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A World View Interview with John Legend
Poziom:
Temat: Edukacja
Sundquist: What's up, YouTube?
My name is Josh Sundquist.
I'm a YouTube partner
and a motivational speaker.
I'm thrilled today
to be in New York City
with nine-time Grammy Award
winner John Legend.
John, thanks for being
with us.
Legend:
It's good to be here.
Sundquist: So this is how
it's gonna work.
We're gonna be talking
about education today.
In the last several days,
thousands of people
around the world
have submitted questions
on YouTube.
The YouTube community
has also voted
on which questions
they like best.
Those are the ones
we're gonna be talking about.
Legend: Cool.
I'm excited to see what
they've come up with.
Sundquist:
All right, rock and roll.
First one is a video question.
Legend: All right.
Conrrado: Hi, I'm Conrrado,
and I just wanted to know,
when did you start caring
about education?
Legend: Well, I guess
when I was a kid
I cared
about my own education.
But I didn't really think
that deeply
about how it affected
so many other kids.
When you're in school,
I think your main focus
is just trying to get by,
trying to get good grades,
trying to get
your homework done,
trying to do well
on the next test.
And then, actually,
when I was in high school,
I was president
of the student body
at my high school...
Sundquist:
Nice.
Legend: And one of the things
that I wanted to do
was start
a tutoring program
so that kids who
were doing well in school
could help those
who weren't doing so well
who needed help.
So I started this thing called
the peer tutoring program,
and, you know, at the time,
I didn't realize
the situation in my school
that, you know, like,
500 kids would start
their freshman year of class,
but only, you know,
250 would graduate,
something like that.
And I didn't know
I was attending a school
that would be classified as
a dropout factory at the time.
And I was
in advanced-placement classes,
so I was surrounded
by a bunch of smart kids,
and we had the best teachers
in those classes
and, you know,
really rigorous work.
But I didn't realize,
you know,
in the lower, you know,
ranks of the class,
there were a bunch of kids
that were getting left behind
and dropping out.
And I actually didn't become
familiar with those statistics
until I graduated and noticed
that the class was a lot smaller
than it was when I started.
And, you know, I thought,
"Oh, maybe they went
to a different school."
I didn't know what happened.
But what's happening in way too
many schools in this country
is a bunch of kids are
dropping out of high school.
And that phenomenon
is particularly concentrated
in some
of our poorest communities
and communities where kids
need an education the most.
And I started caring
about poverty a lot,
you know, growing up.
You know, I would read
about poverty,
I would read about, you know,
Martin Luther King
and what he did to fight
for rights and for justice,
and he would lead things
like the Poor People's March,
and he cared
about economic inequality.
And I've always cared
about that issue.
And the more resources
I've gotten,
the more power,
the more fame,
the more influence
I've gotten,
I've always wanted
to use that
to help people
who were in poverty.
And the more
I looked into it,
the more I saw
that the most effective way
to break the cycle
of poverty,
to make transformative change
in someone's life,
to, uh, you know,
when they're stuck in something,
when they're stuck
in a situation
they need to get out of,
the best way
to empower them
is to make sure they get
a good education.
And, unfortunately,
in America
and in many places
around the world,
far too many people
don't get a quality education.
And more likely than not,
if they don't,
they're doomed to be stuck
in poverty.
Sundquist: Got ya.
Here's our next question.
It's a text question
from Monique in New Jersey.
"Do you think improving
"the American public-education
system will, in turn,
"help combat poverty?
And if so, where do you think
education reform should begin?"
Legend: Yeah, I mean, as you
can tell from my last answer,
I think education can have
a very significant impact
on changing the situation
with poverty.
If you give someone the power to
know about their surroundings,
the power
to get a good job,
the power to--to really--
to really understand
the world around them,
then it gives them the power
to get out of poverty.
But a lot of times people
say we have to fix poverty
before we can fix education,
because these kids
come to school, they're poor,
they have families
that may be barely literate
or may not understand
how to properly
prepare their kids
for school.
And they say if we don't fix
all these surrounding conditions
in their neighborhoods,
then there's no way
we can fix the schools.
