“All in all, you’re just another brick in the wall!”
The words to the popular Pink Floyd song breathe so much truth about what the formal education system really does to children.
The system has been designed to create workers. Bricks that fit together to form a wall of identical individuals, some more skilled and experienced than others, but effectively just the same.
The formal education systems of just about every country on earth don’t train people to become entrepreneurs or leaders. You may argue that children have courses such as “commerce” in high school or even Business Studies at university, but the fact still remains that these courses are designed to create managers, definitely not entrepreneurs. There’s a big difference. Entrepreneurship is a creative art that’s very far from the teachings in mechanical courses normally found in business schools.
I remember having a young Motswana professor in UB who had studied in Harvard before coming back home to apply his skills. This young and dynamic man tried to make his business course off the beaten path, with less emphasis on notes and lectures and a greater emphasis on case studies, discussions and perhaps even a field trip to a local business. Needless to say his ideas were shot down and his classes promptly reverted back to memorizing the different forms of “remuneration”.
In a world so bent on creating workers, how can a young person break free from the system to realize her hidden passion for leadership?
At home parents should talk to their children about things the school system leaves out. I grew up in a family that encouraged entrepreneurship. My father would encourage us to learn more about business and would help foster our curiosity of the business world. I would sincerely encourage parents to talk to your children about aspects of their growing lives that cannot be found in schools. Encourage them to read articles like this one and get inspired.
Outside the home creative business courses and inspiring entrepreneurial programs should be offered in college, high-schools, middle schools and perhaps even primary schools. Young kids should be given the option to grow their inner entrepreneur, either by encouraging them to start their own little businesses or by drawing up creative business plans, or by even just meeting entrepreneurs and learning about what they do.
Think about it…. If you ask a child in the third grade, I’m sure he’ll know what a doctor, a lawyer, or a mechanic does and if he’s really smart, maybe also what an engineer or an accountant does. But how many of them would actually understand what an Entrepreneur does? It’s the least glorified profession to children (but strangely the most glorified to adults).
But how can we truly encourage entrepreneurship and business in our schools?
Start from the grassroots. Children need training in personal finance, money management, professionalism, and other bare essentials that are vital to life in general, regardless of your profession.
Schools should encourage professionals, businesspeople included, to come and talk about what they do. I remember when a prominent local businessman inaugurated our new school building in Crescent School, Lobatse when I was a young boy. He came to the school in a beautiful sports car, spoke about entrepreneurship, explained how much education mattered, and then ended his speech by telling us that we could all become successful if we just had the determination to succeed.
It was a short speech, but the message he ingrained in my young mind was clear. “I have an amazing life. If you want to be like me, become an entrepreneur.” After hearing his remarkable speech, I started several relatively successful business ventures in school by selling to my classmates. My businesses ranged from selling pens, to printing business cards, to renting comic books. It was clear… regardless of what I did, I loved being an entrepreneur and that passion still keeps me going today.
I look back and think that if my 8-year- old self could get so inspired by that single speech, imagine what I could have learned if we had more businesspeople giving talks, if our teachers spoke a bit about Bill Gates, Warren Buffet or even local businesspeople, or if we actually had school trips to real businesses in town. Not just to learn about entrepreneurship, but even other professions.
I think we could have all learnt a whole lot more. I was also pretty lucky to have attended Lobatse’s best school. What about all the other children that were in government schools… I don’t know of any entrepreneurs who have been there.
Every child deserves an equal chance to learn; not just from textbooks, but from life in general. Young people can chose their role models to be either rap stars, or business leaders… but what are the odds when MTV is just a button away?
Quote of the day: “Financial education needs to become a part of our national curriculum and scoring systems so that it’s not just the rich kids that learn about money.. it’s all of us.” – David Bach
* Tshepo Magetse an avid reader and contributor provided many of the ideas contained in this article.
Arjun Parameswaran is the executive vice-president of the Astutant Group, Florida, USA, a director of the R.D.P Group, Botswana and an administrator of the R.D.P Foundation, a Botswana centered charitable foundation. He can be contacted at
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Read more and post your comments online at www.arjunparameswaran.com
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