I was surfing the web and i saw this site, pretty cool.
Currently im running and adult site:Reachton
k, just want to say hi
Can i link you from my site? im looking for quality content like yours. If no let me know if i can add u in exchange for a montly fee or something.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.