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  • - My own daughter's preschool class

  • had this bubble-lettered, rainbow-colored sign

  • in her classroom that says,

  • "Fair is not everyone getting the same thing.

  • Fair is everyone getting what they need to succeed."

  • Genetics is a tool for seeing, what do people need

  • to move away from this idea of,

  • 'We can achieve fairness just by treating every student

  • exactly the same.'

  • Art Goldberger was an economist in the 1970s,

  • and he was very critical of the idea that genetics

  • meant that something couldn't be intervened on.

  • And his classic example was eyeglasses-

  • that if you have a genetic predisposition

  • towards poor eyesight,

  • we've invested in developing a technology

  • that can help you see, and it's an environmental one,

  • and we apply it for as long as people need.

  • We don't give it to them for just one day and be like,

  • "Well, you've had your intervention,

  • like, why are you still complaining?"

  • People get to keep their eyeglasses.

  • They get to have a sustained intervention.

  • I love the Goldberger example because it both shows

  • that genetically-influenced things can be changed

  • by the environment,

  • but also reminds us that the environments

  • might need to be sustained.

  • They might not be able to be these kind of one-time nudges.

  • A lot of researchers, a lot of educators,

  • a lot of policy makers have great intentions,

  • and yet our ability to execute,

  • our ability to actually pull off interventions

  • that make a positive difference is really disappointing.

  • Most of the things that we try in education,

  • even when they're very well-funded,

  • make absolutely no difference in children's lives.

  • So that says that we need to improve our basic science.

  • All of our policies, all of our interventions

  • are based on a model of:

  • what causes what in the world?

  • We have a model of how the world works,

  • and then we tinker with it.

  • If our tinkering doesn't work,

  • that suggests that our model of the world is wrong.

  • So I think genetics can be used as a tool

  • to improve our understanding of the way the world works,

  • which ultimately can improve our ability

  • to intervene in that world.

  • auticon is this company that selectively recruits people

  • with Autism spectrum disorders,

  • and deliberately designs the physical environment

  • and working environment to accommodate their neurodiversity.

  • So there aren't loud, fluorescent lights.

  • There isn't a workplace culture

  • that depends on picking up on really subtle social cues-

  • everything, all the feedback is given back very explicitly.

  • I think this is a fascinating example

  • of thinking about,

  • how do you acknowledge

  • differences in functioning, and create a space

  • where people participate as equals?

  • What if we thought about our educational spaces

  • in the same way?

  • If 90% of children had ADHD and only 10% of children

  • could sit still in a desk,

  • how would we design school?

  • Those are the sorts of thought experiments

  • I want people to be engaged in.

- My own daughter's preschool class

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