I'm from National Tsing Hua University,
Lin Hsiu Hau, who's pretty sick today.
Sorry but my voice is very attractive today.
Today what I'm going to talk about is:
"Open creativity, Leap Pondering"
This is an easy theme, really easy.
Besides, since you won't understand,
I can say whatever.
But then you guys will want ticket refund.
So for this,
the main reason for coming here today,
is to share with everyone,
that last year we recieved
a major international education award.
Of course this isn't just me,
it's the efforts of a whole team.
You can see our core members are all here today!
I'm very glad.
Remember one thing:
Later on what I speak about,
isn't just my own actions.
If you think my speech is bad,
everyone in the team is to be blamed!
So actually last year,
we gained a major award
for globally open education
by MIT.
They only give 5 awards every year!
So you can see,
I mean, hear you can see
a little classroom where our lessons take place.
In a small classroom like this in Tsing Hua University,
how do we,
that is, using what kind of effort,
and what type of creativity,
what type of knowlegde,
so that we can stand on the top of international-leveled education?
And gain this award?
Actually, when recieving this award,
all of us were very surprised.
It's like we didn't know what happened.
So the secret to getting this award is:
"I don't know."
Okay now that you hear this you're thinking:
"What? I'm going to get ticket refund."
So what I'm really going to talk about today is,
"A longer version."
This is what we wanted to share
after a long discussion and deep thoughts,
about what is something special
to share with you all?
The reality is:
"Open to refocus."
So for example if today,
we were to newly create a new class,
what I'm asking myself
is not tweaking. (Changing a little bit)
If you want to do some
meaningful things in life,
you will realize tweaking
doesn't help innovate ideas.
So what's the easiest result?
The easiest is to not plan and expect anything.
So here I am going to share,
is not just what I feel when preparing for classes,
but what attitude I learned
throughout my life till 40.
That is "Open to refocus."
What is "Open to refocus?"
"Open to refocus" is
if you want to complete something,
if you need to accomplish something important,
when you're planning earlier on,
you should open your heart.
Listen to all kinds of different suggestions,
process the suggestions,
and complete all the tasks.
When you are in this "Open period",
in this period where your heart is open,
gathering all the information,
you must remember one thing:
Anything that is good in quality,
when you have completed a certain amount
there will always be people against you.
If you don't want to offend anyone,
just don't do it then.
Everyone can do "Open",
but not everyone can "refocus".
Something even worse is
working all the way from the beginning on your own,
and in the middle you realize
that you can't stand the pressure others are putting on you,
so you start to change your path.
If it's like that,
I really advice to rather just quit.
I think the reason why our course
can have different qualities from others,
an important reason is because:
At the very beginning<
we accepted all ideas.
After working through all the suggestions,
we actually put in effort
to use a new perspective,
to present something we value.
For example:
in physics,
or so we call in the science world,
actually things will start to change.
This is very important.
Which means as time goes by,
how does an object change?
If you think about it,
professionally we call it "dynamics"
So how can you describe what "dynamics" is?
Here, we can see that cute
daddy Newton is grinning.
Why?
Because he's been in books for over hundreds of years.
Think about it,
if you were to teach kids
how this world changes?
You would say, "oh it's easy!"
"Just connect cause and effect!"
An object recieves a force,
therefor it has an acceleration.
This is why.
Think about it, this makes sense.
Every text book starts from here,
it makes sense!
But let's ponder further in depth.
Newton has already been important for hundreds of years.
Why can't he give the spotlight to someone else?
So here,
I decided.
There are so many changing things in our daily life,
why must it be "F=ma"?
I decided to tell my student:
Come! I'll teach you about cram schools in Taiwan!
Cram schools （after school classes outside of school) in Taiwan are very fascinating.
We probably have the most educational revolutions
in the world.
We change this and that.
Whether we are ready
or not.
Anyways! We just change everything!
And then you realize,
we are actually not aware of the students.
This is why there's
so many people worried about our education.
However, cram schools don't pray,
but yet they are able to keep up good business.
This is something worthy of discussion.
Okay!
So in this situation,
lets see what educationalists say?
This is what they are saying:
Don't go to cram schools! If everyone doesn't cram,
the competitive ability of each child is "1".
Alternatively, if everyone goes to cram school,
it becomes impossible to learn in depth knowledge.
So everyone's competitive ability drops to "0.8"
This sounds reasonable right?
But if it's reasonable,
why doesn't it change the cram school situation in Taiwan?
We can view this in a scientific perspective.
Let's pull away from cram schools for a second,
and look at
the "bubbles" in our bubble tea.
There are many.
Many you cannot see in the drink,
those are like this long rectangular thing.
This is called E. coli.
And you can see there's a lot of
small round "bubbles" around it.
If you think that these small bubbles have no worries,
you're wrong!
On the small bubbles,
there's a bunch of small tiny things,
called bacteriophage.
