What Are They Teaching Our Children?
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A friend of mine recently asked a 13-year-old what he was going to do when he left school. He said “nothing”.
“What do you mean ‘nothing’?” she asked.
“I’m going on the dole (unemployment benefits)” he said. “When you work the government takes all your money in tax, so there’s no point.”
She was dumbfounded. And when she told me about it, so was I.
This kid has reached high school without even the most basic understanding about how the world works.
Somebody needs to let him know that when you’re in business, you get significant tax advantages, for a start. And that where he lives, the first few thousand dollars of income, even if you are an employee, are tax-free. And that giving up one’s right to do things of value for other people and be rewarded for it is so psychologically damaging that it is better to work for no money at all, just for appreciation, as a volunteer, than to give up on working!
My friend pointed the boy’s mother to the Cash Smart Kids website (www.cash-smart-kids.com). I hope she succeeds in educating this kid before he becomes yet another lost soul.
I’m still astounded. In this day and age, with all the resources we have at our fingertips, how are kids slipping through the system with such self-destructive beliefs?
November 29th, 2007 at 4:21 am
This post reminds me about Brian Tracy’s book “Something for Nothing” - if you have not read it, I highly recommend it. I don’t like the word “they” because it reinforces to our kids that there is a “them and us”.
That does not mean that the title of this post should be changed because maturity dictates that when we use the “word” they we accept the spirit in which the word was intended to be used. Somewhere between what you are doing here and what Brian Tracy outlines in his book are things that I want to think about, and that is because as a father, I want to be more self-aware of whether I am harbouring any self-destructive beliefs.
If I improve, the kids who seek my guidance can see for themselves that this process is a never ending journey of change, a continuous improvement, which does not solely belong to the education of children, but in the relationship with living a meaningful life, no matter what age we are or how mature we think we are.
From this, I feel we have stronger roots on which to plant the entrepreneurial tree - and how this branches then reflects on the fruit’s of our imagination, our care, our parenthood responsibilities and our vision of what the scope of entrepreneurial thinking should be.
Thank You for allowing me to think about this here
M.
December 5th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
Thanks for the thoughtful comment, Syven.
You’re right - all of us who are adults are engaged in a huge co-operative effort to raise the next generation, and lots of teachers are parents, too.
I look forward to the day that teachers AND parents are empowered to teach young entrepreneurs the skills and attitudes they need to succeed.
December 19th, 2007 at 12:36 am
Jenny most of us of good disposition and a fair heart do produce thoughtful comment, but applied thinking is something completely different. This requires us to see our own selves as a we are, if we demonstrate ego - we are that ego, if we demonstrate humility - we are that humility.
The critical factor isn’t simply the formation of words of wisdom, it is the difficult and challenging proposition of changing how we see the world. In that regard it is in part about learning by teaching. Search “Learning By Teaching” on Google for examples such as Wikipedia offer.
It is more than simply the act of KNOW THYSELF, for me it is about aligning mindset with an interactive world and then living in a way that brings the best out in both. So I am not being a megaphone when I say this, I think this because I am committed to learn while I am in the moment of writing itself - and the words that flow out then are what feels most right in the moment these thoughts are happening.
In transforming myself, I am also transforming the nature of my relationship with my children and this is not about standing on a stage telling the world about some grand or great new theory, it isn’t about taking curtain calls as the next great philosopher - this is an inward journey where the goal is simply to create a greater home, a domestic environment that resembles as close as possible to the change we want to see, often talk about, but ne’er try to conceive in the very places we stand.
In this regard if there is a watching crowd, or an attentive audience, something is deeply wrong because the key to learning by teaching for me is relationship rather than theater. It is a private journey rather than a public one, it is a journey of discovery rather than a journal of discoveries.
So for me intelligent living does not start in a global village, it starts within a solitary home - and this flowering of intelligence is not some fanciful idea but a challenging proposition to create and to do.
From this emergent world there is a different soil for entrepreneurship and I envisage most entrepreneurs will be living in this kind of world 50 years from now, rather than the mechanical one we reside in today.
I therefore have a very odd way of looking at the world, which is out of sync with the majority but as long as I am building a stronger home, then I care not what others think. I do comprehend this however, that as hunters humanity resided as a tribe, as farmers humanity resided as a village and these were natural worlds to exist in. In becoming industrial workers humanity resided as a city and now as information workers humanity is being moved to reside in virtual spaces - and both of these workers exist in a machine-centered world.
The natural world of hunter and farmer took us from mind to body and the machine world of industrial and information is taking us from body to mind - so if my conception of the world is driven by this kind of thinking, then I look for the one thing that connects the dots across the hunter life, farmer life, industrial life and information life - and to my mind that would be freedom.
Why then use the word “empowered” to teach young entrepreneurs, when the smarter word to use is “Freedom”. In this spirit of freedom, I do insist that people not come to me for answers about their own freedom, this is the journey which is at the center of all enterprise - and any enterprise that defeats this purpose is no longer serving mankind - and so this “freedom” isn’t something that can be taught or bought, it has to be practiced and just like enterprise it contains both risk and uncertainty - but it is therefore also balanced by faith and trust - if we are able to teach our own selves how.
M.
December 20th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
Yes, absolutely, the home environment and the relationships between people are the soil in which all human achievement is nourished.
“No man is an island” and no entrepreneur achieves their success alone, regardless of what the media would have us believe when they deify individual CEOs like Richard Branson.
Without his staff, suppliers, financiers, joint venture partners, and other supporters, Branson could not have done anything he has done so far. Not to mention his parents, teachers, mentors, friends and chosen family. In fact, each and every customer also plays a role in his success.
You could even go so far as to say that if you look closely, all accomplishment is the accomplishment of all.
Jenny