Schools Need to Teach Entrepreneurship
The following is a guest post from Sam Davidson:
Sir Robinson’s video that motivated Ryan to go off on this educational tangent has one central theme that should be scary for all of us: the modern education system is based on an assembly line model that teaches conformity, efficiency, and replication. Our world is anything but, of course. And this is the problem.
I have a 13-month-old daughter. She’s still years away from any kind of formal schooling, but my wife and I are already concerned about the type of place she’ll attend. Guns and violence are the least of our worries; rather, we’re frightened that her creativity and ambition will be stifled by sitting on pieces of masking tape, walking in a line to the cafeteria, and answering questions at the end of a chapter that the teacher will never read. In short, we’re worried that she’ll become a cog in a machine that’s spinning its wheels, going nowhere.
But do you know how you break out of the mechanistic repetition that has become much of modern society? You start something. Corporate lore is full of people who were fed up, dreamed bigger, and rolled the dice. Today’s companies are started by yesterday’s rule breakers and non-conformists. Going rogue and tinkering in a garage is the very stuff that creates the next great company – the next great way of life for all of us.
If you listen to any American politician talk today, you’ll hear an earful about two things – education and entrepreneurship. Sadly, the connection between the two is rarely made. Perhaps the reason we don’t have more people starting more companies that could jumpstart our economy is because our country spent the last 20 years educating them to do anything but. It’s time entrepreneurship became a required class.
I had to take art, but I don’t paint now. I took band, chemistry, and American history, none of which I’m immersed in today. Not everyone will go start a company, but the principles learned in an entrepreneurship course will serve the student long after he or she passes the final exam. Dreaming big, taking risks, measuring outcomes, building alliances, finding customers – these are all skills anyone needs to be successful. And right now, you don’t learn them until you go to college or until you haphazardly learn on the job.
My entrepreneurial education came when I was 25 and began Cool People Care. I hope my daughter and her peers don’t have to wait that long. Let kids start companies in grade schools. They’ll be pros when they’re out of college, able to rebuild a nation and a world on a new system. This system won’t be based on an assembly line but on dreams and hard work that it takes to create something new.
Bio:
Sam Davidson is a writer, entrepreneur, and dreamer who believes that the world needs more passionate people. To help people find and live their passion, he has written 50 Things Your Life Doesn’t Need. He is the co-founder of Cool People Care and Proof Branding, and lives in Nashville with his wife and daughter.
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Hey Ryan, finally made it back to your blog!
Great post Sam, I agree with you that there are issues with the school system (talking about North America, I have no sense of what is taught beyond that). I think what you are talking about is one of the many issues that are discomforting.
The #1 skill that should be the focus of school is deductive reasoning, in my opinion. This should be the emphasis in Math, Science, English, Art (which are all important, Sorry!). Giving individuals the ability to solve an issue where there is no answer laid infront of them is invaluable.
Would you not agree entrepreneurs’ strength can be attributed to that? After that, other skills in Entrepreneurship would be functional like accounting, marketing, sales strategies etc.
I really enjoy this video about Changing Education Paradigms by Sir Ken Robinson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
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February 15th, 2011 at 8:25 amAgreed! Reasoning is a key skill to be taught. I think it can be taught in a hands-on way, such as by starting something or launching an idea.
And yes – strong entrepreneurs seem to be able to make the right decisions at the right time, usually because they’re experienced. The more experience students can get, the better poised they’ll be post-graduation.
Sam Davidson´s last [type] ..Work and Life Advice – 21411
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Brian Driggs Reply:
February 15th, 2011 at 11:21 am
Excellent topic. While I’ve not seen the video yet (Youtubes are blocked at the office), education reform is very important to me.
Deductive reasoning is a good idea, as are entrepreneurship classes. I’m right there with you guys on the failings of a system focused on rote memorization and minutia in pursuit of “good jobs.” This country doesn’t need more jobs, it needs more careers.
Children should graduate high school knowing how to read, write, and manage their personal finances, with an eye on what they want to do with their life and how to go about learning what they need to achieve their goals. I believe outcomes such as this require the channeling of conventional education (information dump) through high performance skills such as search, critical/creative thinking, analysis, logic, and social skills.
Keep up the good fight. Seems like this topic is beginning to take root out there.
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[...] idea? Schools should teach entrepreneurship at every level. Here’s a teaser: If you listen to any American politician talk today, you’ll hear an earful [...]
February 15th, 2011 at 9:07 amOkay, I see what you are saying. It is not about HAVING an entrepreneurship class. It is more about having kids get out there and try to achieve a goal, in a real world scenario. That I like.
