Why Can’t We Teach Why? | Ela Akyel | TEDxYaşamTasarımSchools
Ela Akyel’s speech explores how childhood curiosity is often stifled by traditional education, which prioritizes memorization and right answers over questioning and exploration. She argues that this limits creativity—a vital skill needed to solve real-world problems. Creativity isn’t just for the arts; it’s present in science, teaching, design, and everyday problem-solving. Yet, schools rarely treat it as essential. Akyel imagines an education system where creativity is nurtured, mistakes are valued as learning, and asking “why?” is encouraged—because the future depends not on who remembers the most, but on who imagines the most. Ela is a high school student who is very interested in both sports and technology. She is an active member of her school’s volleyball team. Playing volleyball helps her build strong teamwork skills, stay healthy, and have fun with her friends. She enjoys practicing with her team and taking part in school tournaments. Volleyball teaches her discipline, focus, and how to work together to reach a goal.Ela is also part of the school’s VEX robotics team. She enjoys coding, building robots, and solving technical problems. Through this team, she learns about engineering and how to create new ideas with others. She likes the challenge of thinking creatively and working with her teammates on projects. Both in sports and robotics, Ela shows that she is hardworking, curious, and always ready to learn something new. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
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- 9:37We need ugly art — here’s why | MJ Chiao | TEDxUBCWhen we think academia, the comic book and comic form is usually overlooked as a piece of valuable literary scholarship. Comics are often presumed as not academic or critical enough to be a valid source of literary study, and if they are to be taken seriously only a certain kind of tragic, memoir style are considered worth analyzing. By arguing that ‘bad art’, ‘ugly comics’, or ‘juvenile fiction’ are necessary fragments of history to navigate the quickly developing world around us, MJ Chiao advocates for the comics form as a radical form of activism and social remembering. Ugly comics becomes survival. MJ Chiao is a fourth year English Literature student who is passionate about comics and graphic forms. With a love for teaching and writing, MJ wishes to challenge the status quo of English studies and academia to encompass the new medias and technologies of our everyday. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx