cc licensed ( BY SD ) flickr photo shared by BenjaminThompson
Talking with a good friend about the Justin Bieber documentary “Never Say Never” (not kidding) and some of the key points from the movie, I thought about the Google Chrome video featuring the ‘Biebs’. I have actually watched the movie and was actually surprised at how talented he was at such an early age. Through sharing a few videos of his music with his grandma on YouTube, he was ‘discovered’ and is now one of the biggest stars in the world (like it or not).
I think of stories like his, the PS22 chorus, Maria Aragon, and this post from Dean Shareski about ‘Robbing Students of Recognition‘. In it, Dean, shares the following quote:
And then there is the rest. There are kids with special talents that few people know about. What about them? I would bet our schools are full of kids like Tanner but their talent is in Art, or Drama, or Math, or Writing etc. Most kids probably don’t even know where their talent is! But if they did, would they be able to open the doors like Tanner has? How does a superior math student get “recruited” to a University? Can a dance student get into the National Ballet if nobody knows what they have accomplished? At some point everyone needs to “sell themselves” in a job interview, or a business proposal, or even a meeting with the bank manager for your first mortgage. If we can show kids that their accomplishments are to be proud of, and that the accomplishments are not anonymous, we can teach self confidence, and true self esteem.
Who knows? We may have the next Biebs of math, science, or whatever, existing in our schools right now, but will anyone know if we don’t give them the opportunity to share their talents with the world? Talent has to be developed and exist, but you can even watch videos of many “Internet sensations” who shared their learning and progressively got better in a public forum (have you heard of the ‘Book of Awesome‘? It started as a guy blogging, not someone who was a professional writer).
It is always our number one to keep our kids in a safe environment at school, but teaching them how to not only “survive” in a digital world, but to thrive in it is imperative.
What say you?
I think the Google Chrome video on Justin Bieber shows how quickly technology can accelerate a career.
