Dave Eggers describes his journey of creating an educational environment for youths in San Francisco in his TED talk, “Once Upon a School.” He begins by presenting the struggle to provide a more personalized, one-on-one approach to an education in English. Eggers comes up with the idea that a group of authors could work during the day and in the afternoons, they help out kids with English homework. He describes the struggles to figure out how they should run the program. Through the many challenges, Eggers and his crew successfully open the writing center for the youths there and help countless individuals. As the success in their company grew the demand for similar assistance programs increased. Soon they were opening more study centers and helping more and more children who need it. Eggers closes with his TED wish that people would get involved with a public school near them and help it out with their talents in educating or other areas.
Dave Eggers speaks on the issues of the lack of personalized education offered to children in the TED talk, “Once Upon a School.” His points are good and well organized but his speaking is not as strong. Eggers came out onto the stage and informed the audience of his nervousness, which opened up the audience to be more understanding about his situation. His nervousness was obvious in the distracting nature gestures he made and the countless hesitations in his speaking. He did use humor which made his speech more entertaining. In his presentation, Eggers used pictures of the actual places he described in action so the audience can connect and gain a better understanding of what an impact is being made in the communiy and lives of children he works with. By calling to the attention of his audience the issues of lack of personal education, Eggers calls upon the audience to, “Find a way to directly engage with a public school in your area and that you’ll then tell the story of how you got involved, so that within a year we have 1,000 examples — 1,000 examples — of transformative partnerships.”