Bacteriophage of course, eats up bacteria.
So they eats up the E. coli.
The way they eat, is very hollywood. (Dramatic)
They insert their DNA into the bacteria,
and start developing heads,
legs,
and more and more,
Until it fills up the whole bacteria,
the E. coli explodes!
And then the bacteriophages move our,
and continue to the next E. coli.
Disgusting right?
So you would now think:
when we drink bubble tea,
there are bubbles we can't see,
and those are like E. coli, and they worry,
because bacteriophages will eat them up.
You might feel that bacterias are pretty simple.
Wrong.
There are 2 types of bacteria.
One type is "good", and they go like:
"Huh? you're missing a head? Here! take mine."
"Missing legs? I'll lend you legs."
So everyone helps each other.
You can imagine how the adaptability of these bacterias are.
Pretty good.
And what's the other type of bacteria?
The other type is like this:
"Ah! He's almost done but missing a head!"
Quietly heads the head in secret/
I don't know,
if you have ever met this kind of person while growing up?
or say "Oh, he's just missing a leg."
or "He's done?"
and sticks an extra leg so he can't move.
He's stuck.
So this is the more evil bacteria.
So comparing these two types of bacteria,
you will find that
the good bacteria have better adaptability.
They grow faster.
And the bad ones have bad adaptability.
They grow slower.
Now we can conclude that
in a cup of bubble tea,
we can see our cram schools in it!
Moving on,
in The University of Maryland,
they grew a bunch of these "bubbles".
And when putting them together
they suddenly discover
something extraordinary.
The bad selfish bacterias win!
And what happens is that the whole cup
is filled with the bad ones!
Why is this?
We should think about this
in deep thoughts.
The main reason is because
when the bad bacterias meet the good ones,
their adaptability becomes "2".
On the other hand,
when the good meets the bad,
the good bacteria's adaptability becomes "0.6."
So now we can see that
even if today here most people are "normal",
under this situation
if there is 1 bad bacteria,
and that bad bacteria had an adaptability of "2",
while all of us normal people is "1",
what can it do?
It's adaptability is better, so it grows into more,
and more. Until when the population reaches 1:1,
look at it again.
The population of bacteria is
half, is good.
Half, is bad.
So now you can see that
if you are a good bacteria,
you can 50% chance to meet another good bacteria,
and 50% to meet bad ones.
so your average adaptability is
1 plus 0.6 divided by 2 which equals 0.8.
See? I'm fast at math.
What if you're a bad/selfish bacteria?
You also have fifty fifty chances.
So you're adaptability is 2 plus 0.8 divided by 2 which is 1.4.
This is bad!
It's already halfway,
yet the selfish bacterias are still what?
Still better! (Better adaptability)
So they will still evolve further!
And now what do you think of?
A famous line in the movie "Jurassic Park"
is a very good excuse for all parents and all teachers:
"Life will find it's way out."
That is,
"Life will find it's way out"
When you are getting tired of teaching,
you can say "It's okay!"
"I'm not gonna teach anymore! Because you guys will always find your way out right?"
I have to say here that,
the way out may be pretty devastating.
Why?
Because you can see,
that every moment,
the selfish bacteria had better adaptability.
And eventually, all the bacteria become bad.
Through this,
if we model this situation today,
we find something very interesting.
This is calculated by the computer.
The blue parts are
innocent good students.
Every one of them leads a normal life.
But then there are a few worried parents who take their kids to cram school.
Slowly, cram schools open up.
Tutors,
and then educational companies.
And in the end, everything turns "red."
This is the situation of our education right now.
Which means,
if you don't go to cram schools,
you are the miscalculated point in the data.
According to data,
our educational system is encouraging everyone to go to cram schools.
This is actually,
a very horrifying reality.
At first when almost everything is blue,
what's the adaptability of the whole society?
It's 1.
But what about when it's red?
What the adaptability of the whole society when it's red?
It's 0.8.
Here is a very interesting scientific situation.
That is, although in the whole competing process,
selfish/bad bacterias have better adaptability,
but in the end,
viewing society as a whole,
the society has declined, not improved.
So the next time you watch Jurassic park,
you can say:
Yes, that's right. Life will always find it's way out.
But you might end up on third floor
while the real exit is in the basement.
So today,
let's stop looking at how that apple fell down due to gravity.
There's actually a very interesting
equation behind this.
I promised TED to not put in too many equations.
It's equation will drop down with the apple.
It's the same.
So now we learn something important!
When the apple falls down,
you can't tell the apple to stay still,
and say:
"Why are you falling to the ground?"
You have to understand why is it falling down.
Same goes for
our whole educational system.
If it's like this,
what we just talked about,
then it's impossible to ask everyone to stop going to cram school.
This is completely useless.
From this very simple scientific example,
we can see that
we are still able to educate kids,
so they can see the whole situation and changes.
But from now on,
not only can they learn the normal "F=ma",
and all those equations,
they can also connect to the society.
