So, I'm surfing the Internet, trying to access some links on entrepreneurship, when I become reacquainted with Steve Mariotti's National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, or NFTE. NFTE, now known as the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, is a nonprofit organization that trains teachers and other adult professionals to teach at-risk adolescents how to start and operate their own business enterprises.
I first became a NFTE fan in the mid 1990s. At the time I was employed as the Staff Development and Information Coordinator with a large behavioral health organization in Knoxville, Tennessee. Even though I was primarily responsible for overseeing some of the organization's internal training initiatives, I continued to hold on to my desire to positively impact the lives of children and youths. Unfortunately for me, my primary responsibilities prevented me from convincing senior management that the NFTE program should be one of the organization's service offerings.
But even after all of these years, I often wonder if entrepreneurship is the great equalizer. Historically, this designation has been reserved for education, largely due to the belief that knowledge is power. I agree with this belief, that a quality education is the great equalizer, but I also believe an introduction to entrepreneurial principles has the power to encourage disadvantaged youths to be more than who they thought they could be. I write such a statement because young entrepreneurs learn how to make money for themselves through the power of their ideas.
There are times when I think the expression of these ideas is being muffled by the American public educational system. These days, teachers seem to be teaching students how to do well on End-of-Year and End-of-Grade tests rather than tap into and exercise their creativity. Consequently, many students go through school lacking the love for learning that one needs to make above-average to excellent grades.
What NFTE's success should show us adults is adolescents have a better appreciation for the educational process after they have tasted the fruits of their labor as entrepreneurs. Can you blame them? I know I can't, especially when I begin to understand these same adolescents' need to engage in "adult" money-making endeavors. Through entrepreneurship, these adolescents position themselves to be more prosperous than their parents because they learn early that one should never be content with just being another person's employee. They should also crave the freedom that comes with being employers.
My hope is more nonprofit organizations will develop and offer more community-based youth entrepreneurship development projects. But I don't think these projects should focus exclusively on ventures that place money in their small business' coffers. I also think they should start and operate ventures that add value to the community at large.
I am trying to do this through The MediaWorks Project, which requires that I teach youths between the ages of 10 and 14 how to conceive, produce, publish, market and sell their own children's picture books. My pilot group had yet to complete its first book project, but when it does, I'm confident my project participants will have the knowledge and know-how to make money to give a portion of it away (in the form of mini-grants) to area nonprofit organizations.
What do you think? Is entrepreneurship the great equalizer?
I look forward to reading your responses.
From FAULKERSON FOCUS by Jeffery A. Faulkerson, MSSW
http://faulkersonfocus.blogspot.com http://jefferyafaulkerson.com
Posted By: J. A. Faulkerson
Thursday, December 30th 2010 at 1:36AM
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