I Need a Simple Conversation Starter

I loved this brief article about Conversation Starters. And I still plan to buy the book it references. Seems to me it could be a good way to teach kids how to engage in their own attempts at the art of conversation.

In the meantime though, I decided I need a simple conversation starter. One that could make us laugh and think. So I've turned to TED talks.

It's only been a week, but my girls are already hooked. "Which TED talk are we going to listen to tonight?" they beam.

I leave the computer in the kitchen, turn the speakers towards the dining room, and it's like going back in time... to radio days. We listen, we laugh (the other night we cried).

And when it's all over, the conversation spills out non-stop. It's invigorating.

So far, one of our favorites was J. K. Rowling's discussion of the fringe benefits of failure. Frankly, I don't think any parental talk I could have given would have gone as far as that one graduation speech crafted for Harvard graduates. My Eldest sat wide-eyed, taking it all in.

Do you need a simple conversation starter too? An after-dinner TED might just be your answer.


(Note: some of the TED talks include very serious, potentially too-mature material. Watch first. My girls are 11 and 13, and I don't regret having listened to Rowling's talk with them, but you might feel differently about such things. :)

J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

All kids have tremendous talents and we squander them, ruthlessly.

We should treat creativity with the same status as we do literacy.

If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original. By organizing education so the worse thing is to be wrong, we are educating people out of their creative capacities.

The arts are at the bottom of the academic value system.

Our task is to educate a child's whole being.

These are some of the claims Ken Robinson makes in this TED talk. I tend to agree with him. But you probably guessed that a long time ago.