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Teaching useful skills to our kids

  • Posted by Steve Spencer

Article posted on Mar 28

Those of you who know me know that I am very outspoken in regards to how and what we educate our children.  Richard, I, and a few other folks fromt he UTC were very pleased to be able to speak before the Utah Board of Education onthe topic last year.  Basically, we as the technology community need to do what we can to make sure that our kids are not only happy and healthy, but also have the skills to contribute and succeed.  We need to help schools turn out well adjust people who will be functiona members of the community and workforce.  (As a side note: being part of a group that has the ear of legislators, and schools on issues like this hsa been a huge value of UTC to me)

Anyway…. I read a post today by Janet, who I met at a blogger’s dinner.  The jist of it is: teching sixth graders to blog.  But the part that really hit me was “These kids are totally into it! They want to make money online.”  One of my real hot buttons has been: we are teching kids math, and science, and how to determine the fluid volume of a 5 foot dodecahedron.. but are we really teching them any skills that will help them succeed?  We need to take “teaching” and turn it into “mentoring.”  If kids understand the application, and the world, then they turn into “people” rahter than just a vessel that bears a plethora of facts. 

Anyway, I wanted to applaud Janet and her friend Paul.  I would love to see more of us provide this type of mentoring.  Not only to help our children and our community, but also to ensure that in the years to come that the workforce, the people, and the companies in Utah are thinking new thoughts and doing new things.

9 Responses to “Teaching useful skills to our kids”

  1. David, on March 28th, 2007 at 8:49 pm Said:

    I think that you are on the right track, but there are several reasons why this hasn’t taken off more already. Here are a couple that come to mind…

    First, if we rely on public school teachers to come up with this type of curriculum on their own, it will only happen in very rare cases. No Child Left Behind, and similar programs push teachers to focus their teaching on what they can do to get the kids the best scores on those standardized tests. Their jobs depend on good scores. It makes it difficult for them to stray much further away from that. (I applaud teachers who manage to still go beyond standard expectations!)

    Next, parents are afraid to let their children get too much exposure to the internet, but with good reason. The media is full of rumors/stories about the hazards of kids getting MySpace accounts, online predators in chat rooms, availability of pornography to minors, etc. If parents are going to be comfortable with their kid getting involved with something like blogging, they are going to need to be educated too about what safeguards are possible.

  2. sspencer, on March 29th, 2007 at 8:23 am Said:

    I completely agree with you David. Not only are teachers really pressured to focus on test scores as opposed to thinking outside of the box, but they are not in any way incented to do anything else. It woul dbe nice to see an environment where teachers could get pay increases for really making a difference.

    But in the interim, I think we, as the business community can make a difference. I agree with your points about internet and blogs, and the concerns that parents may have around them, but there are lots of other things we can teach.

    I would really like to see some focus groups between the business community and education. Something that helps come up with plans on how the business community can come in for a week and teach all sorts of things that the schools can’t. Things like not only blogs, but like business plans. Help the students take their ideas, and hone them into viable models. Let them see that they have other options than flipping burgers or being a bag boy (I am not degrading those jobs… I was a bag boy :) ). I would love to see us show our kids how they can become the Entrepreneurs of the next generation. How they can begin to play with databases NOW. How they can put up a web site so grandma can see the pictures they took (and how they can protect that sight from unwanted eyes).

    The schools are not incented to do this. We however, as not only their parents, but as the people who will be hiring these kids in ten years are.

  3. Janet Meiners, on March 30th, 2007 at 12:06 pm Said:

    what, no trackback? I almost missed this gem!
    Paul is amazing. I wish he could teach kids full time. But wait, I need him to work on our projects full time. Oracle is so lucky.
    Janet

  4. Paul Wilson, on March 30th, 2007 at 12:36 pm Said:

    I would have missed this post had Janet not clued me in, thanks Janet.

    I see several issues other then the ones discussed. In teaching these kids I discovered that only 9 out 23 kids had an email account. I can completely understand parents being weary in giving their kids personal email accounts. I have issues with kids having their own cell phone, particularly with Yahoo pushing so hard to create a cellular cyber word.

    However, I offered to host the children’s emails off one of my domains and have the parents be copied on all email correspondences, plus give the parents the password to their child’s accounts. This idea was shot down by the principal because they were worried about being sued!

    I don’t blame the principal or the school for vetoing the email idea, but I do find it ridiculous that our schools are forced into mediocrity out of fear. As a teacher said to me, “all it takes is one unhappy parent and we are through.”

    Another concern is that it shouldn’t be put on the teachers shoulders to teach business in the class. I personally know Ms. Draper, the 6th grade teacher who has allowed me to teach in her class. Often this woman puts in 12 to 14 hours a day trying to make sure that these kids are taken care of. To throw one more responsibility on her is too much. Plus, her training is in grammar education, much of what I have shared with the kids this past week has been new to her also.

    Anyway, those are my thoughts on the whole issue. I believe strongly that the responsibility to ignite the fire of business in our children falls squarely on the shoulders of those who practice and love entrepreneurism.

  5. Newspapergrl on Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, etc., on March 30th, 2007 at 1:08 pm Said:

    [...] the magic of blogs - how anyone anywhere can talk back. There is a great discussion about teaching our kids entrepreneurship and technical skills going on that I just learned about. Check it [...]

  6. sspencer, on April 2nd, 2007 at 5:26 am Said:

    Not sure what happened :(
    The initial post in this thread shows trackback pings out to:
    http://www.newspapergrl.com/599/teaching-sixth-graders-to-blog/
    and
    http://mymarketer.net/ms-drapers-6th-grade-class/

    Anyway, I’ll look into it. Glad to have you both on the thread though :D

    Paul, I feel for the road blocks you are running into. I think it is important for us all to hear them, and learn from them. It is important, as frustrating as it may be, that we all aknowledge, and find a way to work within the concerns of parents and the administration (as you have done) rather than letting it frustrate us.

    I think for this to be viable as more than just a one-shot strategey, perhaps a basic “curriculum”, that outlines what would be covered, and an option for parents to opt-out of it (I get permission slips home anytime they show a PG movie, talk about sex, etc.)

    I am going to see if I can talk to Richard over at the UTC… I would like to see if we can get some sort of committee going to work with the school board and see if there is something that we the business community could offer, that would benefit the kids, and that educators would embrace.

  7. Utah Tech Spotlight » Non-local tech: Teching kids to be Entrepreneurs, on May 31st, 2007 at 11:38 am Said:

    [...] A common thread on this blog has been me jumping on a soapbox about the need to educate our children better.  Not [...]

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