But my argument is,
and I think the argument
of many education reformers
is that the only way
we're gonna fix poverty
is to fix education,
rather than vice versa.
Sundquist: Yeah, that's the way
to break the cycle.
Legend: Yeah, and once
you decide that, you know,
the government and society
has a huge influence
on these kids
for seven, eight hours
a day--
six, seven, eight
hours a day--
the bulk of their awake hours
are spent in school
or doing homework,
that means that what goes
on in that setting
is going to have
a huge impact on their lives.
And to the extent that we
can control those surroundings
and make those surroundings
the most conducive to learning,
the most productive,
the most enriching
for these kids' lives,
we can truly
change their lives.
Sundquist:
All right, next question.
Another text question
from Claw in Utah.
He says, "Studies show
that a person's home life
"is more important
than school
"in predicting
academic success.
"As we reform schools,
"how do we ensure
that home-life supplements,
"like social-service programs,
work with schools
to boost achievement?"
Legend: I agree that home life
is a huge factor
in a kid's life.
I mean, you can
pretty much predict
how well a kid's
gonna do in life
based on, you know,
poverty level,
based on the neighborhood
that they grow up in,
based on the education
of their parents.
Those factors are usually
very reliable predictors
of someone's future success.
The only caveat
I would say about that
is, given all of that,
the thing that the government,
that society, that we
as a broader community
have so much control over
is what happens
in the four walls of a school
between, you know,
8:00 and 4:00
or, you know,
whatever the times are
that the kids
are in school.
We can't control every aspect
of their home life.
We can't control every aspect
of their neighborhood life,
but what happens
in the school
is actually very impactful
in a kid's life.
And a lot of kids
come from poverty,
come from tough
neighborhoods,
come from, you know, parents
that didn't go to college,
and do well.
And a lot of them
are concentrated
in school environments
that are really good
and doing great work.
And so the question we can
ask ourselves is--
We know that, you know,
poverty has an impact
on these kids' lives.
We know that their
parental situation
has a big impact
on their lives--
some of them have
single parents--
all these things,
we know all these factors,
but if we take those as a given,
what can we change,
what can we control,
what can we impact?
And what I've seen
with schools that are being
successful around the country
that those schools can change
the trajectory of those kids.
Where we would expect them
to do poorly in life
because they come
from poverty,
these schools are changing
that trajectory.
They're sending them
to college
despite the odds.
They're getting
their test scores up
despite the odds.
So that shows me
that an effective school
with effective leadership
and great teachers
can change the trajectory
of these kids' lives.
So we can keep saying,
you know,
"Until we fix poverty,
we can't fix education."
But we know that schools
around the country
are saying,
"Despite the fact
"that these kids come in
with all these disadvantages,
"we're going
to educate our kids,
and we're going to not accept
'no' for an answer."
And the schools
that are succeeding
are doing that because they
go in with that mentality,
that we have to raise our
expectations for these kids.
They can do better than what
people thought they could do.
And they're proving
that that's true.
Sundquist: So education
is the place to focus?
Legend:
I believe that.
And I still think
it's important that
our social services
are intact,
and a lot of the schools
that are doing well
are doing so because they're
taking the emotional life
of the kids
into account as well.
So they understand these kids
have traumatic circumstances
sometimes at home.
So they have
more robust counseling,
take the whole kid's well-being
and their health
into consideration
as well.
So that doesn't mean
all you care about are schools,
and you don't care
about their emotional
and physical well-being.
It's not
an either/or question.
I think it's more
of a "both" question.
Sundquist: Yeah, that there
can be a holistic approach.
Legend:
Yeah, absolutely.
And there are plenty
of schools that I've seen
that are very successful at
taking that holistic approach.
But no one wins by saying,
"Well, until you fix
all those other things,
you can't fix the schools."
No one wins by doing that.
We have to say,
"Let's do both."
Sundquist: Sweet.
Next question.
Another text question
from CoffeeCream
in Van Nuys, California.
"What volunteer work can we do
to help raise awareness
about the importance
of reading?"
