(music)
- Welcome back everyone, I'm Alison Berman.
Right now I'm here with Esther Wojcicki.
Esther is revolutionizing education.
She is a founder of the Palo Alto High Media Center
as well as a distinguished scholar at Stanford's mediaX.
She's also a California teacher of the year
and MacArthur fellow and recently,
a Singularity University faculty.
Esther, welcome.
- Oh, thank you so much, I'm so happy to be here.
- It's great to be here, we're talking about
a super important subject matter.
- Yes, education is my passion.
- It's a huge passion of mine as well.
So, you wrote a book about moonshots in education,
can you explain to me, what is a moonshot in education?
- A moonshot is something that is really hard to do,
but very important, and we have to do it.
And so, just like the moonshot in 1961 with JFK,
was tough to get to the moon,
but we did it, and it was important.
We have to do a moonshot in education because we have to
change the way education is delivered,
and it's important, it's hard to do, but we're gonna do it.
- And is there a moonshot in education
that you're currently working towards?
- Yes, the moonshot in education I'm working towards
is to change the teacher's view of their role
in the classroom.
So, how teachers see themselves in the classroom,
and to change the community's view
of the role of the teacher.
So, I'd like the teacher to see themselves as a coach
part of the time, not all of the time
but at least part of the time,
and I'd like the community to support teachers that do that.
That's very important for the community to be supportive
of teachers and appreciate them.
- Absolutely.
And teacher as a coach, what unique value does this add?
- So, what this adds primarily is when a student
is working on a project, or working on something
that is real and connected to the real world,
then the teacher coaches them, they support them.
They allow them to work on this project.
So, for example, in social studies for example,
they could be doing some kind of a newspaper
or magazine about how the historical period
they're studying relates to the world today.
And then they can easily make a magazine on that,
and then learn collaborative skills at the same time,
learn how to write at the same time,
get recognition from the public as well,
and it's a great opportunity.
They can post it on this website called Issuu,
I-S-S-U-U, for free, it doesn't cost anything.
Actually, Issuu's even gonna assign,
have a special section for schools,
magazines, and publications.
So, that's one way that social studies,
science can do something like that,
they can write up the science ideas
that they're writing, talking about.
In math, they can create an app.
And with the app inventors on the MIT website, it's free.
So, I think that kids need to be empowered,
and the way they're empowered is by working in groups,
feeling good about themselves, and doing things.
Not just listening to somebody tell them about it.
Actually doing it.
- Learning by doing and experiential learning.
- Experiential learning, personalized experiential learning,
and so, the personalization is they take the whole world,
they get the whole world to figure out
what they're interested in doing.
And not just what we consider today personalized learning,
which is, you know, personalized means you get to pick
between story A, B, C, or D, and you get to pick
the grade level, whether it's, you know,
third grade, sixth grade, ninth grade, 12th grade,
personalized means you actually get to,
your pallette is the world,
you get to pick what's interesting to you to do.
- And I've heard you say that you are driven by the idea
of inspiring students to create their own futures,
and empower them to build their own futures.
Can you talk to me more about this idea
and how we can help realize this?
- So, you know, it's kind of interesting,
by the time they're in the ninth or 10th grade,
kids lose a lot of their creativity
because the main thing they're worried about
is getting an A.
- Yeah.
- And so, they wanna conform because that's what the system
teaches them to do, is to conform,
and they get rewarded for getting that A grade,
and then they think they're gonna get into the college
of their choice.
So, creativity comes when you are doing something
that you actually think of, and it doesn't necessarily
have to get an A grade, in other words,
it's a project you think about,
and that leads to, when you think about what you wanna do,
that leads to your passion.
Your passion could be, you know, researching gorillas,
or it could be like, the impact of tattoos on your body,
or it can, I don't, you know, I don't really care
what they do, I just want them to do what the care about.
- And have that creativity ignited.
- That creativity ignites the passion and the interest,
and then they have that forever,
they have that for the rest of their lives,
because then they know what they really care about.
And maybe, you know, it could be art, could be music,
could be decorating, I mean, really, every,
just think about little kids.
You never have to ask them what their passion is,
they just do it.
- They do everything.
- They don't, grades?
They never heard about it, what's that, you know?
- Right.
- And they only get, in middle, in elementary school,
they gradually get pushed into the box,
and then they worry about making sure it's right.
