David Eggers’s TED Talk: Pirate Writing Center

David Egger had a desire to help students aged 6-18 with their writing. He knew that students in the San Francisco area needed help with their writing but that their teachers had too many students to spend 1 on 1 time with them. He decided to buy a shop on 826 Valencia and turn it into the writing studio. Because of the location of the studio, they had to sell retail items. Egger and his team decided to turn the studio into a pirate shop and sell pirate items such as eye patches and hooks. When the studio opened, Egger and his team waited weeks and weeks for students to come. There was a trust gap between the students that wanted help and the writing studio because the writing studio was located behind a pirate supply store and people didn’t think the writing studio was legit. Eventually, students began showing up and the number increased dramatically. Since the numbers were increasing, the number of teachers needed to increase because the goal is for every student to have 1 on 1 time with a teacher. Teachers kept signing up and there are over 1000 teachers on staff.

All the students that show up to the writing studio receive 1 on 1 tutoring and get all their homework done. Students soon realized that this was the best situation for them because they are not distracted at the writing studio. After the word about 826 Valencia got out, similar “shops” and writing studios started showing up around the country.

Just from one idea from a typical guy, thousands and thousands of students are being positively affected across the country. Their writing is being approved day by day by teachers who just care about the students and helping them improve. This should give inspiration to anyone out there of any age. Just one simple idea can positively impact thousands of lives across the country or even across the world.