Do that. Again, it has been a problem for us aid for sometime. The alan speak about growth story, and whether or restrictions efforts are constant. Have been quite by the inted administration. I think it is tied up in cuban politics. To get him out but there is no beyond the diplomatic channels. That amily has frustration what is being old done. Phone question, we had some but what the administration talked about, in the re been a turn or are they concerned still an uncontained situation . Has been a there is slowing. The word contain might be a premature. There has been small outbreaks in other not even that we have read about, that is a sign of how effective the response has been. As you mentioned before, it is putting a strain on the agency because theyre having to pull people and resources from other places to deal with that. It is impacting their work in syria and es like south sudan. Sustainability is the question. It is not how the necessary funding to carry on with this mission to build to eradicate this outbreak. It is an issue that has affected other crisis. Is going to impact the to ntries and they are going become greater challenges. Happy thanksgiving. Happy thanksgiving. How the Us Government waste is millions of dollars on the war on terror. To try to investigate to what happened with all the money that the outofstate sent to iraq. Around 20 llion, or billion that the us sent to iraq and was unaccounted for. That stigators found millions was stolen after went apparently by powerful iraqi. It was hidden in a bunker in rural lebanon. Tonight, on cspan. We have an inside and the president s from gerald ford to barack obama. A group of education innovators from around the country recently spoke at chicago adie is weak but the future of education. They discussed other alternatives to traditional teaching. This is just under an hour and a half. What a pleasure to be here the end a great topic, of school. I am and every surrey psychologist and what that interested at i am in human nature. In the nature of human children. Here to idea that i am this, children biologically designed to educate themselves. They do it through play, we do not need to educate children. Always to do is to provide the conditions that would allow them to educate themselves. The basic instincts of childhood, their playfulness, decision ability pushed by natural selection. We take those abilities away put them in schools. If we provide the condition need to educate themselves, we really can do away with schools as we know them. Plus [applause] some of you might think i am think some of you might im an idealist. I can assure d u i am neither, i am a har realist. The idea i am talking about today is supported by a great deal of empirical Observation Research which has elaborated on my book, but here they have a few minutes to try to convince you. The first way i want to think idea is by looking at other cultures. Were all hunter gathered. Some people around the world have survived like that for years. If youd years ago we conducted a survey of 10 different anthropologist which had different hunter gathered cultures. We asked questions about how children became educated on that culture, one of the much time do how children have the play and explore on their own . Was all the time. Even the teenagers are free to play, explore and to engage away from adult all they want, everyday. Other question we asked was, what other forms of their play . One thing we found was that they play at the very activities that are hardest to learn and most important to success in their culture. They play hunting, and gathering and finding routes. The dugout canoes, bows and musical instruments. They play at those things that they have to learn to become educated. Anthropologist also told us have never seen writer, happier more resilient and more self reliant children than the hunter gatherer children. Could this work in our culture . At first you would think, of course it cant. There are things that we have like ed that they do not, reading and arithmetic. Moreover, it is not so easy for our children to be exposed to all the scales that is important to the culture. Was founded in 1968 so it now has been in existence for have a century. It has students, aaged four on until about 18. Around eight Staff Members, it operates on a that is around half of the other schools. All students that apply. Eliteeducation, this is affordable. The unique things about this weight that is administrative and the philosophy of the school. A e school operates as participatory democracy, all school rules are being by students and teachers which have one vote. They have a committee which is jury led after the systemof our culture. One y given time there is a couple of teenagersand the judicial committee, weather is a staff they r or a student when come upon rule they the jury. School the way the operates. In terms of educational is essentially the same like the hunter gathered. No test, curriculum, no grades, no substitute for grades. It expects children to decide themselves what they want to learn and how they want to learn it. Were to go through the school at any time of the day u might see scenes like this slides. Will see kids making various art project or somebody cooking in the kitchen, in the computer lab on the photo lab. Children building playing cks, children music kids drawing in a blackboard. Game people playing a such as cheques. You might find people fishing in the pond, then again on the athletic field. You might find people building a snowman or d. Ting on the pon playing t also see them much traditional playgrounds ways. The key to learning at this school is engagement. The children and not segregated by age, the older kids are ittle kids. L they want to be able to read you visit all the once read, they want to climb trees in they see the older ones. They are bringing them up to higher performances. Many children in school land to read because they play games which involve reading with kids that know how to. Teach them to read because they almost need to do so to play the game. Back, i should say the advantage of age mixing also goes the other way. They older children learn how to care and to nurse. They are also being continuously inspired by the creativity of the younger ones. The age mixing is as valuable for the older kids as it is for the younger ones. The work comes from followup studies of the graduates. I along with a colleague, conducted