Legend: Well, reading
is so important,
and you'd be amazed
at how poorly
some of our kids do
on reading tests,
how many of our schools--
how many of our kids go into--
even to high school
being functionally
illiterate.
We need to make sure
that our kids can read
before they can learn
anything else.
And so volunteering to help
with that is important.
You know, a lot
of the schools I work with
offer tutoring programs
for the kids,
where community members
can come in and volunteer.
And my theory is that
any person who has
the ability to help out
should figure out a way to get
in touch with a local school
in their community and say,
"What can I do to help?"
We have to realize that these
kids are our kids, you know?
We have to--You know that
saying "it takes a village"?
I think that's a real thing.
Sundquist: Yeah.
Legend: Our communities
need to take ownership
of our schools and say,
"It's important
that these schools
"develop and produce kids
who are gonna contribute
to society."
And the only way
that's gonna happen
is if we say,
"We're all in this together,
and we want to make sure
these kids do well."
Even if they're not
your flesh and blood,
they're part
of your community,
and they're gonna affect
the health
and the well-being of your
community for a long time.
So anybody who has
the ability and the resources
to tutor, to donate,
to do anything they can
to help their local schools,
I think it's
a great thing to do.
Sundquist: All right,
next question, video.
Chris: Hi, I'm Chris
from San Diego.
And I was wondering,
in economically
disadvantaged families,
there's a lot of pressure
to start working full-time
as soon as possible.
How can you change
the thought process
to make education more valuable
than earning money
for a family
that really needs it?
Legend:
Well, that's a good question.
I'm not that familiar
with that issue.
I know--I mean,
even in my family,
we didn't have a lot of money,
and I needed to work
in high school and in college
to survive.
My parents didn't have
enough to--
You know, even if I just
wanted spending money
to go to McDonald's
or whatever
or if I wanted to buy a pair
of shoes that I wanted,
the only way I was gonna get
that was by working.
So I worked
throughout high school
as soon as I was
old enough to do so.
And I worked
throughout college.
And I think, you know,
that's the reality
of a lot of kids' circumstance,
and you hope
they'll be in a situation
where they don't have
to do that,
but the reality is that a lot
of kids will have to work.
But I think most parents
understand the value
of a good education,
even if they didn't get it
themselves.
Most parents
that I encounter,
even if they didn't go
to college,
they want their kid
to go to college.
I was part of the film
"Waiting for Superman,"
and you'll see in the film
a lot of these families
are struggling.
They know they didn't get
the kind of education
that they would have hoped
they could have gotten,
but they want better
for their kids.
And I would say most parents
that I encounter,
even in the poorest
of situations,
they want better
for their kids,
and they want them to do
the best they can.
And they know that college
is a part of fulfilling
the American dream,
and they want that
for their kids.
Sundquist: Yeah.
All right, next question
from Melissa in Seattle.
"While I appreciate anyone who
cares about public education,
"I wish you considered
more voices like Diane Ravitch.
"Charters, Teach for America,
"and privatization
of public schools
"are not the only possible
answers to failing schools.
What do you say?"
Legend: I would say--
Well, I have considered
Diane Ravitch's opinions.
I've read quite a bit
of her writings,
and I'm a little bit
frustrated sometimes,
because when I read
her writings,
it strikes me that she seems
particularly obsessed
with criticizing
charter schools
and saying that any
of their results
are, you know, illusions
or that they're
overinflated.
And she seems like she's
a bit on a mission
to destroy the reputation
of charter schools.
And I feel like the last
editorial I read that she wrote
in "The New York Times,"
I just saw so many straw men,
so many mischaracterizations
of her opponents' views,
and a significant amount
of intellectual dishonesty
in her writing.
So it made me wonder,
"Well, what's her mission?"
I don't understand
what her goal is
if she's
not making arguments
that are based
on kind of a well-rounded view
of the facts.
The facts are
there are some charter schools
that are successful.
There are some charter schools
that are not.
But a significant number
of charter schools
are very successful,
to the extent
that we should want to learn
why they're so successful.
