School Bans Pupil From Being An Entrepreneur

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No Entrepreneurs At Our School

The school in question is my daughters and the pupil banned is my daughter.

So I get a call last week from my daughters tutor asking that I go to the school to have a meeting with her and her superior about my daughters behavior. I of course agree and we set a time a date to meet.

On the day in question my daughter informed me that she had got into trouble at school. I asked what she had done to which she said “I set up a business, like you have”. <- Clever answer to avoid trouble    

My daughter is 12. She is fully aware of what I do as she always asks me how business is going, how does it all work, why do I come home and work after I have spent all day at work?

Teach Them When They Are Young

I have always told her the truth. I see no reason to hide what I am doing from her. There is nothing wrong with being a network / internet marketer, or a person who wants to make more of himself and is willing to work hard at it to make it happen.

She knows that I want to get out of the rat-race, be my own boss, own my own time and make my own money.

She knows that a good education does not guarantee a good job and a good lifestyle, but she knows it is important to learn all she can whilst she is there. (Academically she is great As and Bs all the way).

The Business Plan

It was recently her birthday. She got a boat loads of presents (as usual). One of the presents she received was a big box of posh chocolates.

She isn’t much of a chocolate fan so when she had had her fill she came upon her latest business idea. (She has had quite a few. When she was 6 she took some flowers from her grandmothers back garden and then sold them back to her, smart).

Her latest business idea was to take the unwanted sweets to school and sell them to her friends in their lunch break.

So said, so done. By the end of lunch she had almost sold out. As she saw nothing wrong with what she was doing she attempted to sell some sweets to a teacher. This was her mistake.

The Lesson

The teacher confiscated the sweets and her hard earned money, sent her to the office where she had to explain all her “wrong doing”.

As she was oblivious to what she had done wrong of course she found it impossible to explain it.

Instead she told her teacher that her future financial security is down to her and her alone, she can’t rely on any government or anyone else to provide for her when she gets older. <- At least she has been listening.

This is when I was called.

Not wanting to crush her entrepreneurial spirit I let her know that her idea was a good one, but she had gone against school rules and will have to suffer the consequences of that.

Had she of sold her sweets outside of school she would have been fine and would of been reaping the benefits of a good days trade.

These are the ups and downs of business.

Wherever you set up business you have to do your research, understand what the rules are and abide by them. (Spammers would do well to learn a little bit of this).

Me Back At The School

I am sitting in the school office and boy did it bring back memories.

The senior tutor and my daughters tutor had the big box of posh chocolates on their desk with only a few left in it. (She had indeed done well).

They proceeded to explain that it was against school policy for pupils to sell anything on school grounds as it encourages pupils to bring money into schools. Pupils are not at school to turn a profit, they are they to learn, so that they can get a good education and when they are older get a good job….

I got all of that (I actually got in trouble for the same thing when I was in school).

I assured them that I had explained all of this to my daughter and she now understood why it was a big no no to set up shop on school grounds without permission.

The Challenge

I then challenged the school to tap into and channel their pupils entrepreneurial spirits in ways that will benefit the school and teach the pupils how to develop their business skills and not to ignore this positive energy. There is a huge amount of value that can be gained by all involved.

They said they had heard all about me and my take on making money from my daughter (may be they will opt-in, ha).

But they didn’t want to encourage any activities which would take the pupils attention away from their studies.

I’m not sure how teaching children about making money can be seen as an extra curricular activity or a diversion, but hey that is the state of schooling in the UK right now.

I never understood how the two (main) things which play a huge part in adult life are not discussed and taught more in schools. Finances and Relationships.

Maybe if they were taught, discussed, addressed at school level the world may just be in a better place.

Teach on
Dwayne

Tagged as: entrepreneurs in school, young entrepreneur

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