A dyslexic perspective of education | Ersin Oztoycan | TEDxMETUNCC — Transcript

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1. 0:00you
2. 0:04you
3. 0:09you
4. 0:15err sin come to the blackboard and spell
5. 0:18telephone tele2 I gain t elee2000 l e ph
6. 0:51o n8 f sin can't spell telephone Edison
7. 0:57can't spell telephone err sing can't
8. 1:01spell telephone that was the song being
9. 1:06sung in the playground that afternoon
10. 1:09and they were right I couldn't spell
11. 1:14telephone and many other words my
12. 1:19parents and my teachers thought that
13. 1:21telling me to try harder would solve the
14. 1:24problem and when it didn't the blame for
15. 1:28my failure was placed on my shoulders
16. 1:32instead of giving me support I was given
17. 1:36the label slow I was eight years old
18. 1:42I remember running home from school in
19. 1:45tears standing in front of my mum mum I
20. 1:49hate school I hate it I absolutely hate
21. 1:54it my mum would say but I've seen these
22. 1:58are the best years of your life so enjoy
23. 2:02it I wasn't sure what I should be
24. 2:06enjoying the bullying or the labels
25. 2:10because school life for me was more like
26. 2:13a judicial system a court a place where
27. 2:17you go if you've committed a crime a
28. 2:19place where there's a judge the jewelry
29. 2:22and witnesses the place where your
30. 2:25receive assent
31. 2:28my crime was not being able to learn at
32. 2:32the same pace as the other children in
33. 2:34my class my judge was my teacher Miss
34. 2:39Mac Fadem six-foot tall with a huge
35. 2:42beehive hairstyle and she spoke with a
36. 2:4520 partisan they made us stand out like
37. 2:49a sore thumb because we live in the East
38. 2:52End of London where everyone's with a
39. 2:55right cockney accent have you ever come
40. 2:59across a mr. mcfadden in your life there
41. 3:03were witnesses to my crime the class
42. 3:06bullies who were quite willing to give
43. 3:09evidence against me person stupid
44. 3:13because whenever miss Alfred to go to
45. 3:15the blackboard and spell a word she
46. 3:17fails her seems lazy because miss keeps
47. 3:21telling her to try harder person slow
48. 3:25because whenever miss asks her to stand
49. 3:27up and read in front of the class she
50. 3:29takes so long miss tells her to sit back
51. 3:32down I had a good defense team my
52. 3:38parents hard-working people but nowhere
53. 3:42needs strong enough to stand up to the
54. 3:45chief judge miss McFadden who had
55. 3:48continuously sent home reports dating
56. 3:50very soon could do much notably better
57. 3:53big she paid attention person needs to
58. 3:57try harder my trial was a lengthy one
59. 4:02that continued throughout my school life
60. 4:05from time to time the judges and the
61. 4:08witnesses would change but the evidence
62. 4:11against me continued to mount up until
63. 4:16finally judgment they arrived no
64. 4:20surprises there
65. 4:21I failed my end of year exams and I was
66. 4:26sentenced to a lifetime of self-doubt
67. 4:29and shame my psychology was in turmoil
68. 4:34until a lot later on in life I
69. 4:36discovered I wasn't stupid I wasn't
70. 4:41I wasn't slow I was dyslexic which meant
71. 4:46that like millions of other dyslexic
72. 4:48people around the world I process
73. 4:51information using the right side of my
74. 4:54brain developmental dyslexia is a
75. 4:57learning difficulty that affects over
76. 5:0015% of the population dyslexic children
77. 5:05have a normal or above-average IQ but
78. 5:08most will fail at school due to a lack
79. 5:12of understanding and support I believe
80. 5:15the MIS McFadden's of the world have an
81. 5:18awfully lots of high demand a retrial I
82. 5:24demand my self-confidence to be
83. 5:26replenished I demand my university
84. 5:30degree it's taken me over 50 years to
85. 5:35convince the child within me that it's
86. 5:37not the end of the world if you can't
87. 5:39spell as good as others because we all