Not try to knock down
the statistics.
We should want to figure out
what is so--
what is the reason that
these schools are so successful,
and how can we
replicate that?
I'm not devoted
to the charter model.
I think--I'm devoted to good
schools wherever they come.
And if we find out
that other types
of, you know,
school authorization...
mechanisms work,
I don't care about
the authorization mechanism
and how these schools
are organized.
I care that they're doing
the best job for these kids.
If you're a kid,
if you're a parent
in a tough community,
all you care about
is getting that lifeline.
You want to go
to a great school
that's gonna have
great teachers,
that's gonna prepare you
for success.
You don't care
whether it's a charter.
You don't care whether it's
a traditional public school.
And by the way,
charters are public schools.
So it's kind of
a false argument to say
this is all
about privatization
and corporatization
of schools,
because charters
are public schools,
and they're actually funded
less than traditional
public schools.
And they have to go out
and raise a lot of their money
so that they can operate
on a par
with traditional
public schools.
So, you know,
I want good schools
to be in every community,
and if we see
that certain schools
are doing a great job,
let's not try
to tear them down,
let's not try to find reasons
to criticize them.
Let's make all
of our schools better.
Let's make all
of our schools accountable.
And if they're
charter schools,
if they're traditional
public schools,
or if they're
private schools,
we want all of our kids
to go to great schools.
Sundquist: Mm-hmm.
So, for you,
it's not necessarily
about charter schools versus
traditional public schools.
It's about what works best,
and let's do that.
Legend: Yeah, and the thing
that's been--
that has excited people about
the charter-school movement
is that these schools
have had freedom
to work outside
of the traditional regime.
And when you need
radical change
to improve the outcomes
of these kids,
sometimes you need to go
outside the traditional regime
to find what works,
because, otherwise,
you have all these rules.
You have these work rules
that say you can't work
past a certain amount
of time.
You can't fire
ineffective teachers.
You have all these rules
that are saying
you can't do this and that,
and no organization can run
if they don't have
the freedom
to experiment and do things
that might work.
If things have been not working
for so long,
you need to figure out
what's gonna work,
and charter schools
have had the freedom
to learn what might work,
when traditional schools
have been failing
at that mission.
And so...
this argument is kind of
set up in a way
that is not conducive for us
to really reform the schools.
It's saying charter
versus public.
First of all, charter schools
are public schools.
And it should be
about charter versus public.
It should be about,
where are the good schools?
Why are they working?
How can we replicate it?
Sundquist: Hmm.
Next question from SoulBrotha
in Oakland, California.
"Considering the dropout rate
in low-income communities
"in conjunction with
the overall cuts to education
"in terms of jobs
and programs,
"how can we prevent education
from becoming
another color line?"
Legend: Oh, it's too late.
It already is.
We have to change
that story,
but it is--
I mean, it's been a part
of the color line
since, you know,
America's existence.
Slavery.
When black folks
were enslaved,
they weren't educated.
They were denied
an education then.
After slavery,
with Jim Crow,
it was very difficult
for a black person
to get a good education.
And in America now,
not explicitly
along racial lines,
but because of poverty,
because schools
are usually community-based
and based on, you know,
property values
and property taxes
in that community,
if you're poor,
it's difficult for you to go
to a quality school.
So it's just really
a perpetuation
of--of an unfortunate part
of America's legacy.
Sundquist: Hmm.
Martinez: Hi, my name
is Phil Martinez.
And I was wondering,
since you're a musician
and also a charity worker,
how do you manage your time?
Legend:
Well, I was in the studio
till 2:00 a.m. last night.
Wrote a new song.
Sundquist: All right.
Like, the whole thing?
Like, you started
and finished, like--
Legend: Yeah, we started
and finished a song.
That's how I write.
I usually do everything
in one sitting.
So it usually takes, like,
four or five hours
to try to write
a good song.
Some are better
than others.
Some are worse
than others.
But I did that last night,
and then I woke up
at 7:00 this morning
to get ready to be here.
And, you know,
that's just my life.
And, you know, I do the things
that I want to do
and that I love to do.
