“I believe that the current model of education is not working. I think we need to take a more diverse approach to education. Let’s discover what the young person is good at, what their interests are, and how we can help them.
I feel like kids have a lot of skills but we are having to teach them a lot that isn’t relevant to them. Lots of stuff we learn in school, we don’t put into practice. I knew a young person who stole a truck. He took the trailer off the truck, a gooseneck trailer – it’s one of THE most complicated trailers to hook up and unhook. He then drove the length of the North Island. The only reason he stopped was because the police pulled him over to check his logbook, which of course he didn’t have. The police said that according to the GPS tracker system on board, his driving was impeccable.
Instead of showing him math theory the next day, imagine if we could encourage him towards his truck driving interests in a more positive direction. Imagine if every day we could say “you’re going to be a great truck driver” and we taught some self-belief, as well as skills.
If you focus on the negative, you gravitate towards the negative. But if you focus on the positive, instilling some self-belief, then you gravitate towards the positive.”