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Sam Davidson Reply:
February 15th, 2011 at 11:15 am
Exactly. The more people (kids and adults) can do stuff, the easier or better they’ll learn.
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The problem with schools “teaching” entrepreneurship is what we all can guess- teachers are not entrepreneurs. And the real entrepreneurs out there are not teaching. But entrepreneurs are doing things outside of school that attracts students’ attention. BUT the problem is not with the teachers… it’s with the school board! I say this because I have called up my local school board and said… “I like to come speak to the business or marketing or even the entrepreneurship” class and I get turned down.
So.. my way of connecting with the students is on the internet. They find my site through google search for “teen business”. We don’t do any “teaching”. We just encourage members to go start something… whatever it is, a blog, a t-shirt company, a web design company. Once you start it, we’ll provide the mentoring through interviews, articles, feedback from more veteran entrepreneurs.
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Sam Davidson Reply:
February 15th, 2011 at 11:19 am
Hey Jack:
I think you’re right. That would be a big disconnect at the high school level. Usually, at the college level, most professors of entrepreneurship have started a company – or several.
And, I like your approach. The encouragement of doing – and not just talking to share information – is very crucial.
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I totally agree with your post. In France the situation is similar. I’ve just graduated from a business school. To me french business schools are mainly focused on bringing students to corporations.
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Sam Davidson Reply:
February 18th, 2011 at 6:39 am
That could be true of many business schools; the machine needs alumni to have lucrative careers so that they can donate large amounts back to the university and so on. It’s not necessarily a bad model.
But, the most lucrative careers nowadays (though not the most stable or secure) are those where you create or start things. The richest people in the world are entrepreneurs.
Sam Davidson´s last [type] ..Schools Need to Teach Entrepreneurship
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All great comments!!!!
Just a few of my own though:
-Histoy, Art, Music, Math, etc. must be taught. We need it. BUT, the focus should change from Geometry to Personal Finance, Investing, etc. History should be a discussion on the past and current affairs and not just the past.
-We need to be free to think. To create. To dream in the school. It is a fundamental change in education whereby the 10th grade, we should be done taking “the basics”.
-Education has become a recitation of facts … and that’s not education at all.
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February 17th, 2011 at 7:08 pmHi Sam,
As with most of the comments above, entrepreneurship is about thinking differently. I think schools have the right topics, but they need to be taught in a way that fosters creativity and passion. For example, history was not my strong point – it bored me so much that I can’t remember any of it – yet when my boyfriend (a lover of history) explains certain things, it sounds SO interesting. There were so many true entrepreneurs in our history – why do we not learn more about that??
As many says, the bureaucracy gets in the way – teachers need to fight it.
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Sam Davidson Reply:
February 21st, 2011 at 5:55 am
You bring up a great point. And this is why I think the curriculum needs to change. Most teachers will teach what they’re supposed to. A few great ones will get creative, of course.
Sam Davidson´s last [type] ..Work and Life Advice – 22111
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I completely agree.
I caught the ‘entrepreneur bug’ summer before college when I found out that my friend was making passive income online. I thought it would be easy to find entrepreneurial minded people in college, but as a 3rd year undergrad right now, I’m sad to say that I haven’t met many people who are actively creating their own opportunities. At least at my college, people are still following these paths laid out for them – padding their resumes with meaningless titles and internships where they don’t do much.
I wish I had this awareness earlier and started creating back in middle or high school, so I definitely think that you’re never too young (or too old) to start your own business. Or even start self-learning. That’s a form of entrepreneurship too. All of us have the Internet at our fingertips to learn whatever we want.
I recently read this post on “Why iPads’ role in education should be limited” which I thought was really true:
http://abstractfactory.blogspot.com/2011/02/why-ipads-role-in-education-should-be.html
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February 21st, 2011 at 4:45 pm[...] Sam Davidson and Ryan Stephens have been sounding off on how more schools needs to teach entrepreneurship. Couldn’t agree [...]
February 21st, 2011 at 8:53 pmHi Sam:
Thomas Sowell, PhD wrote a book some time back: Inside American Education. While I won’t recap his ideas, I will make some comments on my own observations: 1. Institutions are bureaucratic and are hung up on their own biases. 2. Schools teach to standardized tests and cover their behind with paperwork and interviews. 2. Real learning takes place on an individual basis only. 3. Not every student is hardwired for rigorous academics- but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t intelligent with talents. 4. Real education should be outcome based (not the clichéd version). 5. Unless the ultimate goal is mastery, reference Bloom’s Taxonomy, the system is a failure. Life should be a journey of self-discovery with the end-game of mastering one’s talents.
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March 19th, 2011 at 5:47 pm