88. 5:42have different abilities and talents
89. 5:45that's what makes us who we are
90. 5:48Albert Einstein said everyone's a genius
91. 5:52but if you try and judge a fish by its
92. 5:55ability to climb a tree it's going to
93. 5:58live its entire life believing that it's
94. 6:01stupid my story is just a small example
95. 6:05of how childhood experiences can have an
96. 6:08impact on once adult life as a child my
97. 6:13confidence was battered and bruised and
98. 6:15to this day I still suffer with anxiety
99. 6:18and self-doubt issues it's taken me this
100. 6:22long to realize that failing at school
101. 6:24doesn't necessarily mean you're going to
102. 6:27fail in life you just need to look at
103. 6:30the famous dyslexics around the world to
104. 6:32realize that Albert Einstein Tom Cruise
105. 6:37Jamie Oliver Steve Jobs Whoopi Goldberg
106. 6:42and many many others including Steven
107. 6:48Spielberg who actually only found out he
108. 6:51was dyslexic at the age of 16 he
109. 6:55each and every one of those famous
110. 6:56people have their own individual stories
111. 6:59about their school trials just like mine
112. 7:03and many other people like me as the
113. 7:08famous civil rights activist Martin
114. 7:10Luther King said I have a dream I too
115. 7:13have a dream to create an education
116. 7:17system where children can enjoy the joy
117. 7:19of learning without feeling judged or
118. 7:22having to compete against their peers
119. 7:26but first we need to understand one
120. 7:29important point and that is that there's
121. 7:31a clear distinction between an inability
122. 7:34to learn and an inability to learn due
123. 7:38to the way you're being taught because
124. 7:40many children are failing at school
125. 7:42because they're not being taught in a
126. 7:45way that they can learn I personally
127. 7:48fought I'm going to go and do a little
128. 7:50bit of research how other countries
129. 7:53education systems are doing so I fall
130. 7:57where best to start where my English
131. 8:00teacher was Miss mcfadden the United
132. 8:03Kingdom and I only to discover that in
133. 8:072016 research showed that 43% of primary
134. 8:12school children were failing to acquire
135. 8:15the required skills in math reading and
136. 8:19writing so I thought let me do a more
137. 8:22global search to see what comes up and I
138. 8:26discovered that Finland have been global
139. 8:29leaders in education for the past 16
140. 8:32years so what are they doing right let
141. 8:35me have a look first of all Finland
142. 8:38believe that stress is an important
143. 8:41obstacle in any child's learning process
144. 8:43so they do their best to eliminate
145. 8:45stress children don't start school until
146. 8:48the age of seven because they believe
147. 8:51that children aren't ready to learn the
148. 8:53skills of reading writing and maths
149. 8:56until that age kindergarten is placed on
150. 9:00play because they believe that play is a
151. 9:02significant part of any child's learning
152. 9:05process homework
153. 9:08hardly give any homework there's no set
154. 9:11of statutory exams until they reach the
155. 9:14age of 16 there's no culture of private
156. 9:18education and tuition teachers need to
157. 9:23complete an extra five years master's
158. 9:26degree to qualify as a teacher but once
159. 9:29they have they get prestige and higher
160. 9:32pay parents and schools put their trust
161. 9:37in the teaching profession because
162. 9:39they're seen in the category of doctors
163. 9:41and lawyers so within the theme of
164. 9:46today's event and in true dyslexic style
165. 9:50I'd like to ask you all to work with me
166. 9:54to turn the education system upside down
167. 9:57to bring about an educational system
168. 9:59that braces all learning styles that
169. 10:03allows children to learn own pace using
170. 10:07all their senses to enhance creative
171. 10:10learning
172. 10:10let's stop judging and start teaching
173. 10:14children thank you