Rethinking Learning with Salman Khan at Stanford (Full Transcript)

Full Text of Rethinking Learning with Salman Khan at Stanford GSB.

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TRANSCRIPT: 

JD Schramm – Lecturer in Organizational Behavior at Stanford

I am thrilled to see so many people here on a Thursday evening. And I actually, just so that we can understand our marketing efforts a little bit better, I would love to know, just a show of hands, Stanford GSB students. If I can see where the GSB students are? Excellent, excellent. Greetings in the balcony. Stanford undergrad students, welcome. We love having you here. Members of the rest of the Stanford community, faculty, staff, alumni, that sort of thing. And from the Harvard community, who has joined us besides our speaker? Welcome. We are delighted that you are here. Tonight is a chance for two great schools to come together. And we are delighted for the evening, that we are going to spend with you.

My name is J.D. Schraum. I’m a faculty member here at the GSB. I teach courses in Communication, and I also have the privilege of leading the Master in Communication Initiative, which is a series of non-credit offerings to help students build their abilities to speak, write, and participate more effectively.

Behind me you will see some of the events that are coming up through the rest of the quarter. If you don’t have the moment to write them down quickly, you can go to our website, which is simply gsb.stanford.edu\mastery, and that will open up the world of master in communication to you.

When we were looking for a speaker for this evening, we really wanted to find somebody who had made their success because of their ability to communicate effectively. And, last year I had the privilege of seeing Salcon at the TED Conference. Saw him speak at a company here in the Bay Area, and we began our dialogue to have him come in.

Before I introduce the student who will introduce Sal to you, there’s one event in particular that I want to be sure that I mention to you. And that is, that we have a viewing of the TED Conference this year. It will happen from February 28th to March 2nd, and we have a site license, to broadcast the full TED Conference, here to the GSB. To our GSB students, I encourage you to sign up by going to our website. You’ll also see information about it, in the distributions that come out to you, through email. But that is, we’re excited about having that event here.

You did not come here tonight to hear from a professor. You came to hear from an entrepreneur. And so to introduce him, I’m delighted to welcome to the stage Luke Peña. Luke is a second year MBA student in the joint degree program, between the School of Ed and the School of Business. And Luke, if you could come forward.

Luke Peña: From age eight to age 13, my home was my classroom. And I was my own teacher. Now I have the privilege of standing before you as Luke Peña, joint MBA MA Education degree student, Co-President of the Stanford Education Club, and proof that non-traditional students can find the path to success. It’s my great honor and privilege to welcome you all here tonight. And my responsibility to remind you to please not use your cell phones and computers during tonight’s event.

Back to the classroom of my youth. I was a hyperactive child with a hyperactive mind. Traditional schools evaluated me and determined that I would require either medication, or special education courses. My mother disagreed. So my mother decided to homeschool me, and serving as my teacher through the fifth grade. I took tests every year to make sure that I was performing at or above the level of my peer group in traditional schools.