sort of high-tech stuff. She's a technology leader and instructional leader. But in her office, there's this old wooden, weather-worn table, kitchen table -- peeling green paint, it's kind of rickety. And I said, "Pam, you're such a modern, cutting-edge person. Why is this old table in your office?"
Og hun fortalte mig, hun sagde "Ved du hvad, jeg voksede op i Sydvestlige Virginia, i kul-minerne og bondelandet i rurale Virginia, og det her bord var i min bedstefars køkken. Og vi kom ind fra at have leget, han kom hjem fra pløgen og arbejden, og vi sad rundt om det bord hver aften. Og mens jeg voksede op, hørte jeg så meget viden og så mange indsigter og så meget visdom der kom ud omkring det her bord, at jeg begyndte at kalde det visdoms-bordet. Og da han gik bort tog jeg det her bord med mig til mit kontor, og det minder mig om ham. Det minder mig om hvad der nogle gange foregår omkring et tomrum." Projektet jeg har tænkt mig at fortælle jer om hedder Verdensfreds-spillet, og egentlig er det bare et tomrom. Og jeg kan godt lide at tænke på det som et 21. århundredes visdoms-bord, egentlig.
And she told me, she said, "You know, I grew up in Southwestern Virginia, in the coal mines and the farmlands of rural Virginia, and this table was in my grandfather's kitchen. And we'd come in from playing, he'd come in from plowing and working, and we'd sit around that table every night. And as I grew up, I heard so much knowledge and so many insights and so much wisdom come out around this table, I began to call it the wisdom table. And when he passed on, I took this table with me and brought it to my office, and it reminds me of him. It reminds me of what goes on around an empty space sometimes." The project I'm going to tell you about is called the World Peace Game, and essentially it is also an empty space. And I'd like to think of it as a 21st century wisdom table, really.
Det hele startede tilbage i 1977. Jeg var en ung mand, og jeg havde været ind og ud af universitetet. Og mine forældre var meget tålmodige, men jeg havde gjort flere midlertidige rejser til Indien på en mystisk færd. Og jeg kan huske den sidste gang jeg kom tilbage fra Indien -- i mine lange, hvide, flagrene kåbe og mit store skæg og mine John Lennon briller, og jeg sagde til min far, "Far, jeg tror jeg er ved at finde spirituel oplyselse." Han sagde, "Vel der er en ting til du er nødt til at finde." Jeg sagde, "Hvad er det, far?" "Et arbejde." (Latter) Og så bad de mig om at få en grad i et eller andet. Så jeg fik en grad og det var tilfældigvis indenfor uddannelse. Det var et program for eksperimentel uddannelse. Det kunne have været tandpleje, men ordet "eksperimentel" var der, og så var jeg bare nødt til at gå efter det.
It all started back in 1977. I was a young man, and I had been dropping in and out of college. And my parents were very patient, but I had been doing intermittent sojourns to India on a mystical quest. And I remember the last time I came back from India -- in my long white flowing robes and my big beard and my John Lennon glasses -- and I said to my father, "Dad, I think I've just about found spiritual enlightenment." He said, "Well there's one more thing you need to find." I said, "What is that, dad?" "A job." (Laughter) And so they pleaded with me to get a degree in something. So I got a degree and it turned out to be education. It was an experimental education program. It could have been dentistry, but the word "experimental" was in it, and so that's what I had to go for.
Og jeg gik til et job interview hos Richmond Offentlige Skoler i Virginia, hovedstaden, købte et jakkesæt -- min indrømmelse af det konventionelle, beholdt mit lange skæg og afro-hår og mine platform-sko -- det var 70'-erne den gang -- og jeg gik ind, og satte mig og havde et interview. Og jeg antager at de havde en mangel på lærere, for overseersken, hendes navn var Anna Aro, sagde at jeg havde fået jobbet med at undervise begavede børn. Og jeg var så chokeret, så lamslået, at jeg rejste mig og sagde, "Tak, men hvad gør jeg?" (Latter) Undervisning af begavede var ikke særlig etableret endnu. Der var ikke særlig mange materialer eller ting jeg kunne bruge. Og jeg sagde, "Hvad gør jeg?" Og hendes svar chokerede mig. Det lamslog mig. Hendes svar blev skabelonen for hele den karriere jeg kom til at have siden. Hun sagde, "Hvad har du lyst til at gøre?" Og det spørgsmål rydede vejen. Der var intet direktiv, ingen manual at følge, ingen standarder indenfor uddannelse af begavede på den måde. Og hun rydede vejen på en sådan måde, at jeg fra da af gjorde mit bedste for at rydde vejen for mine studenter, et tomrum, hvorved de kunne skabe og lave mening ud af deres egen forståelse.
