Category Archives: Education

What Do you want to be When You Grow Up?

  By Erica Diamond

That was the question I asked 25 Grade 2 students this morning. And I got a gamut of answers, “A businessman, a lawyer, a nurse, a doctor, a spy like my mom (hmmm okay), an opera singer (yes I laughed too), a celebrity (what career is that exactly?), a baseball player, a hockey player, go into my daddy’s business, a JUGGLER.” OK great answers! Yes, I just left my son’s school for “Parents as Teachers Day.” I volunteered for this once-a-year day last year, and I was excited to return again this year.

The minute I walked into the class, I saw my son’s face. The smile was ear to ear. If he coulda crawled back into the womb, believe me, he would have. Of course he was totally misbehaving and showing off in front of his friends. Up and down, talking out of turn, chatting non-stop. But I let it go because 9/10 times, he’s such a rule follower and an absolute joy. My little son on the other hand, we may have to teach about condom use at 10 years old, but that’s a whole other ball of wax.

Anyhow, after I listened to the kids’ answers of what they wanted to be when they grow up, I put two words on the Smart Board – ENTREPRENEUR and KIDPRENEUR. A few actually knew the word: my son obviously knew the word… he’s lived with an entrepreneur since he’s born, so he understands. But most kids didn’t. When I read the definition of ‘entrepreneur’ (from a kid’s book I will tell you about soon), things like: you are your own boss, you set your own hours, you make your own money and generally, if you want more money, you have to work harder. You don’t have to ask anyone when you want to go on vacation. You make the rules. You have to work as hard as all the people who work for you and then harder. You have to know ALL the jobs in your company, etc… You could have heard a pin drop. They were interested.

What was so cool, was then seeing the sparkle in their eyes. Their brains working. A life of possibility. A future still undetermined, with boundless opportunity. This notion that their whole life still lies ahead of them, and they can pick and choose how they want to live it. And it made me realize that some people I know my own age, or even older, still don’t know what they want to be when they grow up. It made me think of the many people working jobs they hate. Living a life of rut and routine because there are bills to pay and mouths to feed. But that’s life. That’s reality. And it’s tough in adulthood to just press the reset button and get a “redo.” That is what was so pure and exciting to teach these children about the future. And about the now. That it’s never too early to plan… to plan what you want to be, to save your money, to get organized.

As you know, WomenOnTheFence.com is not a Blog with product reviews and endorsements. It wasn’t my vision when I started a year ago. But today I’m going to encourage all of you moms and grandmothers, aunts and sisters, to get the book KIDPRENEURS for the kids in your life. The writers of this book sent me a copy for my kids, as they know that I am an entrepreneur and felt I would appreciate it. As a blogger, I get sent stuff all the time, explaining each and every time, I DON’T DO REVIEWS. But the reason why I chose to Blog about this one, is because YOUR CHILDREN ARE THE FUTURE. MY CHILDREN ARE THE FUTURE. Why not teach them all the possibilities and avenues, at an age where they are discovering the world around them. Hey, no one ever died of hard of hard work!! I like getting my kids thinking outside the box, and I hope you will encourage yours to as well. Are they too young to start their own business now? Obviously! But as I pointed out to the Grade 2 class, even making a lemonade stand is entrepreneurial. You  have to make good tasty lemonade, sell it at the right price, find customers, understand the costs involved, set a selling price, and decide what you’re going to do with your profits (in our lemonade stands, the boys get to keep $1.00-2.00 each, and the rest put in their bank account, or give to charity). Selling chocolate bars is very entrepreneurial as well. If you’re looking at me like I’m crazy, that’s okay. I simply wanted to point out to you mommies, a different approach. Our kids are never too young to start.

I don’t think we need to shelter them as much as we were sheltered. I think we should expose our kids and then let them make their own choices. My boys know all the swear words, but they don’t use them. They know about where babies come from. They know about death. Not every intricate detail, but if they ask, I answer. Every time. It’s just the way I am. To me, knowledge is power, not danger, if handled with kit gloves.

So, after the 25 Grade 2 students finished their business plans (I gave them handouts from the book), and I told them they can bring their plans home and work on them with their family, I told them one last simple thing before I left:

You can be ANYTHING you want to be if you set your mind to it, and work hard.

And for you, the adults, who maybe also still haven’t figured out what you want to be when you grow up:

You can be ANYTHING you want to be if you set your mind to it, and work hard.

It’s never too late.

What do you think??

xoxEDxox

Have a great weekend ladies, and enjoy this quote…

 www.womenonthefence.com

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

Crystal O’Connor discusses Money and Kids with Sarah Cook of Raising CEO Kids

Teaching kids business skills early will increase their financial awareness.  As we begin to teach our kids these important lessons about business and money it’s important to take advice from others that have been there and done that with their own kids.  Sarah Cook with Raising Ceo Kids shares tips on raising your own kids to be more self sufficient and money savvy.  Listen to the audio below to our 20  minute conversation and leave a comment sharing your own ideas.  We’d love to hear them!

