Making education relevant

"You need to start education from things that make a difference to them in their settings....So you need education to be relevant and help people to make a living there and then, often. And you also need to make it intrinsically interesting.(Leadbeater, 2010)"

This quote is from a TED talk with Charles Leadbeater. He is discussing education within urban areas of rapid growth, mainly speaking to slums and in this case Favelas in Rio de Janeiro.  What I found in  the transcript of the TED talk that resonated with me was the irrelevance and uselessness of making students learn in a prescribed compulsory fashion. Students who walk into school all over the world often have far more to worry about than their homework. I know of students who have to finish chores before they can do their homework.  When they are finished it is dark outside and they don't have electricity. So homework never gets finished.  How can we restructure school to meet our students, rather than have them submit to our will?


Leadbeater, Charles. (Apr 2010). "Education Innovation in the Slums." TED Talk. http://www.ted.com/talks/charles_leadbeater_on_education/transcript.