I don't wake up and do anything
that I don't want to do.
I love doing this.
I love talking
about education.
I love helping kids
get a quality education
and being a part
of the solution
to a really important problem
in this country.
And I also love making music,
and I'm about to go on tour
with Sade and have a great time.
So, you know,
I make it work.
Sundquist: That's cool.
Next question, a text question
from Australia.
"I work as an ambassador
for Teach for Australia
"and was wondering,
"what do you think the key is
to encouraging young people
"to make a difference
through the program
"despite the allure
of the awaiting
corporate world?"
Legend: Well...
fortunately
for education recruiters,
not fortunately
for the country,
but we're in a bit
of a recession,
and it's pretty much
a global recession.
And so young people are finding
that it's not so easy
to find a corporate job
coming out of school, anyway.
So this creates
an opportunity
for education recruiters
to say,
"Hey, why don't you consider
working in education?"
Maybe you won't spend
the rest of your life
working in education,
but maybe you'll spend
a significant amount of your 20s
doing it or whatever.
Use this great knowledge that
you've gained going to college
and help somebody else.
So I think it appeals
to people's altruism,
and there's an economic argument
for it at this point
because of the lack of other
options that are out there
for people graduating
from school.
Now, the question is
for the future, though,
from a public-policy
perspective,
is, do we want education
to be, like,
the fifth, sixth, seventh,
eighth, ninth, tenth option
for a talented
college graduate?
Or do we want it to move up
on the list?
And the only way
we're gonna be able to do that
is to make it more attractive,
and, honestly, I think
we should pay teachers more.
Sundquist: Yeah.
Legend: Make it
a more appealing profession
for our most talented kids.
If you see places
like Finland
or other countries where they
have highly successful schools,
part of the reason is that
a lot of their top graduates
are going to teach
after college.
In the U.S.,
that's not normally the case.
Sundquist: Right.
Legend: And so, if we want
to change that story,
we need to make teaching
more attractive
for our top college graduates.
And part of that is going
to be making sure
that teachers get paid well.
And then, additionally,
we have to make sure
they have a great environment
to work in,
an environment
that fosters creativity,
accountability, challenges
them in the right ways
and develops them
in the right ways.
Sundquist: Yeah.
And you're on the board
for Teach for America.
Legend: Yes, I'm on the board
for Teach for America.
And fortunately
for Teach for America,
the issue hasn't been the lack
of qualified candidates.
There's been lots
of young people
that want to get involved,
and like I said,
the state of the economy
actually helps with that story.
For that to be sustainable
where we always have
a bunch of great kids
that want to teach,
again, like I said,
I think we need to make
the career more attractive.
Sundquist: Yeah, yeah,
'cause it seems like that's
one of the things that TFA
has done really well,
is sort of make education a--
like, sort of
not only, like, a valid
but sort of
a prestigious option.
Legend: Yeah, and they
make it a mission.
If you read Wendy Kopp's book,
you know that there's
a certain zeal
that the organization has,
that she has,
that the young people that join
the organization have.
You know, they've drunk
the Kool-Aid in a certain sense,
in a good way.
They really believe
that real change can happen
if we're serious about it
and if we devote ourselves
to putting a great teacher
in every classroom,
to putting
great school leaders
and great superintendents
in charge
that are really interested
in raising the expectations
and raising the bar
for the schools.
And once those young people
spend a few years in the schools
and see what's possible,
then a lot of them
go on to become
some of the most influential
reformers,
because they know
what they saw,
they know what
they were able to do
in their short time
teaching,
and they say, you know,
"We've got to do better
as a school system."
The founders of KIPP schools
were Teach for America alumni,
and they learned
what was possible
by being out there.
In their first year,
they struggled.
You know, they got better
as they went along as teachers.
But they learned
that great teachers
can make really transformative
change in kids' lives.
And they wanted
to have a school system
that fostered that
and developed that,
and they founded one
of the highest-performing groups
of charter schools
in the country
and, I believe,
the largest group,
which is KIPP schools.
And they do amazing,
amazing work.
