TED Talk to Note

There seem to be an endless supply of TED Talks out there, with new ones coming out all the time. Depending on your interests and the speakers style, some will be more memorable than others. This particular talk, "5 Dangerous things you should let your kids do" by speaker Gever Tulley, stood out as one of the more relatable talks I have watched. In it he talks about how safety regulations are growing out of hand and what your children can do to learn how to keep themselves safe through experimentation.

Gever opens by introducing himself as a Contract computer scientist, and Founder of the tinkering school, which is a summer program for children that allow them to learn about how things work via first hand experience. This Leads into a conversation about how Child safety regulations are found on just about everything and how this limits children from learning how to keep themselves safe. If you never encounter danger, you will never be able to avoid it on your own. This leads to the point of the TED talk which is, Let your kids do things you might be dangerous with supervision, so they when unsupervised or as they grow older that have an understanding of how to keep themselves safe. 

The first on the list of activities is "Play with fire", explaining that poking at a campfire or holding leaves over a candle can teach children about the basics of combustion and how to control a larger fire. Second is "Own a Pocket knife" which is an important multi-tool and is must have for children around the world. While I personally was very afraid of my little brother waving his flame covered stick around while camping, I did have my own pocket knife growing up that I loved. I used it for everything from poking around in the dirt, to unscrewing the battery case on my toys. His third item on the list was "Throw a spear" as a physical and mental activity. Fourth, and in my opinion most important, is "Deconstruct Appliances". For most children, the majority of everyday things such as a refrigerator or oven are just magic boxes. When they are able to take them apart, even if both of you are just taking a guess at what the parts are, it allows the child to see that it works for a reason. This forms and understanding that things can be built and sparks an interest in creating basic machines from tape, cardboard, string and other household items. The Final activity on the list is "Drive a Car" the intent being in a controlled safe place such as a private lot or an empty parking lot. 

Gever appears nervous but is able to keep the audience attention through the use of visuals. Throughout the presentation, he has pictures of children doing the activities and most of the time the pictures are quite funny. It was quite an effective tool to lighten the mood of the presentation and to remind the listeners that its just a suggestion not mandatory. Where he may lack in confidence he makes up for with speech writing skill. The presentation as a whole was well put together and each part was given just the right amount of time. It was easy to follow all the way through and in the end I find myself completely agreeing with him. I don't have kids of my own but I now have much more trust in letting them experiment and learn by experimentation, not instruction.