00:00
last speaker for session three an
00:02
amazing man Chris Sarah he's had an
00:06
extensive career in education
00:08
his passion has been the pursuit of more
00:10
positive and productive emotional
00:12
outcomes for indigenous children chris
00:15
is now the executive director of the
00:17
stronger smarter Institute which is
00:19
making an impact in indigenous education
00:21
through engagement with principals
00:23
teachers community leaders and
00:26
government please welcome to the TEDx
00:28
Brisbane stage Chris Sarah
00:42
thank you nice to see you nice to be
00:45
with you
00:46
let me start by acknowledging the
00:48
traditional owners and custodians of the
00:50
land all you need is to dream
00:56
if only it truly were that simple but
01:02
then maybe it is that simple James Allen
01:07
said that dreams are the seedlings of
01:09
realities and of course they must be and
01:13
my desk at work like a lot of people I
01:15
keep short quotes and I keep one of
01:16
James Ellen's quotes to remind me never
01:19
to give up and never ever to think small
01:24
the greatest achievement was at first
01:26
and for a time a dream the oak sleeps in
01:31
the Acorn the bird waits in the egg and
01:35
in the highest vision of the soul a
01:38
waking angel stirs dreams are the
01:43
seedlings of realities
01:45
James Ellen if I was to round up all of
01:50
the world's high achievers in whatever
01:53
field they would no doubt have all types
01:57
of great stories not as great as you
02:01
would see on an Australian story but
02:05
great stories and it is most likely that
02:10
all that all will have one thing common
02:14
in their stories all will say at some
02:18
stage prior to achieving respective
02:22
great things that they actually had to
02:26
believe that it could be done they
02:30
actually had to dream about this all are
02:34
most likely to say this there's one
02:38
other
02:39
however that most are also likely to say
02:44
that is perhaps less talked about but I
02:48
want to talk about this today all again
02:53
are most likely to say that at some
02:56
point in their lives somebody gave them
03:00
a reason to start believing in their
03:02
dreams what I'm saying here is that it
03:08
is one thing to have dreams but for
03:14
those dreams to become realities someone
03:18
must furnish them some of you will know
03:24
me as an educator in other roles in my
03:28
life I'm a father and at work I'm the
03:34
boss and I have an exceptional team of
03:38
people around me as an educator as a
03:44
father and as the boss an important part
03:50
of my role is to furnish the dreams of
03:54
the people around me together we need to
04:00
achieve some extraordinary things and so
04:04
I need and we need people who can dream
04:08
remarkable things and we also need
04:12
people who can furnish remarkable dreams
04:16
at the stronger smarter Institute that I
04:19
run we've been determined to change the
04:23
tide of low expectation of indigenous
04:27
children in Australian schools and I
04:30
reckon we've done that but things like
04:33
that don't just happen this is the
04:38
result of long-held dreams and the
04:42
dreams of others around me for my part
04:46
let me explain
04:48
I grew up in Bundaberg not far
04:53
here I was the youngest of ten born of a
04:58
very proud and hardworking Italian
05:00
father and a very strong and very proud
05:06
Aboriginal mother at school in Bundaberg
05:12
I had a great time
05:13
I enjoyed the social life of it all but
05:19
in retrospect I don't think that I would
05:23
ever seriously looked upon as a high
05:25
achiever I went okay at rugby league
05:29
greatest game of all and I think that
05:34
was appreciated but nobody seriously
05:40
furnished any dreams of me being a high
05:43
flyer or a high achiever and to be fair
05:47
I don't know that I really had any
05:51
high-flying dreams to furnish at the
05:53
time like too many young people I think
06:01
it's high school with no idea about what
06:03
I wanted to do I had this universe
06:07
University Entrance school that was not
06:10
worth much but thankfully I had a lucky
06:14
break and was offered special entry into
06:16
Teachers College at Kelvin Grove which
06:19
is now QUT the university that I work
06:24
for and because I was a special entry
06:27
student they made my course longer the
06:32
normal course was three years but mine
06:34
was going to be four years or however
06:36
long it needed and because of that I
06:40
started off on a lighter workload 60%
06:43
just so that I could get the feel for it
06:45
I got the hang of it pretty quickly you
06:49
know and in the second semester I moved
06:53
from a 60% workload to a 90% workload
06:57
and it was going okay a big part of
07:02
being in Teachers College is reflecting
07:05
on school processes
07:07
which got me reflecting on my own school
07:10
experiences and on reflection I didn't