And I went in for a job interview in the Richmond Public Schools in Virginia, the capital city, bought a three-piece suit -- my concession to convention -- kept my long beard and my afro and my platform shoes -- at the time it was the '70s -- and I walked in, and I sat down and had an interview. And I guess they were hard up for teachers because the supervisor, her name was Anna Aro, said I had the job teaching gifted children. And I was so shocked, so stunned, I got up and said, "Well, thank you, but what do I do?" (Laughter) Gifted education hadn't really taken hold too much. There weren't really many materials or things to use. And I said, "What do I do?" And her answer shocked me. It stunned me. Her answer set the template for the entire career I was to have after that. She said, "What do you want to do?" And that question cleared the space. There was no program directive, no manual to follow, no standards in gifted education in that way. And she cleared such a space that I endeavored from then on to clear a space for my students, an empty space, whereby they could create and make meaning out of their own understanding.
Så dette skete i 1978, og jeg underviste mange år senere, og en ven af mig introducerede mig for en ung filmskaber. Hans navn er Chris Farina. Chris Farina har selv betalt for at kunne være her idag. Chris, kunne du rejse dig op og lade dem se dig -- en ung, visionær filmskaber som har lavet en film. (Bifald) Denne film hedder "Verdensfred og Andre 4.-klasse Opnåelser." Han foreslog filmen for mig -- det er en fantastisk titel. Han foreslog filmen for mig, og jeg sagde, "Joh, måske bliver den vist på lokal-TV, og vi kan sige hej til vore venner." Men filmen er virkelig nået langt. Den stadig i underskud, men Chris har klaret, gennem hans egen ofring, at få den her film ud. Så vi lavede en film og det viste sig at være mere end bare en historie om mig, mere end en historie om en lærer. Det er en historie som er en hyldest til undervisning og lærere. Og det er en smuk ting.
So this happened in 1978, and I was teaching many years later, and a friend of mine introduced me to a young filmmaker. His name is Chris Farina. Chris Farina is here today at his own cost. Chris, could you stand up and let them see you -- a young, visionary filmmaker who's made a film. (Applause) This film is called "World Peace and Other 4th Grade Achievements." He proposed the film to me -- it's a great title. He proposed the film to me, and I said, "Yeah, maybe it'll be on local TV, and we can say hi to our friends." But the film has really gone places. Now it's still in debt, but Chris has managed, through his own sacrifice, to get this film out. So we made a film and it turns out to be more than a story about me, more than a story about one teacher. It's a story that's a testament to teaching and teachers. And it's a beautiful thing.
Og det underlige er at da jeg så filmen -- havde jeg en underlig følelse af at se den -- Jeg så mig selv bogstavelig talt forsvinde. Hvad jeg så var mine lærere som kom gennem mig. Jeg så min geometri-lærer fra gymnaset, Mr. Rucell's skæve smil under hans overskæg. Det er det smil jeg bruger -- hans smil. Jeg så Jan Polos glimtende øjne. Og de glimtede ikke i vrede, de glimtede af kærlighed, intens kærlighed for hendes studenter. Og jeg har det glimt nogen gange. Og jeg så Frøken Ethel J. Banks som havde perler og højhælede sko på hver dag, i grundskolen. Og i ved, hun havde det der gammeldags lærer-blik. I kender det godt. (Latter) "Og jeg snakker ikke engang om jer bag mig, for jeg har øjne i nakken." (Latter) I ved godt den lærer, ikke? I brugte ikke det blik så ofte, men jeg har det i mit repertoir. Og Frøken Banks var der som en fantastisk mentor for mig.
