Gad Fly

I understand why TEDx events are kept small. I don’t blame them – there is a lot to be said for the depth of networking that can occur in small scale events. I just get annoyed at the corporate filtering and the implied exclusivity in a time when we should be opening education up. Also, despite creating “curated audiences” (yes, that is the language they use), the last one I attended still had the same dozen middle-aged white guys – there are more women and minorities involved in education. Even though I appreciate the advantages that being born male and white (that’s Celtic-American to you boy-o), and being middle-aged, we can only move forward in education when we bring in a diversity of ideas, voices, and experience to the table. You can attend some of these events virtually but there is this whole application bit to attend that sticks in my craw. I came up with my own application process here.