Tag Archives: Education

NBC Today Show: Successful Entrepreneurs with Dyslexia

More and more entrepreneurs are  saying they  had symptoms of Dyslexia in school.  An early  lifetime of difficulties & challenges faced in the classroom by those suffering from Dyslexia  can lead to success later when they learn to compensate with other skills.  Some of those skills are;  developing new ways of doing things, delegating responsibility and problem solving.  These areas happen to be the needed skills of an entrepreneur. 

If your child especially dislikes structured environments, naturally finds their own ways of doing things or is having difficulty with comprehension in school…they may be the next successful entrepreneur later in life. 

Tedx Conference entirely for Youth: by Angela Maiers

I am a huge fan of TED, a platform for the nation’s biggest and brightest thinkers to spread their world changing ideas. But adults aren’t the only ones with big ideas and talents. TEDxRedmond was the first ever TED-events arranged for kids by kids with a theme of “Power to the Students.”

Over four hundred youth attendees packed the Washington theater last month for one of the largest TEDx events entirely for youth. I was unable to attend, but feel honored to know both the organizer, former TED speaker Adora Svitak, and several of the students presenting.

After speaking at the annual TED conference in Long Beach, California, Adora, twelve-year-old teacher, speaker, and author spoke about wanting to bring a TED-like experience home to Redmond, Washington. “I had such a great experience during my first time at TED, but I realized that not everyone had such an opportunity,” she explained. “Through TEDxRedmond, I’m hoping to share the magic of TED in an independently organized event.”

I am especially proud of Zoe Sprankle whom I had the honor of coaching as she prepared for this life changing presentation appropriately titled: Small Actions, Large Impact

Zoe, I could not be prouder!
By Angela Maiers

Richard Branson in TED / Dyslexic / ADHD / ADD

 

Richard Branson is yet another successful entrepreneur that indicates he was not a good student.  He goes on to define his learning style as dyslexic and suggests a low IQ score be the result of his assesment.  Intersesting how this pattern continues to emerge in the stories of particularly successful entrepreneurs.  As the need to create jobs increases it becomes more and more important to assess the WAY we educate these students instead of assess them with scores and tests that give little to no clear prediction in regards to success, fortitude or creativity in an individual’s future.  Starting a business is risky and one of the most popular traits and characteristics of an entrepreneur is their high risk tolerance

Video: What Adults Can Learn from Kids

From TED Talks

Child prodigy Adora Svitak says the world needs “childish” thinking: bold ideas, wild creativity and especially optimism. Kids’ big dreams deserve high expectations, she says, starting with grownups’ willingness to learn from children as much as to teach.

Feature: Junior Achievement’s efforts to teach kids around the world about business

Feature: Junior Achievement’s efforts to teach kids around the world about business

By Kate Foley, Fearless Ambition


When people think of Junior Achievement, the first thing that comes to mind may be the JA they experienced when they were a kid.

“Their perception that all we do is teach kids how to make lamps and birdhouses,” says Marketing and Media Relations director Stephanie Bell.

However, Bell says, JA has grown substantially in the last 20 years, and is now a global organization that reaches 122 countries in all parts of the world.

Today’s JA offers 24 program in the U.S. alone, covering business concepts like work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy.

“JA empowers young people to own their economic success,” Bell said. JA’s programs create an online space where teams of kids and teens can create and run a virtual marketing company together. The competitive environment in the online program mimics real business situations, which allows the students to learn what life is like ‘in the real world’.

“Students can understand the relevance to what they learn in the classroom and how it matters to their life. Our programs make that connection for them,” Bell said.

Bell, who has worked for Junior Achievement since 2001, says she feels inspired by teaching students business success at a young age.

“I really enjoy doing something with such a positive impact on young people,” Bell said. “At the risk of sounding cheesy, I hope that will help make the world a better place.”

With its global expansion over the last few decades, JA is definitely working to impact the world. Its current curricula cover six continents. Regional operating centers around the world take U.S. developed programs, and culturally adapt them to other countries to suit their own economic and cultural interests.

For more information on Junior Achievement, or to get involved, visit their website at www.ja.org.

Teaching Kids to Take Charge by Infecting them with “I Can”

Kiran Bir Sethi at a Ted Talks conference shows how her groundbreaking Riverside School in India teaches kids life’s most valuable lesson: “I can.” Watch her students take local issues into their own hands, lead other young people, even educate their parents.