And the strange thing is, when I watch the film -- I have the eerie sensation of seeing it -- I saw myself literally disappear. What I saw was my teachers coming through me. I saw my geometry teacher in high school, Mr. Rucell's wry smile under his handlebar mustache. That's the smile I use -- that's his smile. I saw Jan Polo's flashing eyes. And they weren't flashing in anger, they were flashing in love, intense love for her students. And I have that kind of flash sometimes. And I saw Miss Ethel J. Banks who wore pearls and high-heels to elementary school every day. And you know, she had that old-school teacher stare. You know the one. (Laughter) "And I'm not even talking about you behind me, because I've got eyes in the back of my head." (Laughter) You know that teacher? I didn't use that stare very often, but I do have it in my repertoire. And Miss Banks was there as a great mentor for me.
Og så så jeg mine egne forældre, mine første lærere. Min far, meget opfindsom, rumlig tænker. Det er min bror Malcom der til højre. Og min mor, som underviste mig i 4. klasse i rase-delte skoler i Virginia, som var min inspiration. Og virkelig, jeg føler det som om, når jeg ser filmen -- Jeg har en bevægelse hun gør, sådan her -- jeg føler det som om jeg er en fortsættelse af hendes gestus. Jeg er en af hendes undervisende gestuser. Og det smukke var at jeg fik muligheden til at undervise min datter i grundskolen, Madeline. Og så fortsætter min mors gestus gennem mange generationer. Det er en fantastisk følelse at have den afstamning. Og derfor er jeg her, stående på skuldrene til mange mennesker. Jeg er her ikke alene. Der er mange mennesker her på scenen lige nu.
And then I saw my own parents, my first teachers. My father, very inventive, spatial thinker. That's my brother Malcolm there on the right. And my mother, who taught me in fourth grade in segregated schools in Virginia, who was my inspiration. And really, I feel as though, when I see the film -- I have a gesture she does, like this -- I feel like I am a continuation of her gesture. I am one of her teaching gestures. And the beautiful thing was, I got to teach my daughter in elementary school, Madeline. And so that gesture of my mother's continues through many generations. It's an amazing feeling to have that lineage. And so I'm here standing on the shoulders of many people. I'm not here alone. There are many people on this stage right now.
Og så var der det Verdensfreds-spil jeg gerne vil fortælle jer om. Det startede sådan her: det er bare et 1.2m gange 1.5m krydsfiner-brædt i en urban centrum-skole, 1978. Jeg lavede en lektion for studenter om Afrika. Vi puttede alle verdens problemer der, og jeg tænkte, lad os få dem til at løse det. Jeg ville ikke prædike, eller bare have bog-læsning. Jeg ville have dem engageret og lære følelsen af at lære gennem deres egne kroppe. Så jeg tænkte, vel de kan lide at spille spil. Jeg laver noget -- jeg sagde ikke interaktivt. Vi havde ikke det udtryk i 1978 -- men noget interaktivt. Og så lavede vi spillet, og det har siden udviklet sig til en 1.2m gange 1.2m gange 1.2m plexiglas-struktur. Og det har fire plexiglas lag.
And so this World Peace Game I'd like to tell you about. It started out like this: it's just a four-foot by five-foot plywood board in an inner-city urban school, 1978. I was creating a lesson for students on Africa. We put all the problems of the world there, and I thought, let's let them solve it. I didn't want to lecture or have just book reading. I wanted to have them be immersed and learn the feeling of learning through their bodies. So I thought, well they like to play games. I'll make something -- I didn't say interactive; we didn't have that term in 1978 -- but something interactive. And so we made the game, and it has since evolved to a four-foot by four-foot by four-foot Plexiglass structure. And it has four Plexiglass layers.
Der er et 'ydre rum' lag med sorte huller og sattelitter og forsknings-sattelitter og asteroide-minedrift. Der er et luft- og rum-niveau med skyer lavet af store klumper med bomuld vi skubber rundt og territoriale luftrum og luftvåben, et jord- og hav-niveau med tusindvis af spillebrikker på -- endda et undervands-niveau med ubåde og undervands-minedrift. Der er fire lande rundt om brættet Børnene finder på landenes navne -- nogen er rige, nogen er fattige. De har forskellige værdier, kommercielle og militære. Og hvert land har et kabinet. Der er en statsminister, stats-sekretær, forsvarsminister og en økonomidirektør, eller kontrollør. Jeg vælger statsministeren baseret på mit forhold med dem. Jeg tilbyder dem jobbet, de kan afslå det, og så vælger de selv deres eget kabinet. Der er en Verdensbank, våbenhandlere, og et Forenede Nationer. Der er også en vejr-gudinde som kontrollerer et tilfældigt aktiemarked og tilfældigt vejr.