07:16
really like what I saw on reflection I
07:22
remembered the primary school principal
07:25
at Bundaberg East State School on the
07:27
Burnet River coming to the door with all
07:30
the results from the diagnostic test
07:32
thing with a degree of surprise in his
07:34
voice Chris Arabic the highest score in
07:37
the school
07:38
I remembered the year 11 maths teacher
07:43
handing back the math teacher saying far
07:45
about 75% must have been an easy test
07:49
and of course it was only joking of
07:53
course I laughed with him at the time
07:56
but subsequently I realized that he was
08:01
sending a message to me without even
08:05
knowing that he was sending it and he
08:08
wasn't being malicious and I was
08:12
receiving a message from him without
08:15
even knowing that I was receiving a
08:16
message from him it was a message that
08:21
certainly wasn't designed to furnish
08:24
dreams of greater heights it was a
08:29
message thing I didn't really expect
08:32
this from you
08:40
realized that I had been selling myself
08:42
short I realized that I had been sold
08:49
short I was sold short because all of us
08:54
at the time
08:55
myself included had colluded with the
08:59
notion that I was only ever an average
09:02
student I never dreamt of great heights
09:06
there was one teacher my year 9 history
09:10
teacher mr. Ramon who tried to get me to
09:14
see that I was academically bright and
09:19
at the time I thought he was crazy at
09:21
the time I thought why are you hounding
09:23
me like this and clearly his lone voice
09:28
would never be enough to furnish within
09:31
me any dreams of greatness which was a
09:36
pity upon this revolution of collusion
09:43
with low expectations it is fair to say
09:45
that I became a little bit angry I guess
09:48
and more importantly I became deeply
09:51
determined to catch up on the work that
09:53
I missed at the start of my teacher
09:55
court teacher training course and I
09:58
wanted to walk out of there in the same
10:01
time as everybody else three years and
10:03
so that meant I had to catch up so for
10:08
my last two years at college I had to
10:10
work a 110 120 % work Road in order to
10:14
catch up and finish at the same time as
10:18
my peers I worked hard I worked really
10:24
hard and I passed and I walked out of
10:30
their normal not special but I walked
10:35
out with everyone else and one would
10:39
think that I would have been happy to
10:42
finish college in many ways I was the
10:46
truth is I became angrier no I was angry
10:51
because
10:53
I was angry because I was wondering how
10:58
the hell could I have dramatically
11:00
misjudged my abilities back then and if
11:05
I had sold myself short in that kind of
11:07
way
11:08
and I had been sold short in this kind
11:12
of way and how many other Aboriginal
11:15
children how many other children were
11:19
being sold short in our schools in the
11:22
same way from there I was determined to
11:30
get other children Aboriginal children
11:33
in particular to see the things that I
11:37
didn't see when I was in school I was
11:41
also determined to get my colleagues
11:44
other educators see Aboriginal children
11:48
differently as potential high-caliber
11:51
learners to see them more for the truth
11:55
about who they are as young students
12:00
bright and capable with just as much
12:04
right to big dreams as any other child
12:11
so as an educator I take my role very
12:18
seriously I am serious about the need to
12:22
make schools and classrooms a place
12:26
where all children have to do is to
12:30
dream and by now you probably get this
12:37
you probably get why I take this so
12:40
seriously
12:42
I'm serious about this because this is
12:46
personal for me I'm a father now and I
12:52
don't ever want to see the dreams of my
12:55
children stifled by people around them
12:58
just because they don't believe in them
13:01
enough to furnish their big dreams
13:03
whilst many of you are here are not
13:06
original many of you I'm sure can relate
13:10
quite strongly to what I'm talking about
13:14
if you were the kid from a single-parent
13:17
family or the one with the secondhand
13:21
uniforms one that never had the nice
13:26
flash lunches of you as a smelly kid in
13:29
the class I think you'll have a good
13:32
sense of what I'm talking about and
13:35
while some of you may not relate so
13:39
strongly to what I'm saying here I know
13:41
that all of you will understand what I
13:43
mean when I say that the role of a
13:46
teacher and her or his influence can be
13:50
crucial I'm quite certain that all of
13:55
you in the room here and all of you
13:56
watching on can remember right now a
14:00
teacher that you had way back in school
14:03
and you can remember whether that
14:06
teacher furnished your dream or whether
14:09
that teacher cycled them I am certain
14:13
