How our Experiences Shape Us | Nathan Mizell | TEDxYouth@MVHS
Summary
TLDRNathan Myel delivers a thought-provoking speech highlighting the profound impact of personal experiences on shaping our views and judgments. He emphasizes that while success often stems from opportunities afforded by stable environments, many individuals, particularly African-Americans, face systemic barriers like underfunded schools, single-parent households, and poverty. Myel calls for understanding others' experiences, proposing that empathy and awareness can lead to a more tolerant and just society. He closes with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., urging continuous struggle for change towards a world of tolerance and shared success.
Takeaways
- 📚 Life experiences shape our perspectives, but we shouldn't let them blind us to the experiences of others.
- 👨🎓 The speaker, Nathan Myel, acknowledges his privileges, including attending a suburban high school with a high graduation rate and living in a stable, two-parent household.
- 🏡 Nathan recognizes that his success is partly due to the opportunities afforded to him, which are not available to everyone.
- 📊 Disparities in graduation rates exist, with 67% of African-American students graduating compared to 80% of white students.
- 💵 Wealth plays a role in shaping opportunities, as the average net worth of African-American families is significantly lower than that of white families.
- 👩👦 Over half of African-American children grow up in single-parent households, many of which live below the poverty line.
- 🏫 Schools in urban areas, where many African-American students live, are underfunded, often spending significantly less per student compared to suburban schools.
- ⚖️ Zero-tolerance policies disproportionately impact African-American students, leading to higher rates of suspension and expulsion.
- 🔄 The speaker encourages listeners to imagine how different outcomes would be if certain variables—such as income, school funding, and neighborhood crime rates—were changed.
- ✊ Nathan concludes by calling for a collective effort to look beyond individual experiences and work towards a more tolerant and understanding society, quoting Martin Luther King Jr. on the need for continuous struggle to achieve change.
Q & A
What is the main message of Nathan Myel's speech?
-Nathan Myel's main message is that while personal experiences shape our perspectives, we should not let them blind us to the experiences of others. He emphasizes the importance of understanding different backgrounds and challenges to foster tolerance and empathy.
What personal background does Nathan Myel share in his speech?
-Nathan shares that he comes from a middle-class, stable two-parent household, attends a suburban high school with a high graduation rate, and has had many educational and extracurricular opportunities.
What does Nathan mean by the statement, 'Our experiences shape our thoughts, actions, and judgments'?
-Nathan means that our individual life experiences influence how we perceive and interpret the world, often leading to judgments based on limited perspectives, which can result in biased or incomplete understanding of others.
How does Nathan explain the disparity in high school graduation rates between African Americans and white students?
-Nathan explains that the disparity, with about two-thirds of African Americans graduating compared to 80% of white students, can be attributed to factors such as differences in wealth, family structure, and access to quality education, rather than just effort or interest.
What role does wealth play in educational opportunities, according to Nathan?
-Nathan highlights that wealth influences the opportunities available to individuals, with wealthier families able to afford better resources, schools, and environments for their children. He notes that the average net worth of white families far exceeds that of African American families, contributing to disparities in educational access.
How does Nathan describe the issue of underfunded schools in urban areas?
-Nathan points out that urban schools, where many African American students attend, are chronically underfunded compared to suburban schools. For example, the poorest schools in the U.S. spend a third of what the richest schools spend per student, which severely limits the educational resources and opportunities available.
What analogy does Nathan use to highlight the funding disparity between schools?
-Nathan uses a comparison where students on one side of the room are given a full dollar, while those on the other side are given a third of a dollar, to demonstrate how underfunded schools are at a disadvantage when it comes to providing educational opportunities.
What solution does Nathan propose to address the issue of judgment based on personal experience?
-Nathan suggests that while it’s unrealistic to eliminate all judgment or generalizations, people should strive to not let their experiences be the 'end all and be all.' He advocates for understanding others' experiences and how different circumstances lead to different outcomes and opinions.
What does Nathan say about punishment disparities between African American and white students?
-Nathan notes that Zero Tolerance policies disproportionately target African American youth, leading to higher suspension, expulsion, and juvenile detention rates. He suggests that alternative solutions like counseling and mentoring could help address this issue.
How does Nathan conclude his speech, and what message does he leave the audience with?