There's an outer space layer with black holes and satellites and research satellites and asteroid mining. There's an air and space level with clouds that are big puffs of cotton we push around and territorial air spaces and air forces, a ground and sea level with thousands of game pieces on it -- even an undersea level with submarines and undersea mining. There are four countries around the board. The kids make up the names of the countries -- some are rich; some are poor. They have different assets, commercial and military. And each country has a cabinet. There's a Prime Minister, Secretary of State, Minister of Defense and a CFO, or Comptroller. I choose the Prime Minister based on my relationship with them. I offer them the job, they can turn it down, and then they choose their own cabinet. There's a World Bank, arms dealers and a United Nations. There's also a weather goddess who controls a random stock market and random weather.
(Latter)
(Laughter)
Det er ikke det hele. Og så er der et 13 siders krisedokument med 50 sammenhængende problemer. På en sådan måde at hvis en ting ændres, ændres alt andet. Jeg kaster dem ind i denne komplekse matrix, og de stoler på mig fordi vi har et dybt, rigt forhold til hinanden. Og så, med alle disse kriser, har vi -- lad os se -- etniske og minoritets-spændinger; vi har kemiske og radioaktive udslip, spredning af atomvåben. Der er olie-udslip, økologiske katastrofer, tvister om vand-rettigheder, løsrivelse af republikker, hungersnød, truede dyrearter og global opvarmning. Hvis Al Gore er her, jeg kommer til at sende mine 4.-klasse elever fra Agnor-Hurt og Venerable skoler til dig for de har løst global opvarmning på en uge. (Latter) (Bifald) Og de har gjort det flere gange endda.
That's not all. And then there's a 13-page crisis document with 50 interlocking problems. So that, if one thing changes, everything else changes. I throw them into this complex matrix, and they trust me because we have a deep, rich relationship together. And so with all these crises, we have -- let's see -- ethnic and minority tensions; we have chemical and nuclear spills, nuclear proliferation. There's oil spills, environmental disasters, water rights disputes, breakaway republics, famine, endangered species and global warming. If Al Gore is here, I'm going to send my fourth-graders from Agnor-Hurt and Venable schools to you because they solved global warming in a week. (Laughter) (Applause) And they've done it several times too.
(Latter)
(Laughter)
Så i spillet har jeg også en sabotør -- et barn -- det er egentlig en ballademager -- og jeg bruger min ballademager fordi de, til syneladende, prøver på at redde verden og deres position i spillet. Men de prøver også på at underminere alt i spillet. Og de gør det i det skjulte gennem fejlinformering og uklarheder og irrelevante ting, prøver på at få alle til at tænke lidt dypere. Sabotøren er der, og vi læser også fra Sun Tsu's "Krigens Kunst." 4.-klasse elever forstår det -- 9 år gamle -- og de håndterer det og bruger det for at forstå hvordan ikke følge -- først følger de -- vejene til magt og destruktion, vejen mod krig. De lærer at overse kortsiktige reaktioner og impulsiv tænkning, at tænke på en langsigtet, mere bevist måde.
So I also have in the game a saboteur -- some child -- it's basically a troublemaker -- and I have my troublemaker put to use because they, on the surface, are trying to save the world and their position in the game. But they're also trying to undermine everything in the game. And they do it secretly through misinformation and ambiguities and irrelevancies, trying to cause everyone to think more deeply. The saboteur is there, and we also read from Sun Tzu's "The Art of War." Fourth-graders understand it -- nine years old -- and they handle that and use that to understand how to, not follow -- at first they do -- the paths to power and destruction, the path to war. They learn to overlook short-sighted reactions and impulsive thinking, to think in a long-term, more consequential way.
Stewart Brand er her, og en af idéerne til dette spil kom fra ham gennem en Coevolution Quarterly artikel om en fredsstyrke. Og i spillet former studenterne faktisk nogen gange en fredsstyrke. Jeg er bare en tidtager. Jeg er bare en forklarer. Jeg er bare en koordinator. Eleverne styrer spillet. Jeg har ingen chance til at lave nogen form for politik så snart de begynder at spille. Så jeg vil bare dele med jer ...
