Why you need the growth mindset of a weed | Stephen Nobles

**Elise Hu** (0:04)
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.
We live in a moment that rewards having answers, being certain, being right, saying it with confidence. But educator Stephen Nobles has spent his career paying attention to something quieter, and what he would argue is far more powerful.

**Stephen Nobles** (0:26)
If you get curiosity right, it's the bridge between our differences. It turns it into dialogue. So you want to be able to see kids and meet them where they are, but that requires you to see them with a lens of expectation and opportunity, without the judgment.

**Elise Hu** (0:41)
In this conversation with TED curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers, Stephen, who works with students in the Atlanta area, makes the case that curiosity is what allows us to actually see people. In education, he says it's easy to reduce a kid to their statistics, but he pushes the adults around him to look past all of that.

**Stephen Nobles** (1:00)
See your students through the lens of possibility. See them beyond the data.
See them beyond their living conditions. See them beyond their zip code. Once you erase the data around the student and you see them truly through what's possible, that's when the beauty happens. That's when the engagement starts.

**Elise Hu** (1:16)
Stephen shares how that shift changes everything, how kids show up, how they engage, and who they become. He tells the story of a quiet middle schooler who surprised everyone and the lesson his own mother taught him about daring to grow where you're not supposed to. That's coming up right after a short break.
And now, our TED Conversation of the day.

**Whitney Pennington Rodgers** (1:49)
In your work as an educator, curiosity plays a very interesting role. Can you talk a little bit about how curiosity shows up in the work that you do?

**Stephen Nobles** (1:57)
So in the work that we do, it's important for curiosities to be there. It gives us the opportunity to see things, not just how they are, but how they can be.
And we're learning in our district that with curiosity, once students feel seen, once they feel heard, once they feel empowered, they'll engage, they'll connect to the work, and then the attendance shows up, and then the performance follows the attendance. So it requires us to follow like the great 21st century English philosopher, Ted Lasso puts it, to be curious and not judgmental. And in our district, our work requires us to not be judgmental.

**Whitney Pennington Rodgers** (2:35)
And can you talk a little bit, I guess, about the bridge between curiosity and courage? You know, how do you help people move past, I guess, what might be the fear of failure to really engage with curiosity?

**Stephen Nobles** (2:48)
Yeah, if you get curiosity right, it's the bridge between our differences, it turns it into dialogue. So you want to be able to see kids and meet them where they are, but that requires you to see them with a lens of expectation and opportunity without the judgment. And for us, one of the things that's important that I'm always pushing my colleagues to see is that we have to see students beyond the data.
A fact with that is if a kid lives in poverty, they're not poor, their parents are poor, and they live with them. The same way if a kid is their parents are rich, they're not rich, their parents are rich and they live with them. So with that, all of the data, all of the characteristics of poverty, place it on the parents and not the student, see them through the lens of what's possible, and then they usually rosti the occasion.

**Whitney Pennington Rodgers** (3:39)
This moment that we're living in, it's sometimes really easy for people to sort of double down on what their feelings are to be more certain about where they stand in the world instead of asking people how they feel what they think, to be curious. How important do you think curiosity is as a life skill for all of us in this moment?

**Stephen Nobles** (3:59)
I think it's very important.
I can only imagine a world where we celebrate not just the answers, but the best questions. Because we live in this data-driven society.
If the data is right, it should propose better questions. It should ask us to dive in deeper, and that requires genuine curiosity. Curiosity, when put in the right place, builds connection. Connection builds friendship and partnership. That's the bridge toward a brighter future, especially in a world where everyone is so quick to give you a certain answer. And they just say it with such confidence, but curiosity is the thing that gives us humility and empathy. And that's the thing that we need to move forward, not just in education, but as a world, in my humble opinion.