Rethinking Education Through Startups
It seems daunting how most of us think that the educational system has to remain the way it is right now, and that schools should be something most kids despise, that it must be hard and boring to learn.
I believe learning cannot be easy, but it definitely doesn't have to be boring or unattractive... Think of most startups, none are easy to start, but you definitely don't have time to get bored, and you definitely learn more than you would by doing anything else (like working a corporate job).
So, the question that no one is asking is maybe we should make schools more like startups? Why not let kids work on startups? Because startups are too hard, you might say, and you'd be right... But there's no need to find product-market fit in 2nd grade, we can let kids come up with solutions to trivial problems that they struggle with on a daily basis...
At the end of the day, building a startup is mainly a framework:
- Coming up with an idea
- Creating a product
- Sharing it and collecting feedback
- Reflecting on the feedback
- Going back to step 1
This process is teachable. So why aren't we doing it? Why isn't anyone changing the educational system yet? It's a tarpit idea, but do you remember when everyone was running after edtech 10 or 15 years ago... Well, Peter Thiel says that startups start with contrarian ideas, and starting an edtech startup becomes more and more contrarian these days...
Maybe I don't know something here, but I still believe in the potential of a good educational system.