Stewart Brand is here, and one of the ideas for this game came from him with a CoEvolution Quarterly article on a peace force. And in the game, sometimes students actually form a peace force. I'm just a clock watcher. I'm just a clarifier. I'm just a facilitator. The students run the game. I have no chance to make any policy whatsoever once they start playing. So I'll just share with you ...
(Video) Dreng: Verdensfreds-spillet er seriøst. Du bliver faktisk lært noget, som hvordan man passer på verden. Se, Hr. Hunter gør det fordi han siger at hans generation gjorde en masse fejl, og han prøver at fortælle os hvordan fikse det problem.
(Video) Boy: The World Peace Game is serious. You're actually getting taught something like how to take care of the world. See, Mr. Hunter is doing that because he says his time has messed up a lot, and he's trying to tell us how to fix that problem.
John Hunter: Jeg tilbød dem en -- (Bifald) Faktisk kan jeg ikke fortælle dem noget som helst, for jeg har ikke svaret. Og jeg indrømmer sandheden til dem direkte: Jeg ved det ikke. Og fordi jeg ikke ved det, er de nødt til at finde svaret. Og så undskylder jeg også til dem. Jeg siger, "Jeg beklager drenge og piger, men sandheden er at vi har overladt verden til jer i så dårlig og forfærdelig en tilstand, og vi håber i kan fikse den for os, og måske kan dette spil hjælpe jer med at lære hvordan det skal gøres." Det er en oprigtig undskyldning, og de tager det meget seriøst.
John Hunter: I offered them a -- (Applause) Actually, I can't tell them anything because I don't know the answer. And I admit the truth to them right up front: I don't know. And because I don't know, they've got to dig up the answer. And so I apologize to them as well. I say, "I'm so sorry, boys and girls, but the truth is we have left this world to you in such a sad and terrible shape, and we hope you can fix it for us, and maybe this game will help you learn how to do it." It's a sincere apology, and they take it very seriously.
Nu kan det godt være at i undres over hvordan denne kompleksitet ser ud. Vel, når vi starter spillet ser det sådan her ud.
Now you may be wondering what all this complexity looks like. Well when we have the game start, here's what you see.
(Video) JH: Okay, fra nu af går vi ind i forhandlinger. Igang. (Snakken)
(Video) JH: All right, we're going into negotiations as of now. Go. (Chatter)
JH: Mit spørsmål til jer er, hvem styrer det klasseværelse? Det er et seriøst spørsmål: Hvem er den egentlige leder? Jeg har lært at lade kontrollen over klasseværelset gå til studenterne over tid. Det er en tillid og en forståelse og en dedikation til et ideal at jeg simpelthen ikke er nødt til at gøre hvad jeg troede jeg var nødt til som en begyndende lærer: kontrollere hver samtale og svar i klasseværelset. Det er umuligt. Deres samlede visdom er meget større end min, og jeg indrømmer det åbent overfor dem. Så jeg vil bare lige hurtigt dele nogen historier med jer om nogen magiske ting der har sket.
JH: My question to you is, who's in charge of that classroom? It's a serious question: who is really in charge? I've learned to cede control of the classroom over to the students over time. There's a trust and an understanding and a dedication to an ideal that I simply don't have to do what I thought I had to do as a beginning teacher: control every conversation and response in the classroom. It's impossible. Their collective wisdom is much greater than mine, and I admit it to them openly. So I'll just share with you some stories very quickly of some magical things that have happened.
I det her spil havde vi en lille pige, og hun var forsvarsministeren til den fattigste nation. Og forsvarsministeren -- hun havde kampvogn-korpsene og luftvåbnet og så videre. Og hun var lige ved siden af en meget velstående, olie-rig nabo. Uden provokation, angreb hun pludselig, imod hendes egen statsministers ordre, naboens oliefelter. Hun marcherede ind i oliefelternes reserver, omringede det, uden at affyre et skud, og sikrede og holdt det. Og den nabo var ude af stand til at udføre nogen militære operationer fordi deres brændstof-forsyning var helt låst.
In this game we had a little girl, and she was the Defense Minister of the poorest nation. And the Defense Minister -- she had the tank corps and Air Force and so forth. And she was next door to a very wealthy, oil-rich neighbor. Without provocation, suddenly she attacked, against her Prime Minister's orders, the next-door neighbor's oil fields. She marched into the oil field reserves, surrounded it, without firing a shot, and secured it and held it. And that neighbor was unable to conduct any military operations because their fuel supply was locked up.
Vi var alle meget kede over hende, "Hvorfor gør du det her? Dette er Verdensfreds-spillet. Hvad er der galt med dig?" (Latter) Dette var en lille pige, og ni år gammel, holdt hun sine brikker og sagde, "Jeg ved hvad jeg laver." Hun sagde det her til hendes veninder. Det er et brud lige der. Og vi lærte fra dette at du har egentlig aldrig har lyst til at modsætte dig en 9-åring med kampvogne. (Latter) De er de stærkeste modstandere. Og vi var meget kede af det. Jeg troede jeg fejlede som lærer. Hvorfor ville hun gøre dette?
We were all upset with her, "Why are you doing this? This is the World Peace Game. What is wrong with you?" (Laughter) This was a little girl and, at nine years old, she held her pieces and said, "I know what I'm doing." To her girlfriends she said that. That's a breach there. And we learned in this, you don't really ever want to cross a nine year-old girl with tanks. (Laughter) They are the toughest opponents. And we were very upset. I thought I was failing as a teacher. Why would she do this?
Men jeg fandt ud af, et par spil-dage senere -- og der er ture hvor vi tager forhandlinger fra et hold -- faktisk er der en forhandlingsperiode med alle holdene, og hvert hold får en runde, og så går vi tilbage til forhandling, rundt og rundt, så hver runde er en spil-dag. Så et par spil-dage senere kommer det frem at vi fandt ud af at dette store land planlagde en militær offensiv for at dominere hele verden. Havde de haft deres brændstof-forsyninger, ville de have klaret det. Hun kunne se vektorerne, tendenserne, og intentionerne længe før nogen af os og forstod hvad der kom til at ske og lavede en filosofisk beslutning at angribe i et freds-spil.
But come to find out, a few game days later -- and there are turns where we take negotiation from a team -- actually there's a negotiation period with all teams, and each team takes a turn, then we go back in negotiation, around and around, so each turn around is one game day. So a few game days later it came to light that we found out this major country was planning a military offensive to dominate the entire world. Had they had their fuel supplies, they would have done it. She was able to see the vectors and trend lines and intentions long before any of us and understand what was going to happen and made a philosophical decision to attack in a peace game.
Nu brugte hun en lille krig for at forhindre en større krig, så vi stoppede og havde en meget god filosofisk diskussion om hvorvidt det var rigtigt, begrænset godt, eller forkert. Det er den slags tænkning vi sætter dem i, den slags situationer. Jeg kunne ikke have designet det i undervisningen. Det opstod spontant gennem deres fælles visdom.
Now she used a small war to avert a larger war, so we stopped and had a very good philosophical discussion about whether that was right, conditional good, or not right. That's the kind of thinking that we put them in, the situations. I could not have designed that in teaching it. It came about spontaneously through their collective wisdom.
(Bifald)
(Applause)
Endnu et eksempel, en skøn ting skete. Vi har et brev i spillet. Hvis du er en militær kommandant og du fører dine tropper -- de små plastik brikker på brætet -- og du mister dem, lægger jeg ind et brev. Du er nødt til at skrive et brev til deres forældre -- de fiktive forældre til dine fiktive tropper -- og forklare hvad der skedte, og kondolere. Så du har lidt mere omtanke før du går i strid. Og så opstod situationen -- sidste sommer faktisk, ved Agnor-Hurt skole i Albemarle kommune -- og en af vore militære kommandanter rejste sig for at læse brevet og en af de andre børn sagde, "Hr. Hunter, lad os spørge -- der er en forælder derovre." Der var en forælder på besøg den dag, som bare sad bagerst i værelset. "Lad os bede den mor om at læse brevet. Det bliver mere realistisk hvis hun læser det." Så det gjorde vi, vi bad hende, og hun var med og samlede brevet op. "Klart." Hun begyndte at læse. Hun læste en sætning. Hun læste to sætninger. Da hun nåede til tredje sætning, tudede hun. Jeg tudede. Alle sammen forstod at når vi mister nogen, hoverer vinderne sig ikke. Vi har alle sammen tabt. Og det var en utrolig hændelse og en utrolig forståelse.