So I would think that
when we try and give some space,
and to create something like this,
it is possible to create a whole new market.
And now going back,
"Open to refocus".
We are teaching in university.
Education in Taiwan is funny,
in elementary school we tell the kids
"Don't lie"
"Bring your handkerchiefs"
Do this, do that.
In middle school there are less teachers like this.
And in high school even less.
In university, the teachers often say that
"Hey I know calculus, I know equations"
but in the end they don't share a lot.
When prepping for classes, I often think yo myself,
"Can we only teach professional knowledge in class?"
"Can't we do something else?"
My life isn't all that amazing,
but why can't I share my failures in life with you?
Why are you laughing?
I often tell my students,
"Sharing about failure is important!"
Not many people talk about their failures.
Am I right?
So that is why,
I decided to share different things
in class with my students.
And there's one thing that really moved me.
I usually record my lectures,
and surprisingly, my students split into six groups,
to go find out what useless things did I say in class.
Previously, during exams,
they would go see my recording,
and what happens is this:
"The teacher is ranting again! Fast forward!"
and when it's normal they watch.
But this time it's the opposite!
When the teacher is doing physics,
"Fast forward!"
When the teacher is blabbering,
"Watch it!"
And that is how the put all the random things
i said in class into a book.
They gave the book to me.
I was so touched!
I was truly touched
so I made a cute face and took a selfie with the book.
Then the students, with creativity,
picked a student who looks similar to me,
adjusted him to the right angle, and his glasses are like mine,
also made sure the eyes are the same,
took a picture with a book too.
Then they sent the picture to me.
So here I would think, "This is right!"
When you share with students in class,
in the end, you do get feedback.
It's similar to when students ask me:
"What should I do if I feel painful when studying?"
I, as a cruel teacher, would reply,
"Learning is suffering. Just suffer and try to live with it."
But then some students go on and then realize,
"But not only in studying,
I feel painful even in communicating, living, and talking!"
So I tell him the other version,
"Life in painful!
Just suffer and try to live with it!!"
I also share some of my favorite books with my students in class.
Yes, I teach in university.
Not kindergarten.
This book is called "Miss Rumphius."
It's a very good story book.
I also tell them in class
that they are very lucky to be able to study in Tsing Hua.
You can split life into three parts.
One part, to do whatever you want.
Another part, also to to what you want.
Then they would probably think that,
"Teacher, you want me to donate the third right?"
"Where should I go to do volunteer?"
Nope, that's not it.
It's not that scary.
What do you think the third part is for?
You can actually still do what you want.
Do something that will make the world more beautiful.
I believe if we all use a positive perspective to see the world,
all hatred will cease.
Lastly, I also share in class,
a very important aspect in life.
Love, and living.
I will tell them,
if you can find someone to love,
and that person also loves you,
that is actually a very precious thing.
Here is a photo of my and my wife
being married 19 years ago.
The main point of this photo is not the boy and the girl,
but my wife gently holding on to my hand.
19 years later,
we will still gently hold on each others hands,
and walk towards the next step in life.
I want to tell you:
Dating is easy.
But to find someone to be with for life,
is more than challenging.
Communication is very important.
Here's a little story to share:
When we were just married,
we both spoiled kids.
Not kids, but students.
And my wife is more creative than I am.
So one day I came home and opened the fridge,
Wow! Something white that looked like tofu
filled a whole container.
I took a spoon and tasted,
Wow! It just looks like tofu!
It's horrible!
But what now?
We just got married and I wanted to protect our relationship.
So I thought,
I'm a good guy, and ate it all.
I didn't say anything,
and just washed the dished.
The next day,
Wow! I saw the same container, filled with the same tofu-like thing!
Then my wife came out of the room and said,
"Hey, I didn't know you really loved this!"
"So I made more today!"
So from here we can learn an important thing.
What is it?
Loving is easy,
but being together,
communication is most important.
So now at the end of my talk,
I want to talk about something I learned in Hiroshima.
One year, we went to Hiroshima for a conference.
The local authorities planned a trip for us to a famous shrine.
When everyone was behind,
I climbed up to the mountain,
and quietly stayed there.
While silently sitting there,
I noticed a weird old man who came beside me.
He took out a piece of paper and started stone rubbing on the ground!
I thought: What in the world?
So I went over and started chatting with him.
And we talked about many things.
Later on did I know that he was actually
the Art Director of the Hiroshima Art and Culture Festival.
He also showed me many sketches he had.
We talked about many artistic views.
When I was about to leave, I told him,
"Wow! I envy you, that you are able to go around the world
and sketch to record down what you see."
Then he told me something.
He said, "Which child doesn't know how to draw?
We have never lost our ability to draw,
what we've lost is our courage to share with others."
Here, at this place,
I am sharing this to all people who still have dreams to chase.
Thank you.
Subtitles by the Amara.org community