that all of you can remember right now a
14:16
teacher in your life who either said to
14:19
you hey you can do this or you had a
14:26
teacher that said you won't amount to
14:30
much and I suspect that you can probably
14:33
see that teacher in your mind right now
14:37
you see this is the power and the magic
14:43
of teaching this is why we have to take
14:50
this seriously the ability to be a
14:54
teacher is truly a gift and it is a gift
15:00
that comes with power and magic that can
15:04
never ever be underestimated
15:08
with the power that we have as an
15:12
educator and the power that we have as
15:15
adults and as parents and as bigger
15:17
brothers or sisters we must
15:20
absolutely said about furnishing the
15:23
dreams of our children and creating
15:26
environments in which all they need is
15:29
to dream amazing things can happen when
15:35
you do this you know one of the
15:39
highlights of my career as an educator
15:40
has been the principle of shurberg
15:42
school an Aboriginal community 250
15:46
children an Aboriginal community school
15:48
of two hundred and fifty children
15:50
tragically it was for too long a school
15:52
going through the usual motions with all
15:55
involved colluding with the notion that
15:58
Aboriginal children were chronic non
15:59
attenders chronic under chair
16:02
underachievers and in many ways
16:04
delinquent under my leadership this was
16:09
always done to change because I knew
16:11
very well the toxic dangers of watered
16:14
down expectations and I knew very well
16:17
the truths about being Aboriginal and I
16:21
wanted children to act like Aborigines
16:23
not like delinquents I wanted children
16:27
to act like Aborigines not like
16:30
delinquents I wanted them to act strong
16:33
I wanted them to act smart the strong
16:38
and smart philosophy in our school I
16:39
have seen the amazing things that
16:42
started the ripple which changed the
16:45
tide of low expectation of indigenous
16:48
kids right across Australia when I was
16:51
principal at sugar school I saw what
16:54
happens when you furnish the dreams of
16:56
young children
16:57
I saw unexplained absences reduced by
17:01
94% within 18 months I saw real
17:05
attendance at school go from 63% in 1998
17:09
to 94% in 2004 I saw a girl named
17:13
talisha year 4 I bring her mum to say
17:16
mum I read a book today and that was the
17:20
first book she'd read in all of her
17:22
years of school and by Easter of the
17:24
following year I'd seen that she had
17:26
read more than 30 books I've seen a girl
17:29
called Marilyn miss almost half of the
17:31
first three years of her schooling
17:33
missing 87
17:34
of year six and only missed seven days
17:37
and year seven we didn't touch her
17:40
parents welfare payments to make her go
17:42
to school we just meet made the school
17:45
her school a place where it was okay to
17:49
dream big dreams so she went on to be
17:52
the top three in her high school
17:54
completed year 12 and is now working for
17:56
the sugar Council with aspirations to
17:58
study business I've seen year to
18:01
literacy improved by 62% within two
18:04
years I've seen year seven literacy go
18:07
from a point where all children were at
18:09
rock bottom on statewide literacy tests
18:11
to a point where eighty-one percent were
18:13
within the state average band in 2004
18:16
and you know something that was no dream
18:23
this was the reality of furnishing the
18:27
dreams of young Aboriginal children this
18:31
was the reality of giving children a
18:34
reason to dream big dreams and an
18:38
environment in which it was okay to
18:39
dream big dreams
18:40
I hope this story makes you think about
18:44
a stronger a smarter approach to
18:46
relationships with children around you
18:49
these are responsibilities that we all
18:52
must take very seriously these are the
18:57
things that we must get personal about
18:59
and when it is personal for us the
19:04
questions change from what do we do is
19:07
these children to what would I want done
19:10
if this was my child or my little
19:12
brother or my little sister and as we do
19:16
that part of it means we must
19:19
acknowledge the humanity of others and
19:21
I'll ask you to think about this for a
19:24
moment within the context of Aboriginal
19:26
Australians it requires us to
19:29
acknowledge the humanity of others and
19:31
when we acknowledge the humanity of
19:34
others we do two things we acknowledge
19:37
that those around us are worthy and have
19:41
capacity capacity to lift themselves and
19:45
worthy of having their dreams been firm
19:50
let's embrace our responsibilities as
19:53
adults and let's be determined to
19:57
furnish the dreams of our children
19:59
let's make Australia truly this place
20:02
which is a land of opportunity and a
20:05
place where we can say confidently to
20:07
our children all you need is to dream
20:10
then