Another example, a beautiful thing happened. We have a letter in the game. If you're a military commander and you wage troops -- the little plastic toys on the board -- and you lose them, I put in a letter. You have to write a letter to their parents -- the fictional parents of your fictional troops -- explaining what happened and offering your condolences. So you have a little bit more thought before you commit to combat. And so we had this situation come up -- last summer actually, at Agnor-Hurt School in Albemarle County -- and one of our military commanders got up to read that letter and one of the other kids said, "Mr. Hunter, let's ask -- there's a parent over there." There was a parent visiting that day, just sitting in the back of the room. "Let's ask that mom to read the letter. It'll be more realer if she reads it." So we did, we asked her, and she gamely picked up the letter. "Sure." She started reading. She read one sentence. She read two sentences. By the third sentence, she was in tears. I was in tears. Everybody understood that when we lose somebody, the winners are not gloating. We all lose. And it was an amazing occurrence and an amazing understanding.
Jeg vil vise jer hvad min ven David siger om dette. Han har været i mange slag.
I'll show you what my friend David says about this. He's been in many battles.
(Video) David: Vi har fået nok af at folk angriber. Jeg mener, vi har været heldige [det meste] af tiden. Men nu føler jeg mig underligt til mode, fordi jeg lever hvad Sun Tsu sagde en uge. En uge sagde han, "De som går i strid og vinder vil have lyst til at vende tilbage, og dem som taber i strid vil have lyst til at vende tilbage for at vinde." Og derfor har jeg vundet slag, så jeg fører slag, flere slag. Og jeg syntes det er lidt underligt at leve hvad Sun Tsu sagde.
(Video) David: We've really had enough of people attacking. I mean, we've been lucky [most of] the time. But now I'm feeling really weird because I'm living what Sun Tzu said one week. One week he said, "Those who go into battle and win will want to go back, and those who lose in battle will want to go back and win." And so I've been winning battles, so I'm going into battles, more battles. And I think it's sort of weird to be living what Sun Tzu said.
JH: Jeg får gåsehud hver gang jeg ser det der. Det er den slags engagement du har lyst til at skal ske. Og jeg kan ikke designe det der, kan ikke planlægge det, og jeg kan ikke engang teste det. Men det er selvindlysende vurdering. Vi ved at det er en ægte vurdering af læring. Vi har masser af data, men jeg tror nogen gange vi går udover dataene med den ægte sandhed om hvad der foregår.
JH: I get chills every time I see that. That's the kind of engagement you want to have happen. And I can't design that, I can't plan that, and I can't even test that. But it's self-evident assessment. We know that's an authentic assessment of learning. We have a lot of data, but I think sometimes we go beyond data with the real truth of what's going on.
Så jeg vil lige dele en tredje historie. Dette er om min ven Brennan. Vi havde spillet spillet en gang efter skole i mange uger, omtrendt syv uger, og vi havde essensielt løst alle 50 sammenflættede kriser. Måden man vinder spillet på er at alle 50 problemer er nødt til at være løste og hvert lands indre værdi er nødt til at have øget over niveauet det startede på. Nogen er fattige, nogen er rige. Der er milliarder. Verdensbankens president var en 3.-klasse elev på det tidspunkt. Han sagde, "Hvor mange nuller i en billion? Jeg er nødt til at regne det ud med det samme." Men han var i gang med at lave en finanspolitik i det spil for gymnasieelever som spillede sammen med ham.
So I'll just share a third story. This is about my friend Brennan. We had played the game one session after school for many weeks, about seven weeks, and we had essentially solved all 50 of the interlocking crises. The way the game is won is all 50 problems have to be solved and every country's asset value has to be increased above its starting point. Some are poor, some are wealthy. There are billions. The World Bank president was a third-grader one time. He says, "How many zeros in a trillion? I've got to calculate that right away." But he was setting fiscal policy in that game for high school players who were playing with him.
