Dave Eggers

And then, you know, with the idea in an oral history that it will be a written account and it'll be edited into a linear form and maybe published.

You see kids that know their grandparents came from Cambodia that fled the Khmer Rouge, but that's the vaguest thing that they know, just a little bit.

But now give them six hours to do a real oral history.

It's just like it's the most important thing in their high school years.

They all say the same thing.

And their estimation for their forebears is just like goes through the roof.

They see them as 100 feet tall.

And we really have to find space and space.

To have those moments, I always think the very first week in any class at every grade should be about writing your story of who you are now.

Great idea.

And every teacher gets to know every kid that much better, even if it's a page.

Here's what I love, here's what I want, here's what I'm afraid of here.

And there's a calm that comes over kids when they've written their truth out and they get it just like, you know, if you're angsty at middle of the night, you write it down, it goes away.

In the chaos of childhood, if you can fence that within the boundaries of a printed page, you're much more calm and at ease.

You've gotten it right.

And then you can move on and look around and

But if it's all contained and nobody's listening, then it's just like having these rabid feral beasts all over within you.

You got to let them out, put them on a leash or let them out of you.

And so I think even as adults, this has to be chances to do that.

Put it in a linear form, all the chaos of your life and your mind, put it in, put it in linear form, have it make sense.