one such study. The people at all of who graduated, they were doing there in the world. O problems in higher to go that s chose way. There working out wide roti of careers. They were all very satisfied with their lives. Many of them were pursuing careers which were direct had nsion of passions they veloped in childhood play. One of them was a machinist inventor. Another one loved boats and he is now a captain of the cruise ship. Was fascinated by computers, he developed his own software company. Another loved to make doll clothes and now she is a the high aker in fashion industry. Is people who have time to like to ursue what they play at, and find a way of making a living offered. They were doing what they were really interested in doing. Since the time of my study a couple of other studies at the school have been conducted by Staff Members. They have been published as books and they came to the same conclusion as we did. The model is replicable, three dozen schools copied it, mostly in this country some in others. To her is closest the tollcross sudbury. This success does not seem to depend on Socio Economic e particulars th of students personalities. Here i want to describe the conditions that i think are gathered the hunter and the schools. And there really are the conditions that optimise childrens possibilities to educate themselves. The first is a clear understanding that education is a childs responsibility. When children know that they are responsible for their they take that education. When they are led to believe that somebody else is responsible for their education what hey have to do is do they are told, then they do not take responsibility for their education. Limited ondition, and pursue to play your interest. Unlimited time. It takes timeto try out time rent things, it takes to get bored. Overcome boredom, to find your passion. It takes a limited amount of time to find your passion, you ith ot interrupt that w bells and telling people consulate what to do and expect them to develop a passion. Three, opportunity to play with the tools of the culture. Gathered that would be bolder narrows and digging sticks. In our society the major tool would be a computer. They know that this is a tool of the culture and they need to spend a lot of time with it. It becomes an extension of their own body. Access to a variety of caring adults who are helpers not dges. Important that last practice, helpers, not judges. Want to go rson you to the learner is somebody who is evaluating you. The presently go to more as a frame of mind to try how much you th know, not to say read dont i need some help. By not judging the children, Staff Members are much able on be helpers then teachers a typical school. Free age mixing between children and adolescentsis absolutely key to the school. It will not work if your children all the same age, because children do not have much to learn from kids the same age. They learn from kids who are older or younger. Emerging on a stable and more democratic community. In the hunter gatheredband their own different ways, they are democratic communities. There are communities where every child knows that their ideas and actions influence the others involved in the community. Are in a setting where just feel responsible not for themselves, but for the community where they are developing. There is an extraordinarily aspect for the education and one which is completely ignored in our regular schools. I want you to notice that none of these conditions exist in our current schools. If we deliberately take away from children everything that need to educate themselves put them in schools and then we try very inefficiently and very ineffectively to educate them. To conclude this way, i am absolutely sure someday people are going to back at us now and theyre were those y, what people thinking . Did they ever ieve that koresh and coercion is essential for education . Believe that standardisation, that all children should learn the same things and be tested by the same test . What kind of crazy idea is that . I am sure wont we will reach a day when people will look back and say that. I hope we reached that day sooner than later. That some of you, all of you i hope, will play a role in bringing that time about before it is too late. With that i thank you for your time and attention. I thank you for being here. [applause] and bless you all. Of lets have another round applause for peter. [applause] our next speaker has taken his turn tedious the ideas of peter into action. He has tried to teach kids some pretty powerful stuff. Heres a do it yourself neuroscientist. An organisation which develops kids to discover new science and how the brain works. Subjects of these just put it less this way, cockroaches will be used in the next demonstration. The end of school lets welcome greg gage. [applause] hello chicago. I am actually from michigan. You guys are good people so i am excited about this. Am a neuroscientist. Have a makeup to build n allowing us lowcost tools. Learn about to changes that there are that have happened and making something that we called citizen science. I am in neuroscientist, in order to study the brain and have to go to graduate school. Trying to spend six years on a access to the tools to understand how the brain works. Little bit silly because one out of five oz is going to have in neurological disorder. I had to understand how the brain works. If you wanted to learn astronomy, you do not have to a ph. D. In astrophysics. You can buy a telescope and set it up on your backyard. You will become interested, you in becoming erested an astronomy. As an amateur level it should access the same tools. Mates d work with my lab in graduate school, we would go outside to try to change that. Would have papiermache frankenstein, trying to put ice cream on his head. Visual take out the cortex right here, the student would have blinders on. Another student will take the motor cortex and we put his arms down so he could not move. Those trying to explain different part of the brain but it was very different of what were doing and the lab. This stuff in the lab was cool but it was so abstract. The time we decided, with an idea and would published an o. Tract here in chicag were called at the hundred dollar spike. Want to take the Lab Equipment cost around 40,000 and make it affordable enough to Even High School teachers could use it. In da will record the same a simple way. It et up and we presented at the conference. There is me on the left, and tim on the right. Did not involve work, but much interest from scientist when we showed what we try to do that we kept getting emails. Was a good aybe this idea so we did just that, we started with our prototype, we on it until finally we ually version that act works. Is the spyker box. We are not going to use a hightech computer but students record the able to neuro activity. Before i go into the experiment less to a brief and what the brain is and what neurons are. Not many people, this is interesting. 