-Nathan concludes by quoting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., stating that 'change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability but through continuous struggle.' He calls for everyone to work together toward a world of tolerance and understanding.
Outlines
🌟 The Role of Personal Experience in Success
Nathan introduces himself and reflects on how personal experiences shape success. He mentions his own achievements, such as being named 'Freshman of the Year,' and acknowledges the privileges that have contributed to his accomplishments, including attending a suburban high school with a high graduation rate, living in a stable two-parent household, and participating in extracurricular activities. He highlights that his life has provided him with numerous opportunities for success, unlike many others who may not have had the same privileges.
🤔 Judgments Based on Experience
Nathan discusses how experiences shape our judgments, both consciously and unconsciously. He emphasizes that the lack of shared experiences leads to judgments without context, creating misunderstandings. Using high school graduation rates as an example, he shows how statistics can lead to incorrect assumptions about certain groups, like African-American students. He stresses that there are numerous factors, such as wealth and household structure, that impact opportunities for success, and that these factors must be considered when understanding differences in achievement.
💡 Discrepancies in Opportunity
Nathan dives deeper into the disparities that affect educational opportunities. He points out that African-American families, on average, have significantly less household wealth compared to white families, and more African-American children grow up in single-parent households or in poverty. Additionally, he highlights the underfunding of schools in urban areas, which affects educational resources. By illustrating these inequalities, Nathan prompts the audience to consider who is more likely to receive a better education and succeed, based on the opportunities provided by their environment.
📉 The Impact of Socioeconomic Factors
Nathan continues to analyze how socioeconomic factors, such as wealth and crime rates, influence educational success. He points out that many African-American students face challenges like higher crime rates in their neighborhoods and stricter school policies that disproportionately target them for suspensions and expulsions. He then poses a thought-provoking question: how different would their outcomes be if just a few variables, such as income, school funding, and neighborhood safety, were changed in their favor?
🔄 The Importance of Empathy and Understanding
Nathan concludes by urging the audience to move beyond their personal experiences and judgments. He acknowledges that it is unrealistic to eliminate all judgments, but suggests that people should not let their experiences be the ultimate truth. Instead, he advocates for empathy—understanding that different experiences lead to different outcomes. By analyzing collective experiences, we can find common ground and work together as a society. He closes with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr., reminding everyone that change requires continuous struggle.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Experience
💡Opportunity
💡Judgment
💡Wealth disparity
💡Education inequality
💡Single-parent households
💡Zero Tolerance Policies
💡Privilege
💡Systemic inequality
💡Empathy
Highlights
Experiences shape us, but we must not let them blind us to the experiences of others.
Nathan Myel introduces himself, noting that much of his success comes from his life experiences and opportunities.
Nathan attends a suburban high school with a graduation rate above 95% and recognizes that his environment has given him almost every opportunity to succeed.
Many people do not have access to the same opportunities, and our experiences shape how we judge and understand others.
Differences in high school graduation rates are an example of the disparities in opportunities between different groups.
Approximately 67% of African Americans graduate within four years, compared to 80% of white students, reflecting systemic inequalities.
The wealth gap plays a significant role in creating disparities in educational opportunities, with the average African American family having a net worth of $11,000 compared to $141,900 for white families.
Single-parent households are more common among African Americans, with over half growing up in such environments, and many live below the poverty line.
The location and funding of schools also play a major role, with urban and inner-city schools often underfunded compared to suburban schools.
In 2011, the 10 poorest schools spent only a third of what the 10 richest schools spent per student, illustrating the funding disparities.
This lack of resources leads to fewer educational opportunities for students in underfunded schools, exacerbating inequality.
Zero-tolerance policies disproportionately target African American youth, contributing to higher suspension and expulsion rates.
The speaker asks the audience to consider how different opportunities, such as better schools and neighborhoods, could lead to different outcomes for African American students.
The transcript emphasizes that we must move beyond our own experiences to understand the experiences of others and address inequalities.
Nathan concludes with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr., stressing the importance of continuous struggle for change and advocating for a more tolerant and understanding world.
