Practice English Speaking&Listening with: Let's start teaching love | Volkan Tasdan | TEDxBreda
Translator: Cris Babuska Reviewer: Maricene Crus
Hands up, ladies and gentlemen, put your hands up over there.
Have you put your hands up?
Now, wave.
And smile now. Very good!
If you know it, sing along.
One love, one heart
Let's get together and feel alright
Put your fingers up.
Hear the children cryin' - One love
Make a beautiful heart.
Hear the children cryin' - One heart
Sayin' give thanks and praise to the Lord
and I will feel alright
One more time!
Sayin' let's get together and feel alright - Wo wo wo
Wow! Beautiful!
Let's get together
and feel alright!
Let's love!
We need love, right?
We need to love,
love each other.
Because you know what love is?
Love is to give more than you take!
That's love!
But I have the feeling that there is some kind of love reduction going on.
A love reduction combined with individualism.
We're only busy with our own goal.
We're only busy with our success.
And in the meantime, we forget to love.
We do not have the opportunity to love.
So it's impossible to love someone else.
And what frightens me as a teacher
is that I see this love reduction in education every day.
I mean, the love for our job, the love for our subjects seems to be vanished.
And where is the love between the teacher and the student?
The respect?
Where is the respect between the teacher and the student?
Do not underestimate respect.
It's gone!
We don't have a clue.
Last Friday, Friday afternoon, I saw a student walking
in the hallway of school, like this.
He was very happy and I said,
"Wow! You're happy! Where are you going?"
He said, "I'm going to my Math class!"
I said, "Wow! So you like your Math class!"
He said, "No, that's the last period!
It's almost weekend!" he said.
"Ah, that's the reason why you're happy!"
That's shocking!
Because the same boy
was walking around at school on Monday,
Monday morning, 8 o'clock, like a zombie,
"I don't want to go to school."
That's what he said, "I don't want to go to school."
Can you imagine?
This guy doesn't want to go to school on Monday, on Tuesday,
he's unhappy on Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday morning
and Friday afternoon he is happy.
It doesn't have to be like that.
No, not at all!
It all starts at the moment they enter the classroom.
The teacher stands in front of the door and says,
"Good morning! Good morning! Good morning! Hello!
Morning! Sit down! Sit down!"
And if they don't sit down --
"Sit down!" (Scream)
"Open your books! Chapter 1."
"Open your books! Chapter 1."
Relax, teacher! Relax!
I'm not saying you need to behave like MC Hammer, when they enter the room,
like (Laughter) "Yeah, sit down!"
No! I mean: get a life!
Make them feel comfortable!
Be a teacher with a positive vibe,
"Please welcome!"
That's not enough,
"Hey, you've got some nice shoes there! I love the color! What a great color!"
"Hey, you have your headphones on.
What song are you listening to?
Nirvana? Woohoo! Nirvana! I Love Nirvana!"
Give them the feeling they are welcome!
Give them the feeling that they are OK.
It's very important!
Three days ago, the headmaster of our school
organized a college;
a college for one hundred students.
And after 20 minutes,
they lost their concentration.
And then, they started talking.
And at that moment, a phone rang (Ringing sound)
And all the students were like, "Whoa!"
And then all the eyes were focused on the headmaster,
"What is he going to say?"
And do you know what the headmaster said?
"Oh! It also happens to me sometimes.
No problem! Switch it off now."
And he went on.
And from that moment, all the students were quiet.
All the students were focused and all the students had respect.
Because of this very easy moment of saying,
"I can understand it. It's normal!"
And why are teachers angry when students forget their books?
"Sorry, teacher! I forgot my book."
They get angry,
or they punish them!
Sometimes, I forget my books or my keys.
Last week, in a shopping center, I forgot my wife!
It's normal!
(Laughter)
You know,
when someone forgets his books,
I just ask him to bring the books on next week,
"Please, OK?" "OK!". That's all!
And then, my colleagues ask me,
"Why are there so many dropouts?" Because of you!
All students are stars, all of them!
They have all capacity, they have all a passion.
Do something with it. You are a teacher!
Help them!
