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06 August 2007
Training our next leaders: Patrick Awuah on TED.com
Patrick Awuah left a comfortable life in Seattle to return to Ghana and co-found a liberal arts college. Why? Because he believes that Ghana's failures in leadership -- and he gives several mind-boggling examples -- stem from a university system that fails to train real leaders. In a talk that brought the TEDGlobal audience enthusiastically to their feet, he explains how a true liberal arts education -- steeped in critical thinking, idealism, and public service -- can produce the quick-thinking, ethical leaders needed to move his country forward. (Recorded June 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania. Duration: 17:42.)
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Sheila Potter – August 26 2008
THANK-YOU Patrick Awuah.
In Canada, we also have a leadership crisis. And we have a society ruled by corporations, and individuals making choices that fly in the face of environmental health and societal welfare...
"a stronger sense of entitlement than responsibility"
"students crafting an honour code"
"the real privilege of leadership: to serve humanity"
Thank-you for clarifying how our schools - all of our schools, the world over - could do better. -
mabandu keita – September 5 2007
just wondering is patrick suggesting that he was not thinking prior to getting that liberal arts education at swarthmore,
It amazes me how africans can with a broad sweep of the brush sell out their kindred for their own selfish ends. This man made millions at microsoft , which he then went home to invest by setting up a university, his life style in accra, ghana is nowhere near that of many poor rural africans , and might be way better than if he remained in seattle ,
african history is replete with leaders who trained in the USA, UK and elsewhere who returned to lead the fight for independence from the colonial masters .
The intellegentsia /intellectuals in africa have had their leadership roles largely restricted by years of military rule , and it is only recently with the help of the same lawyers , doctors , engineers who fought dictatorial regimes in the absence of the likes of mr patrick awuah that market driven democracies are building up in africa , and make it possible for mr awuah to go back to ghana to start a university.
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