Never miss a talk! SUBSCRIBE to the TEDx channel: http://bit.ly/1FAg8hB When 13 year-old Logan LaPlante grows up, he wants to be happy and healthy. He discusses how hacking his education is helping him achieve this goal. About TEDx, x = independently organized event. In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

Comments

1. Yes, he is a lucky rich kid and not everyone can have the opportunities he has, but that's the point he is trying to make. We need to change the system to include practical learning. In my school, every lesson that I have had, from the age of 11 to the age of 16 has been entirely focused on learning content for exams, yes I am might get As or A*s in my GCSEs but what does that matter? The lessons that this kid has learnt hold so much more value that the one's I have learnt. I could not imagine standing in front of a large group of people and talking about my opinions- I did a speaking and listening in English in front of 4 people about my opinions and I was shaking and fighting back tears. In education, you get what you measure, and if we measure how well someone can pass a test, then no one is learning anything. He is saying we need to teach about happiness and creativity. Yes, not everyone can have the opportunities he has and that's the point. We need to create a system that encompasses creative subjects, practical experiences, life lessons and academic work and values students not on the grades they get in exams but how they have developed as a person. If only the rich kids can afford to 'hack school' and receive a well-rounded education then we are enforcing a class division and making it harder for people to escape poverty. It is not difficult to change the curriculum to address this issue but the reason nothing's happened is because the people in power are disconnected from the issues that they are trying to correct, how many of them went to 'normal' state schools? This kid is proof that pressure for achieving amazing exam results does not make you clever or intelligent but it is what you experience and how you process it, and we need to listen.
2. This presentation was definitely written for him
3. I started online school and I've learned, not to much school stuff, but learned alot about coding and cyber things
4. This dude is going places
5. Wait, he's a male?!
6. why we don't like school?
7. I am in grade 6 I will ask my teachers on a daily basis "how will this apply to life and or career" normally they will say oh if you want to blank blank or blank then you will need this stuff. So to get back at them what I will do is when we take tests I will doodle and illiterate stuff. If in science we are learning about astriods I will draw a detailed picture on the top right hand corner of an astriod entering the atmosphere and a dinosaur looking at it. On any test I will draw things that are related to it. On a social studies test draw a picture of a gravestone and write on it sandy has contracted disentary. This is a refernce to the game oregan trail. So this video is a good example that there is still a hope. my parents tested me for gifted straight 100s exect for creativity which I made a buch of circles into a control pad that launches nukes now they saw that as not good enough. the one kid that did get in made a giant game of dots. Are you serious. The school system is messed up and we need to fix it. My friends and I disscus this at lunch every day.
8. this kid has his life figured out and here i am graduating in a year having no clue what to do
9. I'm glad I found someone I can relate to!
   Thank you for the brilliant talk, dude
10. because there is more like you.
11. I think its great that this kid has the kind of support that affords him these opportunities, but it isn't a reality for most kids. How do we create these kinds of opportunities in an accessible way that every child can grow from? And does that responsibility fall onto the shoulders of educators, parents, or policy makers? Actually to answer my own question its all of the above... but policymakers clearly don't have anyone's best interest in mind except their own, teachers are criminally undervalued and unequipped, and parents are often too busy or don't have the resources to provide the care and encouragement their kids need.
    
    So I propose we kidnap all children to take all of the variable factors at home out of the equation, have them all in boarding schools where they get to choose their curriculum (to a degree) and stop telling kids that they have to conform to a broken societal standard that, for over a hundred years, has just produced miserable worker bees that are forcing the world into a darker and darker place.
    
    
    This may qualify as "state-sponsored brainwashing" but if you let me lead :)it I promise the results will be some of the smartest, happiest, most successful children (and ultimately, adults) the world has known. ;)
12. wow... I agree to every thing you say.
13. so amazing
14. That one made me smile :D
15. I'm old and retired. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up!
16. I'm sorry but I thought he was a girl...
17. I am proud of this kid- I may not know him but the way he was brought up is amazing. The ways that he has learned throughout the years actually makes me feel jealous. I am a 17 year old girl, who just found out this way of living. I wish I had found it sooner but, I am glad I found it.
18. This talk reminds me of Captain Fantastic!
19. When I first saw this dude I thought he was a chick..
    Cuz he had a high pitch voice and longs hair. Shut up you feminist, typically girls have higher voice and longer hair than men so save it and take it to some on who cares...
    Anyone else think this kid was a girl? Don't be afended by the way, he cool
20. I'm I the only one that thought this dude was a girl?