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The Education System Is Wack

Updated: May 4, 2021


I don't know about you, but when I was in elementary school there was a handful of kids (including me) who had a little business where we would create products and then sell them to our friends. This was becoming a lucrative business for us since we were able to get some money for school lunches or snacks at the Red Cart. For those who do not know a Red Cart was a little cart by the cafeteria that would have the ULTIMATE snacks. The best were the chocolate chip cookies they would sell for like 25 cents because they were warmed and had lots of chocolate chips. As a kid, being able to buy stuff from the Red Cart was the dream. Anyways, my parents had gifted me a loom band set one Christmas after I saw my friends with them. At first I was excited and began creating a bunch of bracelets, but then I stopped for a while since I had too many and did not know what to do with them. Eventually I began creating them again but this time I would start selling to my friends. My business plan was fairly simple. Show off the bracelets I had, and then when my friends saw I would "market" the styles and tell them the different prices for each design. The easier designs were cheap and the more complex ones were more. While I did not make hundreds of dollars from this little business, I sure did feel proud of myself being able to make some extra cash while doing something I enjoyed doing. The main reason why I did not make a lot of money was because before I could "make it big" the school found out that me and other kids were selling products and put a stop to it. Which leads me to this post. I believe schools should be fostering these types of business ventures rather than shutting them down.


Reason 1

The first reason is because they teach VALUABLE skills.

Doy.

I mean learning how to market products, take inventory, price products, and build relationship skills are all things that are important in a business. Learning these skills at a younger age just sets up the kid for future success. Learning how to build relationships and market an idea or product can help build confidence. And it is much easier to build those skills as a kid while you have the most time to waste and when everyone is friends with everyone. At least for me, when I was in elementary I was friends with everyone and I found 90% of my peers to be nice. Also the younger you start building these skills, the longer you have to learn and perfect the skills. Heck if you started playing around with running businesses in 3rd grade, by 12th grade you could have more life skills than the average joe. These could be things such as learning how to budget, have a strong work ethic, how to handle failure, and much more.


Reason 2

The second reason is because it's hypocritical. When I got to junior high the math class I was in required us students to work in groups to "build" a business. We had to come up with a product, find out cost to produce, and how much to sell in order to make a product. We then had to create the product, market the product, and continuously take inventory to determine whether or not we needed to adjust price. For example if we had a lot left over and there was little time left to sell then we would've had to lower the price to attract more people and if we had too little products life but high demand, then we would have had to raise the price of the product. At the end everyone in the math class would set up booths in the auditorium and there would be a fair where outside students could come and check out everyone's products and buy them.


Now doesn't this sound like the exact opposite of what the elementary school did? Instead of shutting down businesses, the junior high I went to required you to create a business. Of course requiring us students to create a product took the fun out of it, (kinda like how if you wanted to do something nice for someone and you feel proud of yourself but then when you are required you all of a sudden despise doing the thing... like paying taxes and donations. Paying taxes is required and everyone hates them, but donations make you feel good cuz you chose to do it rather than being told to) but it had the right idea. The main critique I have is that not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur but for those that do, schools should not be shutting them down at an age where its the easiest to be one.


Reason 3

Helping students become entrepreneurs can create more innovators. The most successful people were those that broke the norm of "life" and went after what made them happy. Steve Jobs dropped out of college to start his own business and many more have done the same. But I think schools should be more innovative and help people who have an entrepreneurial mindset. Have a section of the school be dedicated to helping students learn how to build a business. From licensing to marketing, if students are willing to put in the work then schools should allow students to market to others. Of course there will always be some who may have malicious intent but i believe that fostering these types of kids will help to create more innovators such as Elon Musk or Steve Jobs. This in turn could help the overall economy. I say this because these types of students are out of box thinkers and that can lead to many more millionaires. I have been watching YouTuber's such as Meet Kevin who have based their career off of a real estate business and while he is not an entrepreneur creating products, he still uses the same skills as any entrepreneur would. Marketing, budgeting, relationship skills, and communicative skills are just a few of the required skills he needs to run a successful multi million dollar real estate business. The quicker students learn about the business world the sooner they will start to find other ways to make money. This is where the passive income's such as real estate, stocks, and other's come in. If a kid grows up with a constant desire to become better and bigger, then they will be in the habit of finding new ways to make money.


Conclusion

In conclusion, schools should be teaching students life skills alongside regular classes. Schools have remained stagnant in their structure for decades and it's about time they break out of their shells and innovate themselves. More and more people are becoming aware that the lifestyle school pushes students towards is inefficient and unnecessary to become successful. For decades the story was "go to school, do a ton of extracurriculars to get into a good college, get a bachelors, get a good paying job so you can buy whatever you want, and retire". But now more people are finding different ways to "make it" in life. Some are not going to university, some get certificates to start a business, and some start a business right after high school. Maybe schools don't have to create required classes to teach students, but they should provide resources to help students with their business so when they need help they do not feel like they have to risk being caught. Now in general I like the education system but like anything, there are ways that it can be improved. Not everyone wants to build a business, in fact most probably don't, but the main things schools should do is be more inclusive of all types of students.


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