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.

Women’s World Banking Brings Credit To The Third World

Women’s World Banking Brings Credit To The Third World

From Forbes.com

Mary Ellen Iskenderian remembers the moment when she discovered her purpose in life.

As a child, her parents often took her to visit her father’s family in Turkey where she saw, for the first time, people living in utter poverty. She remembers thinking, “I don’t want to spend my life looking the other way.”

She hasn’t. After graduating from Georgetown University and Yale with degrees in management and international finance, she worked for 17 years for Lehman BrothersLEHMQ – news – people ) and an affiliate of the World Bank–largely in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union–linking newly freed entrepreneurs with sources of capital. In 2006 she became president and CEO of New York City-based Women’s World Banking (WWB), a global network of 40 microfinance institutions and banks in 28 developing countries.

Committed to the “double bottom line” of financial returns and social progress, WWB offers credit, insurance and savings products that enable low-income women to build assets, guard against risk and provider better opportunities for their children. In the process, WWB enables its partners in microfinance to evolve from donor-dependent charities into self-sustaining financial institutions. “We know the poor can be economically savvy about juggling what little they have,” Iskenderian noted during a presentation at the recent 14th Annual Wharton Leadership Conference, whose theme was “Leading in a Recovering (and Even Rebounding) Economy.” “When someone trusts low-income women with capital, often for the first time, they can become agents of their own change.”

Mission Drift
In 2008 Women’s World Banking released a widely cited survey showing that if microfinance groups did not specifically target women, the percentage of female clients dropped sharply as the microfinance institutions evolved from donor-funded charities to regulated financial institutions. The phenomenon is called “mission drift,” and it occurs when organizations shift their focus toward higher-income (and supposedly less risky) clientele and away from low-income customers, which in many developing countries means women.

Iskenderian wants everyone to recognize the damage, unintended or not, caused by mission drift. Recently, a WWB publication uncovered another effect that hurts women: As organizations shift their focus to for-profit services, a marked decline occurs in the number of female staff members who might better understand the needs of women entrepreneurs.

To illustrate this aspect of mission drift, WWB developed a tool called the Organizational Gender Assessment, which was launched with a large microfinance institution in Bangladesh called ASA. The OGA uncovered policies that clearly affected mothers employed at ASA, such as a requirement that staff members at all branch offices work late into the night managing loan recovery and overdue payments.

ASA regularly rotates its field staff among the branches as a way to prevent fraud. Yet while most male loan officers are not responsible for child care, most of the women officers are. With the OGA survey in hand, ASA realized how its rotation policy was disrupting these women’s family lives. And after determining that rates of fraud were extremely low among its female staffers, ASA altered the transfer policy for certain women to allow them six years in one branch, rather than four.

The focus on mission drift among financial institutions comes at a time when a fierce worldwide debate is raging about microfinance and its future. In 2008 investors plowed $14.8 billion into microfinance, up 24% from the previous year. The microfinance industry now holds more than $60 billion in assets, according to The Center for Financial Inclusion. And, adds the World Bank, for the first time, most of the money in microfinance comes from private investors, including pension schemes and private equity funds, rather than governments. “There is definitely a risk of new shareholders switching microfinance institutions’ missions from alleviating poverty to chasing volumes and profits,” notes Maya Prabhu, head of philanthropy at the U.K. private bank Coutts & Co., who advises wealthy clients on investments in microfinance.

Falling into the ‘Red Zone’
Interest rates vary widely across the globe. But those that draw the most concern tend to occur in countries like Nigeria and Mexico, where the demand for small loans from a large population cannot be met by existing lenders, according to a recent article in The New York Times. The average interest rate in Mexico, for example, hovers around 70%, compared with a global average of roughly 37% in interest and fees. Mexican microfinance organizations can charge such rates because people are often so in need of cash that they will accept any terms offered to them. Occasionally, interest rates spark political intervention. In Nicaragua, President Daniel Ortega became outraged when rates began to reach 35% in 2008. He announced that he would back a microfinance institution that would charge 8% to 10%, using Venezuelan money.

Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi banker and Nobel Peace Prize winner whom many experts regard as the founder of microfinance, has said that interest rates should be 10% to 15% above the cost of raising money, with anything beyond that range amounting to a “red zone” of loan sharking. Yet by that measure, 75% of microfinance institutions would fall into the red zone, according to a March 2010 analysis of 1,008 micro-lenders by the MIX, a website where more than 1,000 microfinance companies worldwide report their own numbers. Many experts label Yunus’ formula as overly simplistic and too low, and fear that a pronounced backlash against high interest rates will prompt lenders to retreat from the poorest customers.

Yunus is famous in the microfinance community for founding the Grameen Bank in his native Bangladesh. By 2006 the bank had disbursed more than $5.3 billion to borrowers, 96% of them groups of women. Yunus has said he decided to lend mainly to women because they were more responsible about repaying loans, and because families benefit more when women control the money.