They, um--They, um,
are highly accountable.
They measure themselves
on any number of factors,
like college-graduation rates,
high-school-graduation rates,
test scores,
all these things.
They really want to make
a real impact,
and they set
their expectations very high.
And part of that zeal,
part of that passion
for reform,
came from their experience
in Teach for America.
So I think
it's a powerful way
to involve really talented,
motivated young people
in our education system.
We need more people
like that.
Sundquist: Yeah.
Next question
from MrSticky.
"Being a musical artist
yourself,
"what are your thoughts
on the arts in school?
"Should they be cut or kept?
I'm gonna go ahead and assume
that you're gonna think
they should be kept.
"If the latter," though--
here's the interesting
part of the question--
"are they in need
of more funding,
or is the funding
in need of more management?"
Legend:
Well, first of all,
very clearly
the arts have made
a huge impact in my life.
And a lot of that
happened in school.
You know,
I don't watch "Glee,"
but I get the sense
that "Glee" actually is helpful
in this argument
right now.
Sundquist:
Yeah, I think so.
Legend: Because what's
happening with "Glee"
is that people are seeing
that the arts--
They're, you know,
seeing it on television,
that the arts can be
such an important part
of the lifeblood
of a school,
part of the education
that kids receive,
because education
is not just
about standardized tests.
It's not just about math.
It's not just about, you know,
kind of the harder subjects.
Part of it is about
understanding yourself,
understanding
how you relate to others,
understanding
critical thinking
and how to craft an argument,
how to understand
other people's point of view.
And a lot of that is developed
through the arts.
And I-I feel so sad
knowing that
because of, you know,
budget crunches
and all these other things
that some kids won't get
the kind of arts education
that I was able
to get in school,
which was such
a powerful thing for me.
It brought me
out of my shell.
It made me more excited
to come to school every day.
And these things--We can't
take these things for granted.
I think they really make
a big difference in kids' lives.
And, actually,
I think some studies even show
that it helps you
with your math.
So, when you see
all of that,
again, I hate that we have to
have an either/or kind of debate
about these things.
It should be
all of the above.
It shouldn't be
math and reading and history
versus the arts.
It should be
all of the above.
And they complement each other
and sustain each other.
And so I'm of the belief
that we need to make sure
our schools
are fully funded
in a way that they need
to be funded
to make sure we have
great teachers,
make sure we have
all the programs that kids need
to succeed.
And if that means we have
to cut back on other things
in our society,
then so be it.
If that means
we have to raise taxes,
then so be it.
Sundquist:
All right, next question
from Andy in New York.
"What inspires you to perform?
"In addition, what also
keeps you motivated
and performing
at a high level?"
Legend:
Well, I love music.
I've loved music
since I was a kid.
I love being onstage.
I love writing a song.
I love the feeling that I get
when a song comes together
and it just feels right
and I just know I'm gonna be
proud to sing it onstage
in front of, you know,
thousands of people.
I love it.
I love what I do.
And I'm also ambitious,
and I'm also--
I'm also competitive.
So I want to win.
I want to be successful
at what I do.
And so I'm committed
to working hard.
I'm committed to going
to the studio
and working on a song,
you know,
the umpteenth version of it
to make sure I get it
exactly right.
I'm committed to that.
I'm committed to rehearsing
with my band
till we get the show
exactly right.
We want to do the best show
in the business.
And so part of it is just
my love for music,
part of it is me
being competitive,
but all of that makes me want
to perform at a high level.
Sundquist:
Yeah, it doesn't sound
like motivation
is an issue for you.
Legend: Yeah, I mean,
like I said,
I get to do what I love
to do every day,
and I don't take that
for granted,
and I want to continue to try
to be the best at it.
Sundquist:
One more music question.
"Who is your greatest
musical influence?"
Legend: I think my greatest
musical influence
is Stevie Wonder.
But I've listened to so many
different artists overtime.
Some other people
that are influential to me
are Nina Simone,
Marvin Gaye,
Ray Charles,
Jeff Buckley,
The Beatles.
