Why K-12, Every Student Every Year, Entrepreneurship Education?
Among the purposes and goals of education is to raise our children out of poverty and provide them with
the tools to stay out. A major K-12 initiative in entrepreneurship education has a great potential to do just
that. In addition, entrepreneurship education develops creative and innovative thinking skills, supports
learning of the academics and gives students another whole range of career options. Add in the benefits of
increased attendance, higher graduation rate and better test scores and it sounds too good to be true, right?
Let me make the case.
In this age of educational accountability through standards and assessments with only one right answer
and success measured by test scores, we need to keep young minds open for alternative ways of thinking,
allow innovative ideas to spark and grow, to create an entrepreneurial culture that will grow great people
and great communities. We need to grow our communities from the inside out. We need entrepreneurship
education for every student, every year. The answer is to establish an entrepreneurial culture in every
school and every community in your state.
1. Provides a way out of poverty - A proportion of our students come from poverty and escaping
this background and moving into the middle class can prove daunting to students, their parents
and the educators that help them. Certainly, assuring that our students graduate college and career
ready can help in that effort. However, “career ready” usually means prepared to “find a good
job,” but it seldom means being prepared to consider entrepreneurial opportunities at some point
in their lives and make their own job. An entrepreneurial mindset is a mental skill set that
students can draw on at a young age or later in life as opportunities present themselves.
Entrepreneurship can help them out of poverty or provide an additional option later in life that
may keep them from slipping back into poverty as a result of a job loss.
2. Preserves creative thinking and problem solving – Our most creative thinkers are those in the
early grades. Somehow students lose that ability as they move through the system, perhaps due to
the reinforcement of “one right answer” and the discouragement of creative problem solving. The
consideration of entrepreneurial opportunities preserves the innovative and creative thinking
skills that exist in the very early grades, but disappear as students move toward high school
graduation. There are pathways to entrepreneurial success and they are accomplished by analysis
and creative thinking, not by rote memorization.
3. Benefits every student - Entrepreneurship education benefits every student. In every graduating
class, there are students who want to go into business right away. There are some who will
consider it it after college or several years of employment. Some graduates aren’t considering it
now, but will at some time in their lives. There are even those who have thought about it and,
with more knowledge about what it takes for entrepreneurial success, decide not to do it and do
not put personal or family start-up funds at risk. Finally, there is the student that has no interest
now in entrepreneurship and will never be interested in it, but will be a better employee because
she now knows what is important to her employer; she knows how businesses make money.
4. Supports academic learning - Using entrepreneurship education as a background for the
teaching of academic subjects gives those studies a grounding in the real world. Entrepreneurship
can be the answer to, “Why do I need to study this?” Math, science, writing and communication,
history, geography, even the arts can be connected to today’s world through entrepreneurship.
There is a complete spectrum of curriculum materials available to help every teacher integrate
entrepreneurship education into their instruction and teach state standards with a common sense
connection to the real world around them
5. Addresses “brain drain.” Rural communities and inner cities suffer from brain drain; sharp,
young people who are forced to leave the area to make a career. Those same communities have
needs unmet by businesses in their area. Young people who are creative, entrepreneurial thinkers
can turn those unmet needs into business opportunities and stay in their communities, generating
additional employment and enlarging the local tax base.
6. Provides career choices - Entrepreneurship education should begin in kindergarten. We need to
nurture the creativity that the youngest of our students bring with them to their first days and
years of school. There are many age and grade appropriate activities that introduce
entrepreneurship to young children. Middle school is when most students begin to think about
career pathways and choices. Entrepreneurship should be part of that consideration. No matter
what path a student chooses, entrepreneurship can be a part of that decision. How will a scientist
turn a discovery into income? How will an artist turn that talent into a family-supporting career?
Every career and technical student with a skill to sell in the market place should consider the
difference between finding a job and making their own job. Every student should have the
opportunity to make an informed decision about entrepreneurship as a career path now or at some
point later in life.
7. Makes communities healthier - Communities with an entrepreneurial culture are more stable,
financially healthier and more dynamic communities. Entrepreneurial small towns demonstrate
the vibrancy that locally owned businesses can generate. Urban centers with an active
entrepreneurial community escape the decay of some large city centers and provide employment
to residents. How better to start building a more entrepreneurial culture than with the young
people who are already in the community?
The Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education (EntreEd) has chosen member state, West Virginia, as
the pilot state and is working with the state superintendent of schools, state board of education members,
the governor’s office, legislators, local foundations, local educators and many others to move the effort
forward. EntreEd invites you to join us in a conversation about how Entrepreneurship Education, K-12,
Every Student, Every Year makes sense in West Virginia. Contact Executive Director, Dr. Gene Coulson
at gcoulson@entre-ed.org be a part of the movement. Let us assist you in building this important
initiative in your school or school system.