Students from the amazing Year 12 CAFS class attended the TedXYouth talks at Sydney Town Hall. They heard a variety of challenging, confronting and creative ideas from young people about how they have made a positive impact for the community, both in the present and for the future.
Ted Talks are a community forum set-up with the 'idea' in focus, that is, that anyone who has an idea can share it on a platform of public speaking. The TedXYouth Event gathered youth people from around Australia who have made an impact in various fields and ways, from the arts, sciences, social justice, the environment, industry, education and health. We heard from a range of speakers whose ideas ranged from using drones to regulate fertiliser used in farming, to a futurist suggesting better ways to build cities; from an DJ spinning tracks to a linguist demonstrating the impact of singing in English and an indigenous dialect on reconciliation; from a poet's beautiful word-crafting to a 17 year old who developed a new mathematical theorem that solves problems faster than computers.
We also heard from renowned news presenter Lee Lin Chin, and how the creation of her alter-ego has impacted how young and older people interact with news, and each other. My favourite was the futurist, she was an amazing orator with some really interesting ideas about designing the future (although, she wasn't quite Tony Stark).
Yr12 CAFS class has studied youth as a key group in society, exploring issues for young people and how young people have positively impacted their contexts. It was great to see how young people have done, and are doing this, in our world. For me, it was also great to view this in the company of some of our outstanding young people who have positively impacted our community here at Thomas Hassall for the duration of their time at College. Young people who we're confident will continue to impact our world for good.
All in all, an inspiring event to attend. We're looking forward to attending again with our CAFS classes in the future, to inspire our young people.
Matt Palmer