The founder of the Riverside School in Ahmedabad, Kiran Sethi has launched an initiative to make our cities more child-friendly.

Money-Smart Kids: No money for money education?

Money-Smart Kids

No money for money education?

By Tom Henske

From Westport News Online

Last week — while reading Karen Blumenthal‘s article in The Wall Street Journal, “Is There a Cure for Financial Literacy?” — I was reminded of one of the impediments to improving financial literacy in our country. Citing data from The Jumpstart Coalition, Karen reminds us that only three states currently mandate personal-finance courses. This is certainly too small a number and I have a few hypotheses as to why.

I’m not convinced that I’ve seen a significant nationwide push by educators to mandate such curriculum. Clearly, no one could actually think that mandating personal finance courses in our schools is a bad thing. I would also like to believe everyone would rank money education on the top of the importance list. Let’s face it, everyone — whether they are worth $10 or $10 million — will need to have a foundation of money knowledge. We all need to deal with money in some way, shape or form. In short, money is not a topic that can be avoided or escaped.

A few educators I’ve spoken with shared that they do think it’s a good idea, but the money is just not there to make it happen. I understand the reality of school budgets does not allow for everything to get into the curriculum. My next question would logically follow: should we consider a reallocation of existing dollars to be refocused toward formal financial literacy in our classrooms. I hear the chants now: “Join the club and get in line.”

Maybe we just have a difference of opinion as to where financial literacy falls on the priority list. Certainly English is important; math is vitally important, too. I’d like to think that money-skills should make the top five list. Here’s why…

We know our children are absolutely, positively, without a doubt, going to need to interact with money (save, spend, donate and invest!) in their future — from managing income made at summer jobs to helping pay for college, and in life beyond the classroom. Indeed, there is a higher probability that they will need to use money knowledge more than the skills learned in many of their other classes. I just can’t understand why we wouldn’t be able to find the money, or reallocate money, so that children can walk into their respective colleges and have a basic understanding of their own personal finances.

After further discussion with these educators I think I’ve uncovered part of the challenge. Could it be that educators don’t themselves feel comfortable with their own personal money skills; thus they feel they aren’t in a position to try and teach this to others? We all can certainly appreciate the apprehension to avoid topics we are not comfortable with. Could this be the stumbling block that allows the absurd statistic of only three of 50 states having mandatory money skills curriculum?

I would recommend we simplify things a bit and talk more about the behavioral aspects of managing one’s finances that lead to either success or failure of one’s financial plan. As much as we would like to think the panacea to all financial planning woes is choosing the right “home run” mutual fund, the reality is the most important variable separating success versus failure in the retirement preparation game is one’s propensity to save.

The bottom line: if you save, you’ll accumulate the dollars necessary to enjoy a secure retirement. If not, you will be scrambling to continue to make money so you can live.

Therefore, learning to save (and thus budgeting, a technique which allows you to save) is the key. Clearly this is a concept teachers could get comfortable speaking on and could easily work into numerous lesson plans. By simplifying the subject matter to the concept of saving, we eliminate the concern teachers might be having on the topic and simultaneously teach our children the single most valuable lesson that will be crucial to their financial well-being in the future.

Tom Henske, a Westport resident and partner with Lenox Advisors, a wealth management firm with offices in New York City and Stamford, developed the Lenox Money-Smart Kids Program in conjunction with MassMutal Financial Group. He can be reached at [email protected]

Video: These Kids Mean Business

Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Clarence Page looks at the role of entrepreneurship education as a way to help change the lives of at-risk youth.

Centered on budding entrepreneurs across the country and the programs created to foster their interest and understanding of the free-market, the documentary tells the tale of underserved youth creating and living their own versions of the American success story.

For more information visit
http://www.pbs.org/thesekidsmeanbusiness

11-year-old college graduate

From HuffingtonPost.com

Meet Moshe Kai Cavalin, the 11-year-old who just finished setting the bar impossibly high for college students everywhere. Not only did this youngster just graduate from college at the age of 11, but he did so with honors, holding down a 4.0 GPA, and his favorite subject is astrophysics.

He is also an accomplished martial artist, winning several national martial arts championships; his idols are Albert Einstein and Bruce Lee. He’s going to use the next year to take up scuba diving, write a book for kids on how to succeed in school, and work on his martial arts skills.

Moshe isn’t into video games because “it’s not helping humanity in any way.”

Read more about Moshe here.

-Or-

Watch a video report from CNN below.

11-year-old College graduate