Pirates...and tutoring?

In Dave Eggers’ TED talk he talked about pirate supplies and education reform. You may be thinking, what an unlikely pair, but in an attempt to slip past zoning laws, Eggers and his team of writers came up with something amazing. Their idea was to offer one on one tutoring with students in areas that needed the most help. This tutoring was needed because the ratio of teachers to students was so drastically different that there wasn’t enough time to help each student individually, students didn’t have a motivator to get their homework done, and they were not achieving as well as they could have. The lack of teachers is interesting, though, because their salaries are decreasing, and more of them are being laid off. Shouldn’t there be more of a focus on teachers and educators then Wall Street businessmen? Teachers shape tomorrows leaders and will impact their students dramatically, but if their jobs are disappearing, who is going to teach our kids? They are the basis for our society and they make people they way they are, but with the economic crash and lack of jobs, we need more people like Eggers and the other writers that can help the next generation reach their full potential. Now, as I mentioned earlier, the building the tutors were using had to be used to sell something, so they opened up a pirate supply shop, with everything from planks to eye patches, they have your pirate needs covered. In the back of this store is the classroom, where students can draw from their surroundings as inspiration. Who wouldn’t want to write about pirates anyway? That is the next big difference from 826 Valencia and Arapahoe High. Here at school we are faced with the same white walls and odd linoleum floors everyday. Talk about boring. Eggers used design to capture the student’s imagination without meaning to. I know I would be more motivated to go to school if it was pirate themed! Who designed schools to be so boring and bland if I go to school to be excited about learning? Lets just say that plastic wood desks and a lack of natural light is not my cup of tea; I’d rather be fishing, and that’s saying something because I would imagine myself being really bad at it. Schools all across the country need a makeover so they can have their students achieve their bests. Motivation is a big topic in class. It seems like with every TED talk we hear, someone, somewhere, is lacking a drive. These students in California required a push in the right direction, and Eggers brought them that. They didn’t need to go to tutoring, so why did they? It was fun! That’s the answer, plain and simple. Eggers also started publishing his students’ work, which changed their writing considerably. Kids are motivated by an importance and a purpose in writing. I feel this way in class when I write an essay. What’s the point in this? While Eggers’ students have their work printed out and permanent. They way the classroom worked was also a big motivator. The students guided the learning, not the teachers, which put things into students’ perspective. They like what they were doing, so they did it. If this is the case, shouldn’t students design schools if we are going to spend a lot of time in them? 12 years of our lives are spent in school, so why shouldn’t we enjoy it? Dave Eggers’ TED called for a reform in education, and I agree with him completely.