Speaker: Lori Gottlieb
TED@DuPont
Date: September 2019
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Description from TED website:
Stories help you make sense of your life — but when these narratives are incomplete or misleading, they can keep you stuck instead of providing clarity. In an actionable talk, psychotherapist and advice columnist Lori Gottlieb shows how to break free from the stories you’ve been telling yourself by becoming your own editor and rewriting your narrative from a different point of view.
My Review / Notes / Thoughts
This is a very interesting talk and might be a good one for you to bookmark and go back and listen to every few months or so. She talks about how we are the editors of our stories and I believe that we often forget that fact. So whenever you’re down or depressed, pull this video up and watch it for a reminder to look at your situation from a new perspective and see if you can’t edit your story to turn things around.
Now from an educational perspective, there are a few ways this talk can be incorporated into classwork to develop student engagement. Of course, there is the default psychology program or any course where someone may be counseling another person. The talk may be good for spurring discussion or a writing assignment.
Another area I was thinking of that might be interesting would be in a First-Year experience course for new college Freshmen. They are already embracing change by coming to college. Perhaps an assignment built around this talk could help them deal with any fears, or give them boldness in pursuing their educational careers. I would recommend an assignment that makes them think about their current life situation (their story) and ask them to look at it from another perspective and consider how they could edit their “story” in order to achieve the outcomes they are desiring from this academic pursuit.
What ways could you see using this talk to spur critical thinking in students?
Until next time … live long, life-learner!