12 year old Adora Svitak has been described as a child prodigy and with good reason. She’s frickin’ brilliant.
Her best line from the talk:
The traits the word childish addresses are seen so often in adults that we should abolish this age discriminatory word when it comes to criticizing behavior associated with irresponsibility and irrational thinking.
Svitak possesses something that not many people of her intelligence, let alone age, ever manage to grasp within their lifetimes: wisdom.
Having worked in the world of children’s television I have more than had my fill of clever, wisecracking kids. It’s a bogus fallacy that feeds Roald Dahl’s addage that to reach a young audience one must first conspire with them against the adults. Fair enough but some jerkweed midget version of Pauly Shore is not what the world needs more of.
We need more Adora’s.
Her insights into the need for children and adults to communicate more effectively and for adults to listen and take heed of what children see and know is vitally important to everyone’s future. Listen to this kid. And then go listen to your own.
Cheers.
Tags: Adora Svitak, adults, brains, brilliant kid, future, I am so frickin' jealous of how smart this kid is, smart kid, ted talks, video, youth
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Art Feeds, Brooke. Brooke said: http://www.millsworks.net/blog/2010/04/05/adora-svitak-ted-talk-what-adults-can-learn-from-kids/ Brilliant 12 y/o Adora Svitak [...]