- And how do you think we can stop making the classrooms
a place that kills creativity?
We know we have to foster creativity in the classroom,
but the system keeps encouraging creativity
to be killed in the classroom.
- Well, I think one way that we can do it
is to set this culture in American schools,
or maybe worldwide schools, where at least 20%
of every class should be devoted to a project.
Every class.
And if their school wants to do it for a whole day,
that's one thing, or if the teacher wants to regulate it,
it's okay, but their teachers have to be supportive
in this effort.
And the main thing that anybody, any adult remembers
about a class they had in elementary school, high school,
they really don't remember what they learned.
Sometimes they go back and it's like, God,
what did I do in that class?
But what they always remember
is how that teacher made them feel.
- [Alison] Absolutely.
- And so, you want the kids to feel empowered in your class.
They wanna remember it as a positive feeling
where they can do it, whatever it is.
And you might forget the math you learned,
but you can always go back and look it up
if you feel empowered and happy about it.
- Yeah, when you leave students empowered,
I think they're able to take risks,
and they're able to also feel empowered to take initiative,
and initiative in their own learning,
I think maybe that's really the goal,
that you wants students feeling empowered to be
a leader in their own learning.
- Yes, you want students to take the initiative.
So, I can give you an example.
- I'd love that. - You want one?
- Yeah. - So, just a few weeks ago,
I worked with a guy named Freedom Cheteni at Stanford,
he is an instructor there,
and there's a course on computer science
and design thinking.
So, I came in on day one to give a talk to the kids,
he invited me, and what was interesting is I gave this talk,
and I talked to the kid about my philosophy,
and how they should be empowered,
and do stuff that they care about,
and you know, work on projects they care about,
and then Freedom supported that.
He's like, you can do a moonshot project,
do whatever you want.
Anyway, the kids loved it.
And on day one, they were like, so excited about this,
and they decided that they wanted to do a magazine.
And I was like, oh, that sounds like a good idea,
and then they're like, I think we wanna
publish the magazine.
So, like, well, we only have like,
not a very short, long time, so I was like,
well, how about if we just publish the magazine online.
And so, just to make a long story short,
'cause I can take up a long time with this,
in three weeks, these kids who never knew each other,
from 25, 25 kids from different places in the world,
created a beautiful magazine, it's online,
website, it's also online. And they put themselves together,
they did it themselves in groups, and created apps
which they are now selling on the Google Play store.
- That is incredible.
- In three weeks, and this was just
because they all felt empowered.
- Yes.
- And I basically said to them, if it doesn't work,
well, we'll just do it again, you know?
Or, if you do something, you don't like it,
well, let's try another attack,
but it doesn't matter, you know?
You can, so they felt completely empowered.
- Yeah.
- And that's why they did all these things,
and needless to say, I'm very proud of them.
- You should be.
- I gave a talk in Idaho and I used them as an example.
I mean, it was pretty incredible.
And now we're in touch on the WhatsApp app.
- That's great.
(chuckling)
I think it's amazing what students can accomplish
when they really feel a connection to it.
I was working on a journalistic project
with high school students, and at first,
I was teaching them, how do you do an interview like this,
and the students were like, that is the most awkward thing,
there's no way I can interview, you want me to talk
to a stranger, ask them about their life,
and then by the end the students were like, no, no,
I've got this one, and they wanted to,
and they wanted to be photographing them,
and they were coming alive in a new discipline.
- Right.
So, one of the hardest things for kids to do, all kids,
is to interview someone else.
And so, you wanna teach them that, let them do it.
And that's what I teach in the journalism program,
and my colleagues do the same thing.
So, our first assignment that the kids do are interviews.
They have to interview 30 other people, 30,
that they don't know, about a question
that they compose themselves.
So, first they have to think of the question,
then they have to do these interviews.
I can tell you, at the end of 30 interviews,
they can do it, they can talk to anyone.
- [Alison] I am sure.
- They're great.
But nobody ever asks them to do that.
- [Alison] Right.
- You know, in your typical English class,
or social studies, or math class,
you're just sitting there, listening to a lecture,
taking notes, reading the book, and then taking the test.
- Yeah.
- And so, where it is that, where do the important skills
for the 21st century come in?
- Yeah.
- And so, that's why I suggest, you know,
having a project in those classes so kids are learning
to collaborate, to think critically,
to communicate effectively, and to have...
