Short YouTube excerpt (Eric Edmeades) advising teachers and speakers to connect lessons to learners' interests. He argues that students need to know "why" they're learning something; using relevant examples (math taught through baseball statistics) increases engagement. He extends this principle to any form of speaking or presenting: treat it as teaching and create broad-spectrum appeal.
Chapters
It starts with a teacher. You know, these days we teach children math. Why? Because we have to. The students, like, why do I need to learn this? It'll be useful for your taxes. Like, not at all. And then you wonder why they're not engaged. You know, one of the most fundamental things about any student is if you don't know why, if they don't know why, then they don't want to learn it. You know, you can take some kid who just isn't interested in math at all and then. But find out that they are really interested in baseball in America. All interested in baseball. And then you can teach them about baseball statistics, RBIs, runs batted in, and all the ratios and all. And the minute you start teaching them, guess what? They're interested in math. It starts with the teacher. And if you're going to be a speaker, and I don't care if you're training speaking like we're doing today, or if you're doing a presentation in front of investors, I don't care what kind of speaking you're doing. It is a form of teaching. It is a form of sharing perspectives and sharing ideas. And if that's going to work, then you want to create this broad spectrum appeal.