An executive for a major corporation recently said, "One thing we are finding is that people who are applying for work at our companies are not able to think."
I was expecting him to say, not able to read, do math or communicate as well as is needed. When he said think I began to reflect on that. I looked up the definition of think and found 27 definitions, but the two that seemed to best fit are:
"to employ one's mind rationally and objectively in evaluating or dealing with a given situation"; and "to invent or conceive of something."
There is so much emphasis today on testing for reading, math and achievement in various subjects -- providing "evidence" our students have become educated.
Not that I am minimizing the need to be skilled in reading and math, nor ignoring the importance of helping students achieve a better reality of the world they live in. I am concerned that we are ignoring the need -- the essential need -- to help our students learn how to think and to provide the opportunities for them to demonstrate that skill.
George Bernard Shaw wrote, "Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people."
Unreasonable people are often considered demanding or extreme. Perhaps they are, but they are the entrepreneurs -- the ones who will make a difference, create new edges, start new enterprises and to quote from Star Trek, "boldly go where no man has gone before."
We must foster the entrepreneurial spirit within our students and educators. Our future depends on nurturing that spirit, for the entrepreneur is the person who will organize and manage an enterprise, even though it may involve considerable initiative and risk.
This is not just in reference to entrepreneurs as individuals who start a business activity; rather individuals who are willing to find new and better ways of doing things in their areas of talent, interest and purpose. Following are some educators who I consider to be entrepreneurial in this larger sense of the word.
Larry Wolfe, who taught two of my daughters, created a truly magical space in his third grade classroom, building a loft where students can go to read and study, as well as doing other wondrous things, including morning sing-a-longs, that made his classroom so inviting and special.
Alan Zwirn, a music teacher in a Brooklyn, N.Y. middle school, who created shows that were so innovative, powerful and impacting because of his "unreasonable" attitude about his students meeting professional standards in their performance.
Tim Lefens, founder of Artistic Realization Technologies (A.R.T.), developed tools and techniques that allow quadriplegics to creatively express themselves using laser-guided painting. This ability opens doors, often for the first time, to communicate through art.
Let's recognize the educators who are entrepreneurs of the classroom, who value and instill the entrepreneurial spirit in their students through their example, creations, contributions and unreasonableness. Let's help them inspire our next generation of entrepreneurs who will wonder and set out to make their dreams become a reality.
*This story is from Converge magazine's Summer 2008 issue.
