Chile and Peru RPCV Kenneth Proudfoot says: "When I was in the ninth grade, I sat in a school cafeteria, and wrote a dream list. When I read it to my friends, they laughed. My mother kept the list and 15 years later, she hands it to me and says I'd be interested. I'd done it all."
Teach children to dream
May 22, 2005
Providence Journal Bulletin
"Out of 817,000 English words, the one you hear the most is no. But the most powerful word in the language is yes!"
Kenneth Proudfoot lives to help students think like entrepreneurs -- to dream big and get what they want. So, with Rhode Island's MicroEnterprise Association, he organizes Youth Entrepreneurship Day, an event that gets bigger and more boisterous every year.
Proudfoot talks like a motivational speaker with a stock of impressive statements designed to make you want to rush out and reinvent your life. "The entrepreneur sees opportunity where others see chaos. They see possibilities where others see problems."
He's developed a 21-week course that sends local business people into high schools, often in business classes, to impart a set of skills that Proudfoot convincingly argues every kid needs. They are: thinking (problem solving), dreaming, planning, marketing and financial literacy. He points out that running a household is a business, with revenues and budgets that need planning and thinking.
But of those skills, by far the most important is dreaming. He says, "I start by asking the kids their dreams. But what I get verbatim, from all of them is: finish high school; go to college; get a good job. I say: that's it? That's your dream? This is America. You can do anything. I ask the teachers why the kids aren't thinking bigger. They say, you know, I haven't thought about it. So I tell them this story:
"When I was in the ninth grade, I sat in a school cafeteria in a Rochester, N,Y,, and wrote a dream list," which he rattles off in a memorized succession -- go to college, backpack across Europe, hitchhike around the United States, write a book, join the Peace Corps, visit Puerto Rico, live in San Francisco, among many other things. "When I read it to my friends, they laughed. Who do you think you are? My mother kept the list and 15 years later, she hands it to me and says I'd be interested. I'd done it all.
"So I tell the kids: write it down and make it real. Something happens when you write it down. If you can expand your sense of what you can do, you can do anything. Then I give them a sheet of paper and promise that whatever they dream up, we'll talk about it. That begins a process of thinking that stimulates other thoughts. The next thing you know, we're working on business plans to make the dreams happen.'
This is definitely something children can get into. I worry that a lot of children don't have any idea why they're learning what's in front of them and no pressing motive to absorb the information. They're told that they need to do well in school to get a "good job," and they know jobs are the ticket to the material goods they crave. But teaching a kid to think like an entrepreneur at least encourages the kid to fashion a set of goals, which a clever teacher can connect to the course's skills, facts and concepts.
[Excerpt]
Proudfoot says, "I always say most of you won't be entrepreneurs, at least not right out of high school, but over the course of your life, over 50 percent of you will start a business. Some day you'll want to chase a new idea. Venture capitalists are sitting on money because there are not enough new ideas. While there are 44,000 public companies, there are 26 million small businesses that affect more peoples lives. They're run by individuals and couples that have total decision-making power. Let's do this in red instead of blue. You don't have to check with anyone but the customer."
Donna Clemence, director of the West Warwick High School's Academy of Finance, is sold on this program. "Ken brings the experiences of people actually in the business world, and we can back that up with classroom instruction on finance, accounting, banking, credit and international trade. The students feel that the business people who come in give them recognition, which helps them to think and work outside the box. The outsiders validate what they're learning in the classroom. The program really pushes critical thinking because they are always problem-solving. I think it's important to make the students more worldly before they leave us."
Excellent point, Ms. Clemence. School-to-career initiatives have tried valiantly -- with differing degrees of success -- to connect learning with the world, to make the learning relevant. But what really helps children feel worldly is interacting with people who are out there, working and thriving. Children are vitally interested in how to get what they want, but rarely does anyone sit down and talk to them about how to reach their goals.
Every student can use Proudfoot's program, since they all need financial literacy and a compelling reason to solve problems effectively. But mostly they need to dream more, out loud and on paper, to cultivate passions and goals validated by grownup interest. If those dreams were known and in play, teachers would have an easier time helping children connect to the skills whose acquisition too often just seems oppressive and stupid.
More information can be found at rimicroenterprise.org.
Julia Steiny is a former member of the Providence School Board; she now consults and writes for a number of education, government and private enterprises. She welcomes your questions and comments on education. She can be reached by e-mail at juliasteiny@cox.net or c/ o Providence Journal, 75 Fountain St., Providence, R.I. 02902.
