Voting – Jim Owens for TED-ED
May 21, 2012
I have never met a teacher that has touched so many. When was the last time that you knew of a teacher who had over 1,700 Facebook friends when he himself is not very fond of computers? Teaching life and critical thinking, those are two of the gifts he attempts to impart on his students.
A world traveler, connoisseur, and inspiring orator, Jim Owens instilled in many of his students a desire to make a difference, to enjoy their lives, impact the community, and maybe more. He taught us that while a straight line may be the shortest route, it is also the one most travelled. Travelling through the world, Jim worked in various different odd jobs, as a construction worker, as sailor, a balloon seller, and many more. Doing so allowed him to meet a beautiful French woman, and then travel through her on foot through Latin America, even landing on a Peruvian jail. His travels and readings allowed him to obtain the knowledge and experienced the relationships that he then shared with our course. He started with 1 humanities course, but today that’s all he teaches, and I am sure once students graduate they which they could revisit the experience. Through sharing his life experiences, Jim captivated the classroom, transformed the lives of many students, and encouraged them to seek their own self-discovery.
Working with his students, they collectively redesigned the classroom as “the Sanctuary”, with one student painting a mural for the course, and other students sanded and polished an old table, as well as set up the sound equipment, and place the fountain on the wall. His classroom because a place of refuge for our minds, our passions, and our bodies in an increasingly test driven educational system. While I passed countless of test to be where I am, I didn’t pass I single test in his courses, there were none. From the first day he told us, his course was about learning about life, not just a book, not just a course. Surprisingly, the memories of that class are the ones that are most in my mind, constantly rising through my subconscious, impacting my trajectory and my daily life.
Owens stimulated students by telling them to pick teachers rather than courses, for a good teacher would make a student enjoy the experience, regardless of whether he was originally interested in the subject. Owens is an artist, which nurtured in us a love for learning. In his course, he encouraged individuals to express themselves through journal entries on a regular basis, brought interesting guest speakers, and helped students to question. His course sometimes took hold of this encouragement, and sometimes decided to bring about social change. As a member of his course, we organized a group S.U.R.E and spoke at the School Board in 2001. There students express their opinions to the school board, and shared their discontent. Owens also encouraged students to share their knowledge, and at the end of the semester each classroom member would their passion to the rest of the course.
Owens is a magician, and hopefully if others were to hear him talk, about any of the subjects which as an orator he was able to captivate our minds, through TED he will be able to captivate many more. Partly because of his inspiration I did not relinquish, and I am today a PhD student at the University of Minnesota. Owens is a writer, and a highly skilled speaker. I would argue that he is someone who could explain to others what should be the value or the goal of an education. He has been the graduation speaker, as well as delivered other motivational speakers. There are many lessons that he could share, hopefully some of them will reach members of the TED community.
