A generation later, twenty-eight of the thirty hottest
young entrepreneurs don’t create, build or manufacture anything. Meanwhile,
half our young people (presumably the half who are interested in making stuff)
are dropping out of high school and will probably never see their name on any
list that will make their mama’s proud.
Twenty-three of the thirty companies are built on
providing services. Only a few of them have an actual location. They exist,
instead, only in cyberspace. You can exchange coupons with strangers, rent a
designer outfit you can’t afford to buy, have someone create a public persona
for you, get someone to help you find a job or even put together a stay-cation
for your buddies. Americans appear to be very interested in collaboration,
convenience and comfort. And they prefer all that to happen with little or no
contact with strangers.
In the meantime, our schools are still corralling kids
into a bricks and mortar box where they aren’t allowed to work in teams to help
each other uncover the best solution to the problem. Moreover, most states
still consider a student technologically literate if they know how to use
Microsoft Office Suite. To every single one of the thirty hottest companies on
the list, that is just laughable. To the twenty-five industrial countries that
are out pacing us in education, it is money in the bank.
Everyone on the list was educated at well-respected, hard to
get in colleges. No one claimed to be “self made.” They all had help,
significant help. As we dive head-long into important conversations about
transforming the way we educate young people, we must stop looking at what was
or even what is. We must predict what will be if we truly desire to re-build,
re-create and re-energize America.
Heather Beaven has worked in workforce development and
education for fifteen years. She is the CEO of Jobs for Florida’s Graduates, a
high school drop-out prevention not-for-profit and was the Democratic nominee
in the 7th Congressional District of Florida in 2010.