The debate over microfinance and mission drift has intensified as some researchers maintain that there is more to developing an entrepreneur than providing credit. “Credit alone is not a panacea,” notes Jonathan Morduch, a professor of public policy and economics at New York University. “The boldest claim for microfinance–that it can single-handedly eliminate a large share of world poverty–outpaces, by a long distance, the evidence accumulated to date.” At the same time, however, analysts like Morduch emphasize the success of microfinance groups that combine lending with other initiatives, such as education and health care.

Charting a Path Forward
That model, as it turns out, is where Iskenderian is pushing WWB to go.

To put its stamp on what Iskenderian calls “the next 30 years” of microfinance, WWB is moving into a broad array of products and services for women, including savings, insurance and financial education. “Loans and credit was the model for the first 30 years of microfinance,” she stated. “Savings is the future, the missing piece in climbing out of poverty.” Currently, WWB is sponsoring research on the use of mobile phone technology and ATMs as ways to provide low-income women with banking services.

As another example, poor women have traditionally managed risk in very risky ways: by relying on their husbands, pulling children out of school to work, or selling productive assets such as livestock or equipment. WWB has published a paper highlighting alternative ways for women to manage such gambles using gender-sensitive micro-insurance. For instance, women can choose another beneficiary if they don’t think their husbands will protect the children properly after the woman’s death. In Colombia the life insurance offered by one company pays monthly benefits that can only be used for the purpose of educating the children for two years after the death of a parent, in order to reduce the pressure on the surviving parent to pull children out of school.

This year WWB announced that it has received an $8.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to research, develop and, in conjunction with four of its network member microfinance banks, offer products and services that will promote savings in Latin America, Africa and Asia. To educate the public about saving, a portion of the grant will support the creation of a “social soap opera” in the Dominican Republic. Because low-income women often tend to believe that saving small amounts of money in formal financial institutions is not worth the effort, notes WWB, the soap opera will feature stories highlighting responsible management of money. WWB will work on the project with Puntos de Encuentro, a Nicaraguan NGO with experience in using TV serial dramas to change cultural attitudes.

Through the soap opera, WWB will not only illustrate both positive and negative money management practices–and the consequences of these actions–but will follow up with a communications campaign that will use the buzz created by the soap opera to encourage people to save more money through formal bank accounts. If successful, the program could have a ripple effect across much of Latin America and the Caribbean.

“It’s not always size that makes the difference in [microfinance],” Iskenderian said. “People make the difference with their energy and their resolve…. Single individuals and the choices they make have a tremendous impact on the world.”

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.

Announcing Beck University

Announcing Beck University

Glenn Beck offers online classes to his followers

From GlennBeck.com

School may be out for the summer, but for Glenn Beck class is just starting.

This July, while others are relaxing poolside, head back to the classroom – from the comfort of your own home. That may sound like an oxymoron but Glenn’s new academic program is only available online.

Offered exclusively to Insider Extreme subscribers, Beck University is a unique academic experience bringing together experts in the fields of religion, American history and economics. Through captivating lectures and interactive online discussions, these experts will explore the concepts of Faith, Hope and Charity and show you how they influence America’s past, her present and most importantly her future.

So don’t miss out on this amazing experience. Enroll in Beck University today by subscribing to Insider Extreme.

NOTE: All Beck U classes will be made available on demand the following day.

Professor Bios…

David Barton is the founder and president of WallBuilders, a national pro-family organization that presents America’s forgotten history and heroes, with an emphasis on our moral, religious, and constitutional heritage.

David is the author of numerous best-selling books, with the subjects being drawn largely from his massive library-museum of tens of thousands of original writings, documents, and artifacts from early America.

His exhaustive research has rendered him an expert in historical and constitutional issues. He serves as a consultant to state and federal legislators, has participated in several cases at the Supreme Court, has been involved in the development of social studies standards for numerous states, and has helped produce some popular history textbooks now used in schools across the nation.

David L. Buckner is the President of Bottom Line Training and Consulting Inc., a consulting and training firm specializing in executive management development and business acumen training focusing on cultural integration, change management and strategic efficiencies.

For more than 20 years Mr. Buckner has been a keynote speaker, author, and featured trainer at business conferences and conventions throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia and the Far East. His passionate, practical, engaging and timely approach to complex issues sets him apart from other keynote educators and has established him as a highly regarded and frequently requested keynote speaker.

Mr. Buckner received his Juris Doctorate Degree from J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University, holds an MBA from Durham University, England, and an MA in International Relations from the Kennedy Center for International Studies at BYU.

James R. Stoner, Jr., is Professor of Political Science at Louisiana State University, where he has taught since 1988 and chaired his department since 2007.

He is the author of Common-Law Liberty: Rethinking American Constitutionalism and Common Law and Liberal Theory: Coke, Hobbes, and the Origins of American Constitutionalism, as well as a number of articles and essays. In 2002 and 2003 he was a visiting fellow in the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, and he served from 2002 to 2006 on the National Council on the Humanities, to which he was appointed by President Bush. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1987 and his A.B. from Middlebury College in 1977.