Every kid needs a champion | Rita Pierson

Elise Hu (0:00)

Hey, y'all, Ilyse Huw here. My three daughters just headed back to school with new backpacks, new teachers, and all that first day energy. And back to school season can make me feel like a student again, too.

So for this month's TED Talks Daily playlist, we have gathered five of our favorite talks about learning, teaching, and the joy of staying curious. No textbooks required. Happy listening.

You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. This talk from 2013 has a message that rings true across time. Rita Pierson was an educator for 40 years from a whole family of educators. She believed that learning doesn't really happen without human connection. As she put it, kids don't learn from people they don't like. Rita says that every child deserves a champion, an adult who refuses to give up on them, who understands the power of relationships, and guides them to become the best they can be. More than a decade later, it remains one of the most beloved TED Talks that we've ever shared. That's coming up right after a short break.

And now, our TED Talk of the day.

Rita Pierson (1:27)

I have spent my entire life either at the schoolhouse, On the way to the school house, I'm talking about what happens in the school house. Both my parents were educators. My maternal grandparents were educators, and for the past 40 years, I've done the same thing. And so, needless to say, over those years, I've had a chance to look at education reform from a lot of perspectives. Some of those reforms have been good, some of them have been not so good, and we know why kids drop out. We know why kids don't learn. It's either poverty, low attendance, negative peer influences. We know why. But one of the things that we never discuss or we rarely discuss is the value and importance of human connection. Relationships. James Comer says that no significant learning can occur without a significant relationship. George Washington Carver says all learning is understanding relationships. Everyone in this room has been affected by a teacher or an adult. For years, I have watched people teach. I have looked at the best and I've looked at some of the worst. A colleague said to me one time, they don't pay me to like the kids. They pay me to teach a lesson. The kids should learn it. I should teach it. They should learn it case closed. Well, I said to her, you know kids don't learn from people they don't like.

She said, that's just a bunch of hooey. And I said to her, well, your year is going to be long and arduous, dear. Needless to say, it was. Some people think that you can either have it in you to build a relationship or you don't. I think Stephen Covey had the right idea. He said, you ought to just throw in a few simple things, like seeking first to understand as opposed to being understood. Simple things like apologizing. You ever thought about that? Tell a kid you're sorry. They're in shock. I taught a lesson once on ratios. I'm not real good with math, but I was working on it. And I got back and looked at that teacher edition. I taught the whole lesson wrong. So I came back to class the next day and I said, look guys, I need to apologize. I taught the whole lesson wrong. I'm so sorry. I said, that's okay, Ms. Pierson, you were so excited. We just let you go.

I have had classes that were so low, so academically deficient that I cried. I wondered, how am I going to take this group in nine months from where they are to where they need to be? And it was difficult. It was awfully hard. How do I raise the self-esteem of a child in his academic achievement at the same time? One year, I came up with a bright idea. I told all my students, you were chosen to be in my class, because I am the best teacher and you are the best students. They put us all together so we could show everybody else how to do it. One of the students said, really?

I said, really? We have to show the other classes how to do it. So when we walk down the hall, people will notice us. So you can't make noise, you just have to strut. And I gave them a saying to say, I am somebody. I was somebody when I came, I'll be a better somebody when I leave. I am powerful and I am strong. I deserve the education that I get here. I have things to do, people to impress and places to go. And they said, yeah.