At TED2008 in Monterey, California,
Dave Eggers presented his TED Talk, “My wish: Once Upon a School” to inform
people of the possibilities of helping students and schools and the amazing
effect it can have. Dave Eggers spoke to an audience of people who were
interested in helping local communities and schools. The speaker introduced his
topic by describing the rarity of one-on-one time between teachers and
students. He notes that this is especially a problem in underfunded schools.
Dave continues by telling the story of how he started his own tutoring business
in San Francisco, 826 Valencia. In the front of the building, it was a gig
pirate store, but in the back it was a tutoring center combined with Egger’s
publishing company. The tutors at the center are people who work for the
publishing company, and after they’re done with their workday, children get out
of school and come for one-on-one tutoring. Often times, the children come from
bilingual households so the parents will come with the students to watch the
tutoring sessions. This reminded me of Homework Help!
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| Working buccaneers can buy supplies at 826 Valencia! |
Dave’s talk
was especially interesting to both the audience and me because he had a
slideshow filled with pictures of 826 Valencia. Since the building was zoned
for retail, Dave needed to sell something, which is how the pirate supply store
came to be. The pictures were hysterical because it was such a silly concept
that it almost seemed unreal, but it is indeed a tutoring center. In fact, many
other people have since then started their own tutoring companies with show
storefronts (Superhero supply store, Time Travel mart, etc.). The visual
pictures were helpful to visualize the tutoring taking place.
The speaker also had a very
authentic sense of humor through sarcastic comments. The audience thought he
was pretty funny and they often started laughing in the middle of his sentences
so he had to slow down and wait until he could start talking again. Moreover,
Dave had excellent “conversational quality”. I felt as though he was talking to
me on a personal level, even though I don’t know him and wasn’t there for
his talk. However, he did have room for improvement as a speaker. Sometimes, he spoke a little too fast and I had to rewind and listen to his sentence
again to understand what he was saying. Additionally, his sentences were filled
with “um” and “uh”, which was extremely distracting to me. His talk was almost
25 minutes long, so he definitely didn’t stick to the 18-minute rule. However,
I was so intrigued with the topic that I honestly didn’t notice it was that
long. I noticed sometimes he would get excited and carry-on about the pirate
store or interactions with students that he went longer than he should have.Overall, I think that Dave Eggers
did a great job of staying in his lane.
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| One-on-one tutoring at 826 Valencia |
Although at times he would
spend a little too long telling a specific story about tutoring, it still
related to his point. He painted a good mental picture because he
described his tutoring company in detail. He even went on to explain that eventually
some of the tutors from 826 Valencia began working at the actual schools with
students. His presentation relates directly with my service organization. At
Homework Help, we are tutors that work one-on-one with students. Dave said that
about forty hours of one-on-one time between a student and a tutor can raise a
student’s grade by one letter. Wow! That’s pretty substantial growth for
students. That makes me feel really good about what we do at Homework Help. It
truly is making a difference for the kids.
Watch Dave's TED Talk here
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