Pirates; the essence of terror on the world's oceans, superheroes; the light at the end of the tunnel for evil-doers and all all their perilous schemes, time-travelers; the ones who get to experience it all before time runs - **rewind** - the ones who get to experience it all, and small tutor buildings for kids of all ages; A place where, hold on... where did that one come from? What does a simple school have to do with the other three? In a world belonging to Dave Eggers, it has everything to do with them. In his TED talk, Dave Eggers explains to the audience a very unique new place for students to go to after school, a place that he simply calls "826 Valencia". There, he owns and operates a pirate store, which sells whatever any one needs or wants that relates to pirates. "Why is this tutor building also home to a pirate store?" One may ask; Well, in order to keep-up on rent and keep the ownership rights to the building, the owner, in this case Eggers, must sell retail merchandise, so there you have it. Aside from this novelty shop, the real magic occurs in the back, where a fully-staffed tutor center is available, for free, to any kid who wishes to get an edge on their homework, talk to experienced adults about school, or simply relax and get some extra help on their work. At first, however, his help center was not very successful. After opening, him and his group of professors and friends waited for weeks for people to come in, but became discouraged when people did not come. Dave, however, stated that he became informed of a possible "trust gap", because after all he was operating behind the confines of a pirate supply store. After realizing this, he urges his friend, a Mexico City teacher, to move out to his center in San Fransisco to help patch this gap. Her knowledge and connectivity to teachers and students helped fix his problem and urged more kids to come, eventually reaching it's capacity on an average basis. In his discussion, Eggers, being the spontaneous, random writer that he is, expresses his excitement for his tutor center in a very obvious way. He speaks in a realistic, pleasant tone, and is clearly passionate about his work with his center. He stated that his goal is to allow each student a 1:1 ratio, or allow each one of them one-on-one help as much as possible, claiming that their academic performance will raise faster, and their grades could be at least one grade higher. Along with this goal, Dave also put forth the idea that if every community were to have a center such as his, the kids would be happier and healthier, improving the condition of the world from the base up, one community at a time. I believe that students can so easily relate to his ideas, simply because they are the ones that are in school, the ones that are studying, and the ones that, although maybe not admittedly, could use the extra help. I also believe that these centers, if placed in the right areas and staffed with the right type of people, could create an entire new dimension on education, and empower young minds to attain a will to learn and become more intelligent each and every chance they get, rather than using the outdated "feed and regurgitate" method currently used in schools to unwillingly digest and retain information. Alike Dan Pink's work on the elation of various drive methods that people use to work and live by a day-to-day basis, these centers would create an ideal environment for students to begin constructing a base of intrinsic motivation, or the motivation to do things for your own self-gratitude and achievement. In total, I believe that the idea of students having a self-motivated, unignominious environment to go to and study, while harmoniously building a whole new love for learning and school is an idea so extraordinary and utopian that it could almost be unreal, yet, in actuality, it is an idea posed by and proven to work by a man who also owns and operates a pirate supply store, which should give a clue to any skeptic out there that these tutor centers are more than just an idea, they are100% possible centers of progression.
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