Those are some
of my favorite artists
and people that, uh...
you know, I've taken things from
and tried to, you know,
see how I could incorporate it
into my own music.
Sundquist: Got ya.
All right, so, now,
there's a section here
at the end of the interview
called "The Big Three"
with three questions
from World View.
"What is one experience that
changed your view of the world?"
Legend: Well...
that's interesting.
There's been many.
One significant experience
was getting involved
with Jeffrey Sachs,
who is a professor
at Columbia
and one of the leading thinkers
in the world
on the global economy
and particularly
around development
in developing countries.
And I read his book called
"The End of Poverty,"
and then I found him
after reading his book
and said, you know,
"I would love to do some work
with you all
and see if I could help out."
I went on a trip
with his organization to Ghana
and to Tanzania.
And we ended up adopting
one of the Millennium Villages
in Tanzania
and started
the Show Me campaign
really as a response
to what we saw
when we went out to Africa.
And so I would say that was
a significant experience
in my life that really
changed my world view
and made me
more and more committed
to fighting poverty
around the world.
Sundquist: Yeah, sound like
it was a big influence...
Legend: Yeah.
Sundquist: On your work.
Here we go.
Number two of The Big Three.
"If you could ask
any world leader a question,
what would it be,
and who would you ask?"
Legend: Well,
I guess right now
I would love to sit--
You know, I'm friendly
with President Obama.
But I haven't really gotten
to sit with him
since, you know,
when he was a senator
and he was still thinking
about running for president.
Sundquist: Yeah.
Legend: And I would love
to sit with him for an hour
and have, like,
a candid conversation
about what's going on
in America
and what's going on
in the world.
I feel like we're at a really
interesting time right now.
We're at an interesting time
when it comes to kind of
overall fiscal policy,
overall direction
of the country,
when it comes to education,
when it comes
to the environment,
when it comes
to the wars that are happening
in, you know,
Afghanistan, Iraq,
and the conflict in Libya.
There's so many interesting
things going on in the world,
and President Obama has,
you know,
all this intelligence,
the, you know--
his mental intelligence
but also the intelligence
that he's hearing
from, you know, the CIA
and all these other sources.
And it must be interesting
to talk to someone
who knows so much about
what's going on in the world
and see what
their perspective is
on how to fix it.
And I would love to have
a candid conversation,
you know,
outside of the kind of--
the kind of gotcha politics
that, you know,
he has to be wary of
when he's in interviews.
I would love to just have
a candid conversation about it.
Sundquist: Yeah.
And then the final question
of The Big Three--
"What is the biggest problem
facing the next generation,
and what can we do
to solve it?"
And this is also
your last question
from YouTube World View.
Legend:
Well, I think...
I don't know
if there's one problem
that I could say
is the biggest problem.
Obviously, I've chosen to focus
on education.
And I think
it's really important for me,
because I'm of the belief
that every life
is valuable,
that every kid should have
an opportunity to succeed,
an opportunity to shine,
an opportunity
to be the best they can be.
And I feel like if they
don't get the opportunity
to get a great education,
then they won't be able
to fully realize themselves
and be the best person
that they can be.
And so that's why I've chosen
to focus on that.
I believe it will impact
so many other aspects
of life.
It'll impact crime.
It'll impact the economy.
It'll impact the way
we relate to each other,
you know,
across ethnic lines
and across
international lines.
I think education
is such a powerful tool
to change the world.
And we need to do
a better job around the world
of making sure
that more kids
are able to get
a good education.
Sundquist: Well, John, thanks
so much for coming in today.
Appreciate your time.
Legend: It's a pleasure.
Sundquist: I'm Josh Sundquist.
This is John Legend.
I encourage you
after this video
to check out John's channel
on YouTube,
youtube.com/johnlegend.
I'd be honored
if you check out my channel,
youtube.com/joshsundquist.
And I also encourage you
to check out youtube.com/edu,
an amazing channel
put together by YouTube,
where you can learn
about everything,
from playing the piano
to nuclear physics
and everything in between.
Thanks again for watching.
I'm Josh Sundquist.
