My favorite talks at TEDxFlanders 2011: John Hunter and the World Peace Game

“‘Oh, but one thing … What do I do?’ And her answer was in the form of a question and that question changed my entire life. It changed everything. It set the stage and it set the template for everything that was to follow in my teaching. She said to me: ‘What do you want to do?’. She didn’t give me a directive, a mandate, a manual to follow. She cleared an empty space and said: ‘What do you think you should do?’.” (John Hunter)

And out of this emptiness came “The World Peace” game, a wonderful role playing game developed by John Hunter.

Flunking school is flunking life?

A lot of the people I admire didn’t do well at school. Some of them even dropped out. Not because they weren’t smart enough, but because they couldn’t live up to the standards of the system they were in.

They didn’t like school because school didn’t like them.

Yet that doesn’t have to mean society won’t like them either which is actually what a lot of schools, parents and politicians want us to think.

That’s so wrong.

There’s always more to life than school.

That’s the most important lesson in education.

That will actually keep more kids in school.

Not the reprimands, not the punishments, but a profound sense of understanding of what you’re telling these kids about this world, a profound sense of what you’re learning these kids about life.

And that goes way beyond the technicalities of your subject, beyond tests and grades and diplomas.