Show interest!
Put your hand on their shoulder and give love.
That's what we need to do: give love!
Irrigate deserts!
We need
to teach them how to think, not what to think.
Yes, they become dropouts.
Do you know why?
We love to say that they misbehave,
that they are not correct.
Sometimes, teachers even say
that they don't have discipline and that's why they don't have a future.
"No, you'll never become a lawyer!"
And then we teach them that bullying is bad? It's exactly the same!
That's why they become a dropout!
And then we send them to professionals,
one more professional, and to a counselor,
and to a remedial teacher --
Come on! Have you ever heard about self-fulfilling prophecy?
When we treat them as a problem child, they will become a problem child!
Stop it! Love them! Make a heart!
Sing songs of Bob Marley! Why not?
You know, when I enter the teacher's room,
it feels like I am in Jerusalem, at the Western Wall.
It's only negative! This is not good! And only complain.
It's unbelievable!
Huh! Yeah... and that's the place
where those students need to develop.
You know, it happens also outside the school.
When you walk around and see young people drinking,
and making noise and having fun,
don't we say, "Come on! Please go somewhere else,"
or "Do something for school," or "Be a little bit more serious"?
And we are not busy with: maybe they need a basketball field,
maybe they need a place to play --
No! It's only negative!
We miss love!
It doesn't have to be like that! No!
Nowadays we have radicalization of religion,
we have radicalization of political parties,
but I'm in favor of a new kind of radicalization:
that's the radicalization of love.
We're perfect!
We're perfect!
And hold on to it!
Don't let it fall!
Keep on loving!
I will give you an example
of what I mean with "keep on loving".
Imagine this glass of wine.
Do you like wine?
A glass of wine --
If you put your finger on it, you make circles,
you'll hear that great sound.
Do you know that sound?
I call that the sound of love.
But if you stop loving, (Crack) it falls down into pieces, many pieces.
And then, you grab it together because you want to love again.
And then, you have exactly the same glass of wine,
exactly the same!
Maybe, it's the same glass, but if you now put your finger on it,
it'll never make the same sound as it made before.
So, keep on loving! Promise?
Because if you give love, you receive love.
Also in education.
You know, this morning I cried.
I cried, sir... this morning!
I was in a classroom, and they asked me to come downstairs.
I went downstairs, OK.
And there was a mom of a student.
She said, "Come, come here".
Because my students are now in Italy, in Ireland and in Greece
for excursions and projects.
But that mom had this box with her.
I said, "Wow! What is it?"
"A present, from my daughter." That's a student of mine.
So, I opened it and this was what happened...
She knew the subject, that it was about love.
This is what she gave me, with a card.
And I read the card, and I cried.
I cried, with a smile in my face.
It was beautiful!
That's all we need, right?
Not only in education.
Of course it's an important institution, but everywhere.
We need it!
We need love!
And that's why maybe it's a good idea
that the songs of Bob Marley become a part of our curriculum, right?
Yeah! Every year let's study the lyrics of Bob Marley. You'll see what happens!
It's an amazing idea! Why not? Why not?
Why a list of 20 words in German?
"Learn it! Learn it! Learn it! Or write it down!"
But not the song of Bob Marley?
I mean...
That inspires me more!
Today, I want to start
with a thing called
"hugging".
"Hugging" can be something very important in our society.
We need to hug more.
And I want to start today --
Today I want to start something and let's call it "hugging", yeah --
and after today, I want you to hug more, OK?
What we're going to do is, stand up, now --
Stand up! You see? I'm a good teacher. Everybody stands up!
It's amazing!
Hugging.
OK, now!
Look at the one next to you, please.
What about the atmosphere?
Great atmosphere?
I need someone to hug too! Where is my host? Where is my host?
Woohoo! Oh, yeah, yeah!
Come here! OK! Look at each other, please!
Look at each other, look at each other in the face.
We are human beings, we need to love each other!
When I count to three,
when I count to three, I want you to hug each other for ten seconds.
(Laughter)
Promise?
OK! Let's go!
(Music: One Love, One Heart)
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you! Thank you very much!
(Applause)