- And these are some of the most important skills
of the 21st century, right?
- This is, everybody wants kids
that can do all those things, be creative,
they're called the three C's, the four C's.
So, the more they can do these things,
the happier lives they'll lead,
the more productive lives they'll lead,
and it's just more useful for society as a whole.
- Absolutely.
- Anyway, that's my goal.
(chuckling)
- It's a very incredible goal, and in your own life,
did you have a specific experience that inspired you
to go after this goal, maybe a teacher,
or reading something that inspired you?
What clicked this drive?
- Well, I think the main thing that ignited this drive
is that my parents were, are immigrants,
and they didn't speak English very well,
and so I grew up very poor, my father was an artist.
And so, we had some very difficult times without enough,
I mean, I guess we probably would be classified
as food stamp people now, but they didn't have
food stamp people then.
And I just decided at the age of 10 that I was going to
live a different life.
I did not want to live like this.
And the only way that I thought I could get out of this
was education, and I don't know who
gave me that idea, but then I realized
that people that had degrees seemed to earn more money,
you know, I was just a little kid.
And so, I became, I'm like, I'm gonna go to college.
And even though I didn't have any,
I had no resources to go to college,
but I said, I'm gonna go to college,
and fortunately, I got a scholarship,
which was very helpful, and then also,
I worked at some jobs, I worked while
I was going to college.
I actually worked as a journalist, as a reporter,
I was paid very little, but it worth it to me,
I was paid three cents a word, if you can believe that.
- Wow, that is hard to believe.
- Great, I was writing a lot of stuff, you can imagine.
And, but that was, you know, I was motivated,
and then it paid off.
- Yeah.
- Because you know, then, well, I graduated from college,
actually, early, in three years, 'cause I was so,
I wanted to get out because I had to earn money, I was poor.
- Yeah.
- And it worked really well, and then I got a job, you know?
And then I didn't have to live the poor life.
- It's interesting when you say that you, you know,
'cause I've heard you say on stage that you wanna inspire
and empower students to create their own futures,
and that's what you did, so.
- That's what I did, right.
And it worked for me, and I wanna help other students
do the same thing, not just, I mean,
they can all do it, and they all have the ability,
it's just a very rare individual that can't do it.
You don't necessarily have to go to college
if you go to some kind of a vocational school,
you can go to a tech school, you can learn to code,
you know, there's so many things, but do something
you care about, you know, maybe it's landscaping, you know?
Or being a forester, forest ranger,
or you know, whatever you wanna do, I think,
is what you should do.
You should be empowered to do that.
And so, I have a lot of students that have succeeded
in many areas, and some of them didn't become journalists,
as a matter of fact, most of them didn't.
One of my, probably my most famous student was James Franco,
the movie, the actor.
He is amazing, and he's been empowered to do
what is important to him.
- Right.
- And that means, you know, it can be an actor,
he's a director, he also is an artist,
I don't know if you know that.
- I didn't know that.
- Yeah, he painted some amazing canvases
for Palo Alto high School Media Arts Center,
they're beautiful canvases, yeah, you would never know
he's a great artist.
But I think one thing that's great is that
he's doing something he is happy about.
- [Alison] Right.
- And you know, I have other students that are doing
a lot of things that, you know,
they might be entrepreneurs, or venture capitalists,
or teachers, or doctors, but what matters
is that they wanna do it.
- [Alison] Yes.
- And that, you know, they know what it takes to do that,
and they are doing it.
And, because teaching, for me, it's hard.
It's a lot of work.
And I could easily have retired years ago,
as you probably could guess, but I'm still doing it
because it's so exciting for me to be with these students.
- It speaks from you.
- It's, right, it's just, every time I go to school,
I mean, I get happy.
And it's really, it's nice to be with students who are,
they're exciting to be with.
And then I like my colleagues, I like,
I think the faculty at Palo Alto High School is great,
and I feel lucky to have, you know, this experience.
I don't think there's anything more rewarding
than having a positive impact on someone's life.
- I don't think so either.
- And so, that's what it is when you're a teacher
and you really care.
- That's wonderful, well, I hope that from
this conversation, anyone viewing who has considered
going into education, this gives you a bit more inspiration
to go down that path. (electronic music)
Esther, thank you so much.
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