Group items tagged

Child prodigy Adora Svitak says the world needs "childish" thinking: bold ideas, wild creativity and especially optimism. Kids' big dreams deserve high expectations, she says, starting with grownups' willingness to learn from children as much as to teach.

In most schools, the adults teach the children. But in some Broward County classrooms on Friday, the roles were reversed. The teacher was Adora Svitak, an 11-year-old prodigy and published author from Washington state. She delivered the day's lesson -- a seminar on effective teaching -- live from the television studio in her basement in Redmond. It was broadcast through the Internet into 10 South Florida middle schools.