The American School of Entrepreneurs

I start the year in my Symposium class for the Classics Academy with a discussion of Sir Kenneth Robinson's inital TED talk about schools and creativity. If you haven't seen it, it is definitely worth viewing, especially if you are in education or have a child in school. I show the video because I believe that it is an appropriate beginning for these students who are about to take a look at the psychological and social implications of Creativity. The discussions are insightful and many students lament being pigeonholed by a system that just does not seem to cater to their individual needs. Today, a student shared the following story with us about her brother. I would like to share it with you all, because I think that it is a good reminder about why we have to change the educational paradigm.

My student shared that her brother has been placed in a special school because he is 'extremely ADHD’. The original point that she made had to do with the difference between our high school and the manner in which students worked in her brother's school. As you may well imagine, her brother's school had a more kinesthetic slant to the work that they did in class. Trying to exploit the difference in schooling, I asked her what her brother's interests were…in short, what was he passionate about. Her eyes lit up and she said that he has always had a keen interest in finance and stocks.

She went on to share two revealing stories about his passion for finance. The first one brought a chuckle to the class: Unbeknowst to her parents, her brother had saved up and purchased a hot dog cart on ebay for $500. He had seen hot dog vendors on the streets selling hot dogs and he figured that he could make a pretty good amount of money each day, if located in the right place, because hot dogs were so cheap to buy. He figured that he would make a killing around lunch time. I can only imagine his parents eyes when the truck pulled up with the delivery.

The second story raised our eyebrows: Because he was also interested in finance and stocks, he began following the stock market on his own. Wanting to support this interest in their son, the parents set up an Etrade account for him and allowed him to play the market with some money. Seeing the need to acquire more money for his trades, the young man tapped into his bank account and withdrew a considerable sum, without his parent's permission, in order to buy more stocks. As with the hot dog cart, his parent's were not pleased with the fact that he had withdrawn this substantial sum from his personal account to support more stock purchases.

When the parental permission thing came up, I was thrown for a loop and inquired how old this student's brother was.

He is twelve years old.

Clearly, our school system isn't giving this pre-teen what he needs. How could it? At twelve years old, this young man is an entrepreneur who is starting to have a real understanding of market systems in America. And he is the one we’re putting in a special school? Think about what most twelve year olds are doing in school. Of course, he's bored. This kid is itching to make some money. And he’s taking the initiative on his own. The entrepreneurs of the future are being put into remediation. Honestly, folks, it’s no wonder that America is falling behind.

We need to start making some changes. Like, now.

Kathy Sierra Address at Oopsala Conference 2007.

Below are the Twitternotes that I took based upon some of the content of Sierra's address at the Oopsala conference in 2007. I'm struck by a few details of the message that she shared with programmers and businessmen: First, her message seems as applicable to those of us in education as it was to these conference goers. You can easily substitute the words App Developer for Teachers, Community for Classes, and Users for Students. It's a powerful message--to redesign a class in terms of user experience. I think she's right on, despite the personal trainer language that she uses throughout.

You can find the full hour long keynote address at:
http://www.oopsla.org/oopsla2007/podcasts/invited-talks/keynote0102-kathy-sierra.mp3

BEGIN TWITTERNOTES:

*No one is passionate about something they suck at. -- Kathy Sierra

*Once people pass over the suck threshold, they're happy doing things the old way...the way that no longer works.

*1ce users cross the passion threshold, yr off the hook 4 helping them, that's when they start finding ways to get better on their own.- K.S.

*No one really cares about your tool (read: subject), they're only really interested in what your tool supports (read: life).-- Kathy Sierra.

*"What can I help my users kick ass at?" -- Kathy Sierra. That's a great question to help teachers re-envision themselves.

*"Anything that we feel, any little thing that causes a reaction 2 wake up the brain is going 2 B something our users pay attention to"- K.S.

*Motivation depends on 1) student's idea about future w/this ability, 2) a clear path for getting there, & 3) a relatively easy first step.

*"We need more human interaction with the user (read: students)." --Kathy Sierra.

* Csikszentmihalyi's concept of Flow is essential for keeping learners motivated through the suck and barely adequate phases.

*We need to strike a careful balance of encouraging a community to give students knowledge/skill and the actual challenges of the task.- K.S.

*"Out-teach the competition, you don't have 2 out-spend them. Just make yr users kick ass. Yr community will do all the marketing work." KS

*"If you have a community that is going to help your users advance, you need to convert the community from askers to answerers." Kathy Sierra

*"Where there is passion, there is a tribe." - Kathy Sierra.

*Our brains are wired to tell stories about people. There has to be someone in your community who has an interesting story. Use it. - KS

*"If someone doesn't hate what you do, it's probably mediocre." -- Don Norman. Sure, there needs to be some love, too.

*People in Flow report these experiences to be the happiest of their lives. This is the opportunity we have 2 give 2 users (read:students).