TEDxBloomington -- Gever Tulley -- "The Path to Brightworks"

Gever Tulley, our first 'big stage' TED speaker, has made it his mission to re-introduce the world to children: the real world as revealed through unscripted, hands-on, meaningful learning experiences. He says, "Children today are increasingly treated like exotic animals: kept in special cages and fed a diet of pre-digested ideas, lest they skin a knee or have an original thought but there is great value in the minor scrape or bruise and the lessons that they teach." So he celebrates the plans that go awry, the spectacular failures, the magnificent successes, the unexpected discoveries, and the ideas that are just so big that they must be tried. He appreciates the empty carton, the empty lot next door, the broken clock that begs to be dismantled, and the tree with branches spaced perfectly for climbing. He treasures the really good stick and the lovely bit of string. He is thankful for duct tape, but loves the well-placed screw.

As a teen, Gever's famous babysitting rule was: If you're going to play with fire, we have to go outside. Mostly self-taught, he was once a computer scientist but is more widely known for founding Tinkering School, his book Fifty Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do), and Beware Dangerism! (a TED single), and Brightworks, a new K-12 school he is starting in San Francisco.

A crowd favorite, Gever's presentation at TEDxBloomington demonstrated what "The Wisdom of Play" means in his daily life, showed some children doing The First Dangerous Thing, and outlined his plans for Brightworks in a powerful visual style that engaged the educators and parents in the audience.

http://www.gevertulley.com

About TEDx In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxBloomington, where x = independently organized TED event. At our TEDxBloomington event, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.