20 of the world, nobody really knows what the basic cell in the brain is. Information gets passed from part of the other, the information comes in the form of electricity, ilchester goes from one cell to the other. Irritated enough time that is to see, think, move. This is all done through ty. Trici this comes in small packets. It allows your brain to function. Lets see some demos. To use my going brain, im not going to bring someone appear to drill. I am actually going touse the pull out these cockroaches. Well, disaster. [laughter] you got this . Is a south american cockroach. First i am going to anesthetize him in ice water. You see him moving around . No tricks, these guys are alive. I am going to put him and icewater for a few moments. Anyone know why we are doing this . These guys or what . Warmed up warmblooded . Coldblooded, right, meaning that even after a few seconds they become instantly the same as the icewater. Why do they stop moving us and as they are cold . It means they stop moving because they slow down. He stops moving and stops feeling pain as well. I am going to remove one of his legs. We are going to record the neurons inside legs. I am going to cut off of the legs right there. Let me go back to the slides really quickly. Lets talk briefly about what we are doing here. All of these beautiful hairs are going down the leg. Do somethingm to interesting, detect the world around him. Inside each hair is in your on that sends electrical messages to the brain. Even though i coughed the leg, the brain does not know that, it keeps sending messages back and forth and it will try to get information to the brain even though the brain is not there. We should be able to listen into how the brain actually functions. Going to put a couple of pins on the leg. These are positive and negative pins. You need to points for electricity. Dont think that there are neurons in the back. I am going to put one of them into the femur, where i do think that there are neurons. Can you guys see that so far . Just a cockroach leg. Now i am going to turn on the speaker and we are going to listen to what the brain sounds like. Can everyone hear that . What does this sound like to most people . Raindrops, frying bacon . , if i wired into your brain, you hear the same sound. The neutrons inside of your brain are similar to these. Isnt that bizarre . The beauty of nature, things are conserved. I will turn on this ipad here that ive plugged in. We will hopefully see that as well. Now what we are looking at here, you can see those spikes that are going by. Those are the messages being sent from the leg to the brain. So what would happen if i were to touch that leg . Maybe it sends a message. I will go ahead and touch the leg. You see that . What youre looking at is information. Its being encoded and being sent to the brain. This would be the same if i wanted to touch the shoulder. He feels that because there is in or on there. This is how everything works from the sensory input into the brain. Lets go back to slides really quick. Well come back and do more experiments. When people first see the spikes for the first time, these are not doctored photos. This is a wonderful thing. It is portable so we can get citizens involved. We can show spikes on a plane and as you get people to sit down, we can make kids understand it and give them the schematics. And not only that, what each of the knobs do. They develop their own experiments and we developed some online. I just want to do one more quick experiment. The brain not only takes an information but it sends it back out to the muscles. Instead of my brain, im going to send information coming out rum my cell phone and im going to play some hiphop music which has electricity similar to the electricity in the brain into this leg and we see what happens when we send a little jolt of electricity inside this cockroach leg. Very similar to an experiment galvani did many years ago. Can you zoom in on that . Let me turn it this way. What you are seeing is the cockroach leg, when the base frequency is playing, you will see a little twitching of the leg. I just want to jump to one more video. What we are going to do now is i will show you what happens if you do this within this is the galvani experiment. This is a squid that you can catch off the shores of maine, of boston. Ive done the same experiment here but inside the brain of a squid. It sends information down to the skin to change the colors. We will listen what happens when you play hiphop music into a squid. I am looking down on it and hopefully have some audio here. So what this is, these are the cells inside the squid that open and close like tiny muscles. The cephalopods change their color on demand. We have put a little bit of electricity there. You can actually do this pretty well. So lets go to the next thing. I want to record the neurons from people through these muscular activities. Can i get one volunteer from the audience . Yes, what your name . Perfect. All right. The first thing i want to do is hook you up and get one more volunteer. What were going to do is im going to record the electrical activity and amplify it and stick it into someone elses arm. We are going to record your brain, amplify it, and control another brain. Do we have a volunteer that would be willing to give it up . Come on down. Lets hook you up really quick. Are you ready for this . I will put a couple of pads on you. Im going to put an electrode. This is saltwater which is on a lot of the sodium and potassium that connect to the metal. And in what im going to do is im going to hook you up to hear and put this one here. Do you know each other . No. We are going to have you do something. I want you to squeeze your hand. I want you to squeeze up like you are revving a motorcycle. Now what we have here is we have amplified your electricity and were going to turn on the led. When