Every Kid Needs A Champion

For this assignment, I had the pleasure of watching Rita Pierson’s TED Talk: “Every Kid Needs a Champion.” When I was scrolling through the hundreds of TED Talks available, it was a bit of a challenge to find one that related directly to Step By Step. To my surprise, there were no talks focusing on the issue of teen pregnancy. 

Because of the scarcity of teen pregnancy TED Talks, I changed my course and found Rita Pierson’s TED Talk. The title, “Every Kid Needs a Champion” grabbed my attention immediately. 

This TED Talk was filmed in May 2013, at an official TED Talks: Education conference. At this conference, the talks focus on the future of education and how to most effectively teach children. In the first minute of her speech, Rite Pierson establishes herself as an expert on education. “I have spent my entire life either at the schoolhouse, on the way to the schoolhouse, or talking about what happens in the schoolhouse.” She then explains that her parents and maternal grandparents were educators as well. In a room full of well-educated, informed people, establishing yourself as an informed presenter is important, and Miss Pierson did just that. 

Miss Pierson's most famous quote
Picture curtesy of TEDblog.

I really enjoyed this TED talk. The presenter was clearly very knowledgable, and split her time between telling fascinating, often hilarious anecdotes and widening the audience’s perspective on what children really need to stay motivated in their education. Pierson effectively established herself as a reliable speaker, used humor and anecdotes, and kept the audience well engaged. 

I believe this Ted talk related directly to the children of Step By Step. Although the kids have great mothers, they often need an outside source (Pierson used her experiences as a teacher) to be their motivator, or champion. These people are constant sources of motivation-no matter what it is, the motivator is always there to support and guide them. My favorite example of this from this Ted Talk was when Miss Pierson described a time when a child missed 18 out of twenty questions on an assignment. Rather than belittle or discourage her student, Pierson congratulated them on the two questions they did get correct. The student was shocked by this optimism, but became inspired. This anecdote, and much of Pierson’s talk, reminded me that a little optimism go a long way. When we first began volunteering at Step by Step, the program director, Tanya Torp, told us that a key part of being a volunteer at Step By Step was leaving your problems at the door. The kids and their mothers have their own issues to worry about-they don’t care if you’re having a fight with your boyfriend, or have a math test the next day. The kids look to the volunteers at Step By Step as a fun, playful distraction. In other words, they look for a champion. Luckily for the kids (and volunteers) there is a plethora of love and support at Step by Step!