WONDER: TEDxFargo speakers focus on questions to inspire change
July 28, 2015
Approximately 1,800 people were invited to wonder deeply as they heard from more than 20 speakers and performers — including Moorhead High teacher Rebecca Meyer-Larson — during the July 23 TEDxFargo. Fargo’s sixth TEDx, an independently organized TED event based on the TED premise of ideas worth spreading, focused this year on the theme of WONDER.
“The first time I was called an instigator, I was a freshman in high school,” said Rebecca Meyer-Larson, Moorhead High teacher and theater director and founder of ACT UP Theatre, a social justice theatre company based in Fargo-Moorhead.
Meyer-Larson defined an instigator as a person who brings about or initiates something, referencing past instigators like Rosa Parks, Harvey Milk or Steve Jobs. Then she described the challenges of raising her son Finn.
“Education is wary of instigators,” she said.
According to Meyer-Larson, her son Finn represents a group of kids who are at risk because they are smart, energetic and creatively frustrated. “They know the hoops to jump through, can easily jump, but they just don’t like the hoop,” she said.
Meyer-Larson questioned the emphasis on testing in education and the medication of kids for too much energy. “When did youthful energy become a detriment?” she asked.
Meyer-Larson entered education believing it could be a place where her creativity could flourish. “We need more teacher instigators,” she said.
She acknowledged that she is not a fan of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), but is a proponent of STEAM, which includes the arts. “The link between arts and achievement is clear,” she said, noting that the arts improve school culture and decrease discipline issues.
“Listen to our instigators,” Meyer-Larson said. “I have learned when you nurture kids and find their voices it is an amazing thing.”
“Potential is a word that inspires wonder,” said Anne Blackhurst, president of Minnesota State University Moorhead. “It invites us to imagine what we might achieve if we could maximize our capabilities.”
Blackhurst explained that the value of a college education is being questioned, with only 13 percent believing college graduates are prepared for the workplace, and that it is increasingly difficult for colleges to be relevant. She noted that 65 percent of children will have careers that don’t exist today.
“We must teach skills that stand the test of time — creativity, innovation, problem solving,” Blackhurst said. “Innovation is today’s most important real-world skill.”
Blackhurst spoke about creating a culture of innovation and teaching perseverance. At MSUM they are working to create a culture with the values of grit, humility and heart at the core.
West Fargo second-grade teacher Kayla Delzer encouraged teachers to release the power by moving to a students-teaching-students model in their classrooms.
“Embrace their knowledge, and they’ll embrace their learning,” she said.
Delzer said it’s important to get technology into the hands of kids when they need it so they learn skills for a lifetime, to make global connections, and to reinvent the skills of today by assessing students on their 4C’s (collaboration, communication, critical thinking and creativity) or on their grit.
“Relationships between students and passionate teachers will always be the foundation of successful classrooms,” Delzer said.
Gary Greff considers himself a one-of-a-kind person who created a one-of-a-kind project with the Enchanted Highway, seven of the world’s largest scrap metal sculptures near Regent, N.D., to draw tourists to the area.
“Nobody’s going to stop for normal,” he said.
Although he hated school, Greff became a teacher and then a principal. He had never welded before, but didn’t let that stop him.
“I want you to believe,” he said. “You can create something. Believe in yourself.”
“I love a good T-shirt,” said Bill Svoboda, who started Coed Monkey, an online custom T-shirt company.
He spoke about the innovation in fabric types and how company’s who
invest in T-shirts are investing in their brand.
“We should be so passionate about whatever we’re in,” Svoboda said.
AJ Leon was passionless about his work until the day he decided to stop living someone else’s life.
“I learned you always have more choices than you think you have,” said the former banker turned writer, designer, adventurer and humanitarian.
“This is not your practice life,” Leon said. “This is all there is.”
Dr. Starla Fitch, ophthalmologist and author of “Remedy for Burnout,” said that with busy lives people become blind to each other. However connection is good for people since social isolation increases the risk of death.
Her prescription: “Open your eyes, look at each other and make the connection today.”
Other speakers included:
- Nathan Clark with artisan marshmallow company Wondermade;
- Ted Dintersmith, a former venture capitalist now focused on innovation and education;
- Megan Orcholski, a faculty member at Concordia College for five years;
- Paul Shoemaker with Social Venture Partners;
- Jeff Volk, president and CEO of Moore Engineering;
- Dr. Carol Gunn, an advocate for patient and employee safety;
- Dr. Rajiv Shah, dedicated to having patients and pharmacists being partners in healthcare to improve medication-taking behavior;
- Shawn Muehler, COO of drone software company Botlink;
- Tim Brookins with Microsoft;
- Charles Miller, cofounder and chief design office of Vidku, executive director of the Insitute for Design and Innovation at the University of Minnesota, and an associate professor at the University of Minnesota;
- Chandra Krintz, professor of computer science at the University of California, Santa Barbara;
- Diane Miller, editor of the High Plains Reader;
- Tristan Pollock with 500 Startups; and
- Nipun Mehta, founder of ServiceSpace.
Musician Leoncarlo Canlas performed, and area students with local theater groups sang.
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