Kiran Bir Sethi teaches kids to take charge

What do you think of when you hear the word contagious? Most likely the main ideas that pop into your mind are disease, sickness, or other negative things. Contagious can also be positive! Kiran Bir Sethi reminds us of the healthy contagious things, such as laughter, inspiration, and ideas. Kiran Bir Sethi believes in the "I Can" bug. Her goal is to spread it all around the world. The "I Can Bug" is inspiration. The purpose of it is to motivate people, starting with children.

To capture her audience's imaginations, Sethi jumps right into her presentation with a story. She tells the tale of when she became infected with the I Can bug. Kiran Bir Sethi was 17 years old, and was a student as a design college. She was inspired by her teacher. You might be thinking, "What is the I Can bug? Why is it important?" The I Can bug is to motivate people to perform at their best. To help others and succeed at whatever they do. Using a story shows the audience that this is not a far fetched idea, Sethi has experienced it herself. The infection takes place in three stages; aware, enable and empower.

Once again, Kiran Sethi's idea can be tied to the other TED talks I have blogged about. Sethi explains about her dream to first empower the children, and improve their focus on education. Ken Robinson and Dave Eggers are also interested in motivating children. Ken Robinson, like Sethi, is focusing on changing the education system to engage the children.

Kiran Sethi uses pictures of words, such as "I Can" and "Aware, Enable, Empower" to illustrate her point. By using visuals, she is furthering her point, which will make it more memorable to the audience. Kiran Sethi spoke form her heart, and inspired the audience to go out and apply her goal. Her ending message was the goal of infecting the world's children. What do you think of now when you hear the word contagious?

Caroline Casey

Imagine what it would be like to be blind. I think it would be pretty bad, because I rely on my eyes for everything. Now imagine being blind from birth. Wouldn't you think it would be easier? You can't miss what you never had right? But what if you thought everyone was just like you? If you didn't think there was anything wrong with your vision? That is exactly what happned to Caroline Casey. Through her TED talk, she explains how it felt to grow up blind. That might not surprise you, there are many people who are blind. But I was shocked when she revealed that she didn't know she was blind until the age of 17.

When Caroline found out she was blind, she didn't let it faze her. She carried on with her life just as she did before. In her talk, Caroline gives her audience a challenge. Do the impossible, push boundaries, set a goal. She believes that you can do anything you set your mind to. You can only limit yourself, nobody else will affect you reaching your goal. She does not believe in limits, stating that anything is possible.

Caroline Casey puts her idea into practice everyday. She does not tell people that she is blind, and most people have no idea that she is. She didn't tell her audience until a few minutes into her presentation, and they were astounded. Think about it; don't you usually realize when someone is blind? It's often easy to tell. Shocking the audience was a very strategic move, it captured her audience's attention and ensured that they hung on her every word. They also formed opinions of her based on her personality, not based on her vision. She is very comfortable with being blind, going so far as to make jokes about it. Many people would consider being blind a disability, but Caroline Casey is determined to prove them wrong.

Caroline Casey's point is a very important one for the world to grasp. People are often judged by appearance, when we should really be judging people on their personalities. I struggle with this a lot. My friends consider me to be very judgemental, and whne they fell judged they say I am giving them "The Look." If we can all learn to not judge, the world would change for the better.

Dave Eggers

What if kids liked going to school? What would happen if kids enjoyed learning new things? If kids all around the world enjoyed being tutored? To many, this idea sounds far fetched, if not impossible. Dave Eggers shares his thoughts on this subject through his inspiring TED talk. He explores new ways of tutoring to keep kids interested. His goal was to tutor kids who were struggling in school, without embarassing them. What kid likes to admit they need extra help? I certaintly don't. As I was listening to Dave Eggers' talk, I found some connections to a few of Kathryn Schulz's ideas. When Eggers talks about kids not wanting help, he implies the reason they do not want help is because it is admitting to being wrong. Kids, just like everyone else, are pressured to be right. Kathryn Schulz explains the idea of wanting to be right further, saying that being wrong is considered failure. The kids that Eggers wants to tutor do not want extra help, because they have been taught that extra help is equal to failure.

In order to put his dream into action, Dave Eggers realizes he has to get creative in order to succeed. he comes up with the idea of combining a tutoring are with a store and an office. To interest the kids, he comes up with the title of Brooklyn Superhero Supply to avert the kids' attention away from the fact that it is for tutoring.

The "store" has been very successful, and now has a few hundred volunteers. By not putting "Tutoring" on the front of the building, Eggers has gained the kids' interest. The store has costumes for the children, as well as many other entertaining things.

Dave Eggers was obviously quite nervous during his TED talk, but the sheer brilliance of his idea connected deeply with the audience. Despiter his nerves, Eggers is confident enought to make jokes, and puts the audience at ease by making them laugh. He makes fun of himself, showing that he is confident with his idea, though not comfortable with public speaking. His awkwardenss, which some might find unprofessional, actually helps him prove his point. His awkwardness can be interpreted as being down to Earth, which shows his audience that he is not interested in himself, but in helping the children. Dave Eggers uses personal stories to illustrate his point, which are effective in helping the audience visualize his idea. He alos uses pictures of the kids he tutors along with pictures of his store. His passion about his idea overshadowed his nerves, and he proved that his one goal is to help the kids.

How would the world change if Dave Eggers' ideas were implemented for all children? Kids would be excited to go to school, to learn new things, and most importantly, would love gettign extra help. These ideas are similar to ideas discussed in Ken Robinson's TED talk. Ken Robinson believes in a new type of education, where kids have fun in school and are allowed to be themselves. Imagine what would happen if Ken Robinson's and Dave Eggers' ideas were used together.

At the end of his TED talk, Dave Eggers does something different than the others who give TED talks. He introduces something called a TED wish. Dave Eggers explains that his TED wish is for the audience to take his idea home with them and spread it. Then have is be spread again. He says if everyone became a part of this idea, it could spread all over the world. If it was heard by the whole world, then it just might be possible to change the world.