In Seth Godin’s manifesto – titled “Stop Stealing Dreams (What is school for?)” he wrote, under item 33, titled “Who will teach bravery?” as follows:

“Bravery in school is punished, not rewarded. The entire institution is organized around avoiding individual brave acts, and again and again we hear from those who have made a difference, telling us that they became brave despite school, not because of it.

Harvard Business School turns out management consultants in far greater numbers than it develops successful bootstrapping entrepreneurs. Ralph Lauren, David Geffen and Ted Turner all dropped out of college because they felt the real challenges lay elsewhere.”

Now, that’s a powerful indictment of traditional schooling – at the highest level too. And it’s not the first time we’ve heard of drop outs making it in life ahead of peers who finished formal schooling.

One would have expected it to be the other way round. And it used to be – back in those days when jobs in industries awaited such dedicated school finishers.

But so much has changed today. That’s why now, more than ever, parents need to help their kids get an education relevant to the new times we’re in.

Conformance and Obedience Will Not Save You – or Your Child

It’s been over ten years since I bought Robert Kiyosaki’s “If you want to be rich and happy, don’t go to school?” from Amazon.com using a Virtual MasterCard I acquired via Netspend.com. I still smile when I recall the phrase Netspend appended beside every commission they charged, in the transaction history.

It read “Small price for getting to the end of NO”

I imagine that was meant to make us (i.e. card users) feel good about letting them take about a dollar per transaction. For me however, it was okay. I was in Africa, and could not have obtained it any other way.

More seriously, back then I was just as passionate as I am now, about learning everything possible to empower my kids to discover their purpose early in life.

I got that book via internal company mail from the London office. It arrived in a box along with 2 others by Kiyosaki (“Rich Kid Smart kid” & “Rich Dad, Poor Dad“) during my final 2 months in Guinness, as Training and Technical Development Manager (I’d sent in my resignation, in November 2001).

Robert’s book confirmed my feelings about traditional schooling. That fuelled my desire to break whatever remained of the hold it had on me. So, embracing self-employment (something I’d dreamt of doing for years) became even more appealing to me – just as certain colleagues called me “crazy” for qutting my high paying job!

Ironically, I learnt some were laid off a few years later. They were apparently “replaceable”! Most never saw it coming. The fears that made them avoid preparing for that possibility eventually made them lose out – despite the fact that they obeyed, and conformed, as school taught them!

Times Have Changed – But Our Schools Are Reluctant to Catch Up

We owe our kids a duty to prepare them to take smarter decisions in their lives. And we cannot pass that duty to anyone else.

It will never be wise to leave such an important responsibility to our kid’s teachers.

Many parents have gotten away with it in the past – especially during the industrial age. Back then, schools taught kids to be the kinds of employees industries needed. However, since then the world has moved on. We are now in a fast changing information and technology driven global community.

The nature of teaching our schools need to provide has also changed.

Sadly, many school administrators, teachers and parents still fail to realise what this means for them.

Many kids are entering the real world as adults, only to realise they’ve been very inadequately prepared for the challenges they are confronted with.

Seth shared a quote published in the New York Times, credited to Rebecca Chapman, literary editor of “The New Inquiry”, an online journal:

“My whole life, I had been doing everything everybody told me. I went to the right school. I got really good grades. I got all the internships. Then, I couldn’t do anything.”

I have experienced what Rebecca describes above first hand – as a graduate job seeker, and even worse when I became an entrepreneur. And I hated it.

We Must Not Let School Impact Our Kids In The Same Negative Manner!

I’ve vowed to do everything in my power to control the impact of formal schooling on my kids.

I urge you to do the same for your child. Teach and encourage her to be brave in spite of whatever she sees or hears in school. Let her understand that risk-taking and courageous acts in particular, are not to be avoided.

For example:  Asking questions others may be scared to ask; proposing alternative ideas others may be afraid to voice; exploring subjects, issues or places others are reluctant to investigate; taking steps to achieve goals or objectives or dreams that interest or appeal to her. And so on.

Doing things like the above will enable her achieve valuable self-education, and ultimately gain extraordinary insights into life.

You must also make yourself also a worthy role model by walking your talk, so s/he can be inspired to follow your example.

If you do the above, your child will enter the world better prepared to succeed, in any area of endeavour s/he ventures.

And YOU will harvest peace of mind from that knowledge alone.