From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
Children are bought and sold like animals, sometimes at a lower price than animals. 168 million children work as child labourers, more than 200 million children who should be in education are not at school.
I've always been self-taught, sort of like the Grandma Moses of acting. If I'd gone to drama school, I would probably have had a very different career- perhaps not as much fun in some ways.
Play is inherently interactive, granting agency whether indoors or outdoors. When competition was added into the mix, playing with friends introduced me to complex concepts like game theory, including strategies involving threats, promises, and bluffs.
My advice to young players today is really simple, you have to be the best you can on the pitch, but also to educate yourself, show an interest in the world, and not let football restrict you. The way football is going, it will become more tactical, more strategic and so the more you open your brain, the better you will be.
I continue to go back to that same economically depressed neighbourhood that I grew up in, in the Bronx. I tell these people that I was them, 60 years ago, and they can be me as they continue their journey. I hope to continue shining that path and encouraging others as they pursue their own dreams.
What we need now is the George C. Marshall of our era to help us train better than the Chinese and the Russians.
If I could snap my fingers today and make every STEM program in the world into a STEAM program I would do it now. The idea that science, technology and mathematics are enough to build a world forgets the importance of the humanities.
There are a high number of young people who want to set-up businesses, but there is a huge gap between their aspirations/intentions and the actual delivery of setting up a business…. More so with the young than any other age group.
I can't advertise chewing gum to my children because it's unethical, but I can feed them all sorts of narratives that will have a profound impact on their personal trajectories. It's quite an extraordinarily hypocritical position.
Looking back, I am now firmly convinced that young people are the most potent forces for social change. However, our initial focus on this demographic wasn't a calculated decision but rather a matter of convenience—these were the people I had direct access to.
The most important form of power is human capital, people.. and their education. In today's world it is easier for people to amass education and communicate their ideas than it has ever been before.
If you ask an American where the DJIA or Facebook is trading today, everybody knows. Ask the same person how many kids dropped out of high-school last year and nobody knows. That to me is very short sighted, after all what is the better barometer of the future of America?