Getting My MBA

So I’m in a class called Organization, Leadership, and Environment. We talked tonight about an article in Time magazine about How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century. We talked about the challenges we face as a nation in keeping our children competitive. We score relatively poorly on science and math test scores compared with other industrialized nations; 14th or 15th I think.

Part of the problem, in my admittedly somewhat uninformed opinion, is that there isn’t enough variety. Until High School everyone basically learns the same thing. There are some levels, but these mostly relate to “smartness” rather than preferences or future plans. This has it’s own set of political problems.

That got me to thinking. Why the heck does it work this way? Why do we keep teenagers in school when they want to be out, yet make it prohibitively expensive and difficult for adults?

To compete, our workers need to have a basic foundation of common knowledge, the tools to learn and adapt, and, most importantly, an attitude of flexibility.

So here’s what I think. Give all kids an intensive basic foundation through grade 5. For grades 6-8, students are still required to go to school but can choose their concentration based on their interests: arts, high tech, mechanics, etc. From then on, anybody can go to school and follow any program they think will help them. To prevent abuse, students over 18 would have to provide for their own room and board. Maybe a mandatory stint in military service or the peace corps to help pay for the schooling.

Now back to your regularly scheduled drivel….

…because the movie career is not working out.

Link:
Devil Bunny Needs a Ham

I always figured business majors would make a lot of money but live rather dull lives. Forgive the stereotype, but I thought that all business people were like the cliché of the accountant: monotone voice, downcast eyes, hunched shoulders, working day after day to save the company one tenth of one cent per unit.

Now me, I’m more creative than that. I like photography, music, and writing. I want to create things–not necessarily build them, but create them. So I went into computer software. Hey, inventing new solutions is a way of life, right? Not so much. I spend my days hunched over a keyboard, looking for bugs in someone else’s code. Recently I got to write about 4500 lines of new code and it felt like heaven. Until I had to debug it.

Meanwhile, in my business classes, we’re learning about this amazing age of creative business — an era where innovation, flexibility, and a quick mind can give a decided advantage. It’s a time where the winners break the rules of traditional business (but not the law, at least not on my watch).

Wow.

Maybe it’s always been this way. But I sure as heck haven’t always seen business this way. Companies are creative, just to survive.

The difference between business and art, though, is that business is real. I don’t mean to diminish the importance, value, or impact of art. But it’s hard to deny that a failed business can impact hundreds or thousands of people. A failed painting, while potentially tragic, would have a tough time having the same effect.

Bottom line? Business is more exciting, and scarier, than I ever considered. On the bright side, the interests I already have and the skills I’ve developed can be leveraged by business school techniques to give me a fighting shot. That’s exciting.

It will take commitment, hard work, and guts, but I can do it. Look for a new, world-changing business to start by, oh, late summer 2008