2009/10/9 Mark Burch <m...@markburch.net> > > The concept of a high school in which the entire expectation is “You will > start companies” and not “You will get a job (and work for the man)” rocks my > world. That’s the only kind of high school I want to send my son to. I hope > there’s one like this in Sydney by the time he gets to high school age... > > More broadly speaking, when I think about this topic of brainwashing and how > I’m going to deal with it with my son, I think the most important thing is to > teach kids to dream big dreams (aspirations) and then teach them how to > fulfil them (parents, and to a lesser extent schools, can enable the kids to > fulfil their dreams this but it often doesn’t work this way – schools often > seem to be big dream squashing machines).
I'm the same age as the OP, and thinking back to my high school experience, some of this stuff actually exists already. From as far back as I can remember of high school, there was at least one student-led initiative to raise money for charities, causes, equipment etc. every year (many more during the year 10-12 years as leadership roles were ramped up). This is in a small way, a base for entrepreneurship - deciding on a product and cause, making a product/service to sell, marketing it, organising it, making a profit, negotiating with companies/charities/organisations. The issue is I don't think I was ever told that I could do that for a living without joining a big corporate and being a cog in the machine. If we can tap into that, and somehow connect that with entrepreneurship as a career, I think we'll be getting a lot more interest. But even so, entrepreneurship has traditionally been seen as a very maverick move - diving into the unknown without a safety net, not knowing what might happen, no security. That view needs to change for parents, teachers and other support staff to warm to entrepreneurship as a possible path. Entrepreneurship is not just the Bill Gates or Richard Bransons who risked everything, dropped out and became wildly successful. In fact, I'm pretty sure they're a very small minority, and many other successful entrepreneurs have university degrees or other forms of tertiary study. So yes we should start generating interest in high schools, but it shouldn't be framed as a strict alternate path to tertiary study; rather as a different mindset and lifestyle on the same path. (Incidentally, I think parents start worrying when their kids aren't either working or studying outside of the home on a daily basis. After all, for the last 13 years, when you've been at home, you're generally not doing anything productive for your future. I know that's what my parents thought when I took a semester break from uni to explore startup options.) Sam --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Guidelines on discussion: http://tr.im/ujKF No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself: http://tr.im/ujMm To post to this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
