Teaching Children How to Be Entrepreneurs
By Charlie Wells, online.wsj.com, 8-4-2014
CEO Kids: Putting the Small in Small Business |
More New Programs Promise to Build Children's Skills
Princeton, N.J.
Jensen
Bergman spent weeks preparing to pitch his team's business idea to
investors. Minutes before the meeting, he was playing ping-pong outside
the board room to stay calm.
Jensen is 9 years old.
"If
they say no, it's going to be really upsetting for us," he said as one
of his teammates wheeled up beside him on a tiny scooter.
Jensen
was taking part in a program called "8 and Up" that teaches young
children about entrepreneurship.
As a culmination of the class, which met for six weeks in Princeton, N.J., and cost $350, Jensen and his 15 peers would soon pitch their idea—"Tiger KidsClub," a Friday night hangout space for children—to real, grown-up investors at Tigerlabs, a local seed fund.
As startups like
WhatsApp and Oculus VR Inc. get snapped up for billions of dollars and
others, like Twitter and Facebook, go public for more, younger children
are filling classes, camps and other programs that promise to develop entrepreneurial skills in the pre-pubescent set. As a culmination of the class, which met for six weeks in Princeton, N.J., and cost $350, Jensen and his 15 peers would soon pitch their idea—"Tiger KidsClub," a Friday night hangout space for children—to real, grown-up investors at Tigerlabs, a local seed fund.
Some scholars argue that cultivating
entrepreneurship in the very young is vital, as children are born
imaginative, energetic, and willing to take risks, but lose this
entrepreneurial spirit over time. Advocates say such programs make up
for gaps left by an educational system that ill prepares students for a
tech-centric, rapidly shifting job market.
"It's
best to teach them at age 5," says Cristal Glangchai, founder of
VentureLab in San Antonio, which offers a weeklong course for 5- to
7-year-old girls called Girl Startup 101. It costs $255 for five
six-hour days of instruction, including lessons on 3-D prototyping,
market research, business modeling and pricing.
In
a similar course last summer, Ms. Glangchai says she helped a
5-year-old identify a problem: getting into trouble for eating Play-Doh.
The solution: After polling students and parents, he created a
marketing plan for a line of edible clay-like products in various
flavors.>>>
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