Entrepreneurship

I've been thinking a lot lately about entrepreneurship. People tend to immediately assume that means business, but I don't. Entrepreneurship is part of SLA's mission statement. But it's the part that oftentimes is - I think - hardest to see if you don't know what you're looking for. In the end, its about owning your ideas and doing interesting things with them. And I don't mean "owning" in some sort of proprietary non-sharing sort of way because collaboration is a huge piece of entrepreneurship. I mean owning your ideas in such a way that conveys that your ideas have power and have meaning and have use. Ken Robinson in one of his talks defines creativity as, "having original ideas of value." That's not a bad place to start. Entrepreneurship suggests that when you do something with those ideas.

I don't think school as it is currently configured in most places allow students or teachers to do that well.

That has to change. An entrepreneurial school is one where everyone - students teachers and administrators - understand that they can own their ideas and create powerful, useful artifacts of value. And I don't believe in artifact has to be static. Whether it is a student writing code that will be incorporated into a function of the school's website, or a teacher creating and sharing empowering unit plans, or community members coming to school to build programs that enhance the lives of those who lived it, schools must be entrepreneurial.

The mistake in thinking that “entrepreneurship” belongs only to our capitalist values as a nation. Entrepreneurship has as much to do with our civic values and it does with our capitalist outings, and as such, profoundly and deeply belongs rooted in our schools. The challenges our students will face as they leave our walls and deal with an ever-changing world will require the entrepreneurial spirit no matter what sector of society they live and work. The challenges our teachers face as they look to change schools from the 1950s model to the modern model will require passion and, creativity and the drive to see ideas through. The challenges we all face as our world changes as an ever quickening pace, as the old ways of doing things no longer hold, require a flexibility of spirit, a collaborative sense of purpose and the nimbleness to adapt to rapid change. There are few institutions in our society that are currently configured to handle this change. Schools, by the very fact that they teach the young - those who will have to see this change through, must take the lead in re-valuing and redefining the entrepreneurial spirit. Students must leave our walls with the confidence and skill to bring new ideas to bear on a society that desperately needs them.