Så det hold der var det fattigste var blevet endnu fattigere. Der var ingen måde hvorpå de kunne vinde. Og vi nærmede os klokken 4, vår afslutningstid -- der var omtrendt ét minut tilbage -- og fortvivlelse lagde sig over værelset. Jeg tænkte, jeg fejler som lærer. Jeg skulle have lavet det så de kunne have vundet. De burde ikke fejle som det her. Jeg har fejlet dem. Og jeg var bare så trist og modløs. Og pludselig, Brennan gik over til min stol og han tog klokken, den klokke jeg ringer for at signalere en ændring eller en samling af kabinetterne. og han løb tilbage til sin plads, ringede med klokken. Alle løb hen til hans stol, der var skrig, der var råben, viftning med deres sagsmapper. De får de her sagsmapper fulde af hemmelige dokumenter. De viftede, de løb rundt. Jeg anede ikke hvad de lavede. Jeg havde mistet kontrollen over mit klasseværelse. Hvis rektor kommer ind nu, er jeg fyret. Forældrene kikkede ind gennem vinduerne.
So the team that was the poorest had gotten even poorer. There was no way they could win. And we were approaching four o'clock, our cut-off time -- there was about a minute left -- and despair just settled over the room. I thought, I'm failing as a teacher. I should have gotten it so they could have won. They shouldn't be failing like this. I've failed them. And I was just feeling so sad and dejected. And suddenly, Brennan walked over to my chair and he grabbed the bell, the bell I ring to signal a change or a reconvening of cabinets, and he ran back to his seat, rang the bell. Everybody ran to his chair: there was screaming; there was yelling, waving of their dossiers. They get these dossiers full of secret documents. They were gesticulating; they were running around. I didn't know what they were doing. I'd lost control of my classroom. Principal walks in, I'm out of a job. The parents were looking in the window.
Og Brennan løber tilbage til hans plads. Alle løber tilbage til deres pladser. Han ringer klokken igen. Han siger, "Vi har" -- Og der er 12 sekunder tilbage på uret -- "vi har alle nationer samlet alle vore værdier sammen. Og vi har 600 miliarder dollars. Vi vil gerne tilbyde det som en donation til dette fattige land. Og hvis de accepterer det, vi det øge deres aktivers værdi og vi kan vinde spillet. Vil i acceptere det?" Og der er tre sekunder tilbage på uret. Alle ser på statsministeren til det land, og han siger, "Ja." Og spillet er vundet. Spontan medfølelse der ikke kunne planlægges, der var uventet og uforudsigeligt.
And Brennan runs back to his seat. Everybody runs back to their seat. He rings the bell again. He says, "We have" -- and there's 12 seconds left on the clock -- "we have, all nations, pooled all our funds together. And we've got 600 billion dollars. We're going to offer it as a donation to this poor country. And if they accept it, it'll raise their asset value and we can win the game. Will you accept it?" And there are three seconds left on the clock. Everybody looks at this prime minister of that country, and he says, "Yes." And the game is won. Spontaneous compassion that could not be planned for, that was unexpected and unpredictable.
Hvert spil vi spiller er anderledes. Nogen spil er mere om sociale spørgsmål, nogen er mere om økonomiske spørgsmål Nogen spil er mere om krigsførelse. Men jeg prøver ikke at nægte dem realiteten det er at være et menneske. Jeg lader dem gå derhen og, gennem deres egne erfaringer, lære på en blodløs måde hvordan undgå at gøre hvad de anser for at være forkert. Og de finder ud af hvad der er rigtigt på deres egen måde, deres egne selv. Og så, i dette spil, jeg har lært så meget fra det, men jeg vil sige at hvis bare de kunne tilegne sig et kritisk tænke-værktøj eller kreativt tænke-værktøj fra det her spil og gøre noget godt for verden så har de måske reddet os alle. Hvis bare.
Every game we play is different. Some games are more about social issues, some are more about economic issues. Some games are more about warfare. But I don't try to deny them that reality of being human. I allow them to go there and, through their own experience, learn, in a bloodless way, how not to do what they consider to be the wrong thing. And they find out what is right their own way, their own selves. And so in this game, I've learned so much from it, but I would say that if only they could pick up a critical thinking tool or creative thinking tool from this game and leverage something good for the world, they may save us all. If only.
Og på vegne af alle mine lærere hvis skuldre jeg står på, tak. Tusind tak. Mange tak.
And on behalf of all of my teachers on whose shoulders I'm standing, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
(Bifald)
(Applause)