Entrepreneural thinking squashed at school

A follow up to the previous blog about how entrepreneurship is not taught in our schools... This story actually shows how this type of thinking was squashed.

Back in 7th grade, we had these "assignment notebooks." These were booklets, with each page printed front and back with columns labeled "Subject" "Assignment" and "Due Date." We had 9 class hours in a day, so 9 rows were below each of the columns. Every day, we were to fill in our 9 subjects in the first column, our assignment for the class in the second column, and the due date in the third column. Our Reading teacher would check on our assignment notebooks one by one and grade them.

Well I got sick of writing the same subjects every day in the first column. So I put a cover on my assignment notebook, and in the front flap I wrote down my subjects. Every day, I would flip the page and tuck it into the front flap, and then voila! The subjects would already be there. So now what to do about the right side pages... I created a strip of paper like a bookmark, wrote my class subjects on it, and connected it to the cover. Then I could flip the page and fold the connected bookmark down, and voila, I'd have all my subjects showing for that day.

My Reading teacher took one look, shook her head, and said "no no no. None of this." And gave me a C+ for the book.

It's this kind of thinking that needs to change in our schooling system. In real life, this type of thing could be patented, sold, and made a lot of people's lives better.

Entrepreneural thinking squashed at school