Transcripts
every moment of our lives our
experiences shape
us however we cannot allow our
experiences to Blind us from the
experiences of
others hello ladies and gentlemen my
name is Nathan myel and like the
majority of my classmat to ad Mission
Vista I do well in my classes and from
this was named freshman of the
Year from this you may assume that I
work hard in school and again like the
majority of my classmates I
do but allow me to be
clear I'm not bragging about my
successes because I realize so much of
My Success has come through my life
experience
I attend a Suburban high school with a
graduation rate consistently above
95% I live in a peaceful middle class
neighborhood in a stable two parent
home I have had the opportunity to take
part in several extracurricular
activities which have given me a
platform to speak from such as where I
stand
today there has never been a day in my
life where I had to worry that an
educational opportunity would not be
available to
me my life has given me almost every
opportunity to be
successful unfortunately this is the
case for far too few
people our experiences shape our
thoughts our actions and our
judgments consciously and subconsciously
we all judge based on our
experience our lack of shared experience
is what creates judgment without context
to what one has experienced and to what
one has
not this is something we all do and we
must be able to look past these
differences to truly understand each
other every day our experience shapes us
from where we live to what we witness we
are very much products of our
environments our experience
High School graduation rates serve as
just one example of these discrepancies
and
experience just over 2third of
African-Americans graduate from high
school within a 4-year
period that is compared to 80% of white
students taking this statistic by itself
it could be easy to surmise that black
students don't work as hard study less
are simply don't care as much as their
white
counterparts of course though like any
equation I face in my math class there
are many variables to every
problem one of the major components in
success is
opportunity often opportunity comes
through a certain amount of
wealth the net meaning household worth
for the average afcan American Family
currently sits at
$11,000 that's compared to
$141,900 for the average white
family now of course wealth is not the
ultimate determinant of success but it
plays a role and what opportunities are
afforded to
person another component as single
parent
homes over half of African-Americans
grow up in a single parent
household of which half live below the
poverty
line as compared to a quarter of white
households mean single parent homes of
which a third live below the poty
line another component is where one
lives and where one goes to
school over 70% of African-Americans
live in urban and inner city
areas in these areas schools are
chronically underfunded compared to
their Suburban
counterparts for example in
2011 the 10 poorest schools in our
nation spent onethird of what the 10
richest schools spend per
student so let's take a look at
this for those of you on my right it's
your lucky day you have a full
dollar
now for those of you on my left I I am
very sorry sorry um that your tax
returns didn't go that well this year
but you have a third of a
dollar now let's ask
ourselves who was more likely to get the
better
education who is more likely to get the
opportunities they need to
succeed the answer is
obvious this issue further contributes
to the fact that many of these students
live in impoverished
neighborhoods where increased crime
rates increased poverty rates are in
nearly every
statistic this issue is further
exasperated by Zero Tolerance policies
that disproportionately Target
African-American youth with suspensions
and
explosions so what does this all
mean half of you are wondering if you're
in the right T up but trust me there is
a point to all of
this what if just a few variables in
this equation have been
different what if they had a stable
middle class income in a stable life and
home imagine if their schools were well
funded where their educational
opportunities would be
[Music]
expanded what if their neighborhoods had
less crime
allowing for more focused educational
environment what if the punishment for
their mistakes was not suspension
exposion and juvenile hall but
counseling problem solving courses and
mentoring
programs What If instead of being in a
situation built for
failure it was built for success
they very well could be speaking to you
from this
stage now what I have just presented is
one
issue one issue in a world inated with
situations where we have a potential
judgment to
make far too often as a society we fall
into the comfort of our own
experience we must be able to look past
our experience through the experience of
others
now as much as I love to propose a world
today without any judgment or any
generalization I understand how
unrealistic that
is so instead I propose to you a simpler
idea don't allow your experience to be
your end all and be
all experience by definition is
subjective what you or I to be true does
not serve as universal truth in every
experience contemplate what others have
faced and how differ this
inexperience leads to different outcomes
and different
opinions when we're able to analyze our
collective experience we can see what we
share where we differ and how we can
work together as a
society now even this is not a simple
test
there's no easy way out of it there's no
magic key there's no anything that can
just pop out of
nowhere but allow me to leave you with a
simple quote from the Reverend Dr Martin
Luther King Jr on the work it takes to
reach any great
goal change change does not roll in on
the wheels of
inevitability but through continuous
struggle
together ladies and Gentlemen let's
struggle towards a world of Tolerance
and understanding that we can all be
proud of thank you
[Applause]
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