Video: 11-year-old Takes Down Monsanto in Ted Talk

This kid is just a few years away from a lucrative job offer from Monsanto... He'll get bought out before he makes it into organic farming.

There's only one problem with this . He mentions ,he's home schooled.
This will prove home schooling makes for intelligent independant thought . They are brain washing our kids in schools .
I could see this make them try to erradicate home schooling ,even more rabidly .
No,not a misspelling . RABIDly

reply to post by PtolemyII


It depends on country in some ways. In US the education is weaker than in other first-world countries and home-schooling is rarity elsewhere.

I do not even know whether they allow here a kid being home-schooled. There are no home-schooling systems for normal kids round here, only for special needs and kids who can not adapt to schools (being bullied a lot, aspergers or other social disorders)

The problem is also in nearly no-one being able to afford staying home with kids. During the first 3 years of child life, one of the parents is granted 3-year paid child leave, although after that it will not work financially.

Another thing is that most parents are not able to help their kids with schoolwork, as it is too hard for them. There are not many parents out there, who are even able to help their kids with high-school sciences and math, most even struggle with middle school ones, like logarithmic & exponential equations, advanced geometry, complex numbers etc. Even if I had to take a look at these right now, I would probably struggle a bit, even though having a masters degree in engineering, which had lots of such math and even much more advanced one.

reply to post by Cabin


I think theyve made homeschooling illegal in some countries .
There have been a few rumblings about it in the USA . They are trying to take control of everything away from anyone considered radical

Originally posted by watchitburn
While I agree with the message. (I despise Monsanto and everything they stand for)
I disagree with using children in such a way.
11 year old kids can be relatively intelligent. But, they lack the experience and context required to develop informed opinions of such things.

In a nut shell, he is a parrot taught to regurgitate what he has been told.
That is my opinion of this. Could I be wrong? Sure, but I don't think so.

Their intentions may be in the right place, but using kids makes them no better than Monsanto.

Personally I don't see that an 11 year old doesn't have the ability to reason and conclude given the amount of information out there. Has he been brainwashed by adults? Maybe, but maybe not. He could easily have reached all these conclusions by himself.

reply to post by thebtheb

Personally I don't see that an 11 year old doesn't have the ability to reason and conclude given the amount of information out there

Funny you say that because he did not seem to actualy reference any of his sources, it was the usual "they" have done this or "they" have found this out "experiments have shown". Well given the amount of information out there surely this would be fairly easy to do?, what universities, private studies, where they were conducted, what tests and analysis standards were used, who carried it out etc, where is it published for us to read?

An 11 year old kid is the last person im listening to as a verifiable source to be honest.

reply to post by sarahlm


I watch these Ted Talks all of the time. I have even heard that a few of them are banned by the United States Govt. but I could be wrong. There are so many that get you really thinking just like this one.