Dave Egger TED Talk: Once Upon a School

In the past few years, Dave Egger has started a trend by opening a pirate supply store, which doubled as a free tutoring center. Weeks passed and no one came to the store; they could not figure out why people had not come in for any help. Eventually they were able to get students to come in and get the one on one attention they deserved. Egger’s main message became evident within the next few minutes of his talk; children need one-on-one time that schools cannot provide with ever-growing class sizes. Students began to shine due the collaboration with students, interns, volunteers, and staff members and the time they spent learning with others. Classes began to visit on field trips, then tutors were sent into classrooms, and later they were given a classroom at a school; students who would not usually seek help ended up getting the same treatment as anyone. Across the nation, Egger’s movement inspired copy-cat stores which doubled as free tutor centers. These centers changed the students’ motivation and made them not only get their homework done, but actually want to get the work done well.

Egger tended to ramble, to say the least; he seemed a bit nervous and spoke quite fast. He changed focus frequently which gave him an heir of disorganization, but in the end he brought everything back together to form an idea worth spreading. He told little stories of children overcoming seemingly impossible challenges to show the impact one tutoring center made on the typical child. Despite his wordiness, the viewer could tell just how much he loved his topic and the potential it holds in the present and the future. Egger loves what he does and wants others to share his joy, and then share the newfound love with the world, too. He highlights the internal reward of getting active within the community and shows how donation of time and personal connection is far greater than a donation of money.

In the past few years, my class sizes have remained relatively small in comparison to those of my peers; while their classes had 30 or more students, mine stayed within the mid to low 20s. I feel this is unfair; honors and advanced students need attention still, but the average grade level student needs more of a guiding hand. The larger classes tended to be those with larger numbers, which is the exact opposite of what is needed; if these students really do need more help, they will not be able to receive adequate attention from their teachers. Egger sent volunteers and tutors into schools to allow the one-on-one time that they needed; more people need to join this movement in order to help the youth change their motivation and provide better futures for them. Without one-on-one attention, students may never know what they are capable of accomplishing; they need the pressure to do well in combination with wanting to achieve their goal. Not all people are motivated in school, and I think the relationships that are forged between student and teacher (or tutor) can change the way students are motivated. It should start with respect; I have noticed that students who respect their teachers (generally) produce better work. Through out the school year, I have grown much closer to my teachers, and I do homework and projects to the best of my ability both because I want to and because I do not want to disrespect or let my teachers down. If students grow close to their teachers, maybe the same principle will apply to them. They will grow to respect their teachers and tutors enough to build up a new sense of drive and then they will be able to motivate themselves. In society, people should try to create closer relationships with others and their motivation will change too. Spending personal time helping others is much more rewarding than donating money to a cause; it shows that you actually care about the future, in comparison to “caring” about immediate fixes.

Dave Eggers has one wish for schools and people across the globe: "I wish that you- you personally and every creative individual and organization you know- will find a way to directly engage with a public school in your area and that you'll tell your story of how you got involved, so that within a year we have 1,000 examples of transformative partnerships."