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The teaching of entrepreneurship is
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something that is naturally associated
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with the college experience. But since
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not all high school grads end up going
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to college, should this be an area of
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study in high school? Pleasure to be
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joined right now by Lori Rosenoff, who
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is management professor and vice dean of
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entrepreneurship here at the Wharton
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School. Lori, great to talk to you
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again. How are you?
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>> Great, Dan. Happy to be here. Let's
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start off I guess with the importance of
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an entrepreneurial education in general.
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>> Well, entrepreneurial education is about
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all of the critical thinking that we
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know is becoming ever more important to
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develop in all students of all ages as
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we enter the age of AI. And so
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entrepreneurship is about
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creating
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questions out of unstructured
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situations,
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generating and testing hypotheses as to
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how those questions can be solved, and
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then having the people skills as well to
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implement those solutions. So those are
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skills that we should be teaching across
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the board to students.
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>> We're starting to see some school
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districts include this in their
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curriculum. So obviously they believe it
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is important. Uh I guess the question is
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can it be effectively taught to high
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school students?
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>> Yes and no. I I it can be effectively
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thought the process of developing an
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entrepreneurial mindset and finding
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problems to work on and and attempts to
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make that go forward that can be taught
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to anyone at any age. Where it can be
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challenging is that the most successful
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entrepreneurs tend to be people who've
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had a significant amount of career
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experience and understand a an industry
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vertical pretty effectively to develop
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real solutions. So what you're going to
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see with high schoolers is a much
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smaller set of possible businesses that
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they can develop. this is the best time
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to start learning and practicing uh
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before they even get to college and
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start working uh with more of the
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technologies that are developed in a
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university setting.
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>> What are the types of resources that
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schools will need to have in order to be
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able to bring forward an effective level
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of education around entrepreneurship?
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I think the most important thing is
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probably engaged teachers who are
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willing to put in the extra mile to
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really um uh serve as curators for
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students who are deeply interested. Uh
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some limited resources to make small
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micro grants to students is obviously a
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a great thing because it can give
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students who don't have resources enough
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capital to get some supplies or do some
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advertising, get the word out and the
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like. being able to take advantage of
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either alumni or parents uh at the
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school who have some sort of
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entrepreneurial experience, even if
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that's something as as basic as being
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self-employed and doing some sort of
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personal care services, that's still
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about starting a business. So, bringing
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that network in to help students start
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to see themselves is just fabulous. And
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of course, there's tons of stuff online
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as well,
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>> right? And and I would imagine there's
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an element of this that helps to empower
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students and to give them the
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opportunity and the thought process that
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they can go out and do something like
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this and start their own business down
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the road.
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>> It's kind of remarkable, Dan. Even in my
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own work with more established people
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further along, uh in my research for my
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book, I saw that about half of the
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people were from childhood saying, "I
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knew I would be an entrepreneur. I was
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reselling my Halloween candy or great
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Girl Scout cookies, paper boy routes,
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uh, etc. But then the other half come to
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it later. And I think in the same way in
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a high school setting, you're going to
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have some subset subset of students who
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are super excited about this idea and
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are just looking for more and more
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places where they can start to generate
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some business, some traction. Uh, and
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then you have others who might be a
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little bit more reticent about it. And
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that's where things like my book can
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show them some of these role models and
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help them understand that entrepreneurs
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are simply people who find ways to
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innovate and create some value from it.
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So th that brings up the interesting
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question of of the types of curriculum
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we have in schools these days and
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whether or not that this kind of opens
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the door to thinking about different
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types of education that as you kind of
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alluded to earlier with uh the onset of
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AI uh that we need to have as we move
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forward and we are teaching those next
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generation of of soon to be high school
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graduates.
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>> Yes. Uh the traditional business
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education class was typically economics
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in high school and and economics is
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important for people to learn supply and
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demand and some of the macroeconomic
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trends that affect businesses as well
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but it's not a substitute for practicing
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defining a problem and building
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solutions and implementing them. So the
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two of them can be really complimentary
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in giving students the experiential
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opportunities to play around and fail.
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Most businesses will fail uh
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particularly at this stage or they will
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be so minuscule in revenues so as not to
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be be a part of of the economy. Uh but
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but giving students that chance is
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incredibly important for their future
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development. It gets those muscles going
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as they start to see more and bigger
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opportunities. It's the same thing we do
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with the uh students at Venture Lab uh
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undergraduates as well as graduate
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students. Many of those ventures will
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not wind up making it to a a a formal
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business, but they're giving people the
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muscle to move further in that
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direction.
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>> From the education side of this, and you
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mentioned you want to have engaged
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teachers, but
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>> what else must the teachers have in
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order to be effective?
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Well, we do want the teachers to be able
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to communicate some fundamental business
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principles so that they can help
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students have some discipline about not
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only measuring whether they've reached
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some customers, but whether they're
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actually turning a profit or creating
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value in ways that are really
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meaningful. So, we need that set of
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skills. But then we want them taking
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advantage of all the different resources
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available. I I use the word curator.
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These teachers are curators in some
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sense to say, "Here are the series of
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online resources where people can watch
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videos and learn about some of these
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more curricular pieces, if you will.
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Here are all of the entities in the
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community that are actually providing
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some ways for young people to come
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together and and pitch in different
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competitions or get some micro grants
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and the like. And here are ways in which
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we can build activities within the
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school and within our community to get
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everyone learning from everyone else as
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well as from that instructor.
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>> Lori, great to talk to you as always.
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Thanks very much for your time. All the
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best.
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>> Absolutely, Dan. Great to see you.
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>> Thank you. Great to see you as well.
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Lori Rosenoff, management professor and
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vice dean of entrepreneurship here at
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the Wharton School.
