Dave Eggers TED blog #6

             Dave Eggers inspired me. He pointed out an aspect of schools that connected to me personally, and that is the lack of personal interaction and assistance in schools globally. The ratio of teachers to students is just too off to give students the amount of individual attention they deserve. In my experience, since there is only one teacher per class, the teacher is occupies with people who are struggling way more than me. The point is, though, that I still struggle, and am sometimes left unattended. I have experienced the blood drain out of each of my arms as I constantly switch off raising them in hopes of being helped. This happened more early on than now in high school, but still, it happened. Eggers not only presented the problem, but also a solution. The odd ratio needs to be reset closer to 1:1 not 1:35. Eggers also points out that we are the ones responsible for doing this, and in his TED wish, calls for each of us to take action, and to do something about his huge issue at a local school, because even a couple hours a month can be transformative to a child’s education in reading and writing.

            Egger’s speech was the first TED talk I watched where I was a little bit concerned with how much the distractions took away form his talk. All of the uh’s and um’s that I heard made it hard to focus at times. He also seemed very nervous about his speech, especially at the beginning with his uncomfortable joke. Once an audience member can get past these little glitches, though, they will see how absolutely passionate Eggers is about his topic. He smiles, and uses emphasis in his voice to bring more light on a subject or statement. He uses his hands and facial expressions to help the audience feel what they should be feeling. However, his visuals are not limited to just him physically. He brings up pictures and websites to give the eyes of the audience something to do while the ears are still listening. These techniques make his speech more effective.

            So there is still a problem. Too many kids are not getting the individual attention they need and that is causing poorer grades in reading and writing. Eggers’ tells the audience stories of people who decided to do something about this issue, and how successful the results are showing.

To check out the website produced out of this, click here. This, as well as his TED wish (see below), 

inspires action towards the cause. I, for one, wanted to jump up and first go shop at the pirate store he talks about, but then secondly, to find out what I can do as one little freshman in high school to help out, because this is an idea worth spreading, and a problem worth fixing.