Are Teenagers REALLY lazy?
Busting Myths with a higher-ed model that motivates.

Dear Reader,

We often hear:

“Teenagers are on their screens all the time.” (Actually, everyone is! So this newsletter may be helpful for everyone!)

Is this intrinsic, or is it an unconsciously created and constantly perpetuated story? A story that can be changed? Let us explore some doable ideas that can be introduced in any school, college, institute, or workplace. And it may be a good idea to include families too, as they are the smallest unit of human learning spaces.

I have been going through the Let’s Enterprise Under Grad – Multidisciplinary Entrepreneurial Development program documentation and media.

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The Working Degree program kicked off as recently as August 2023, and is already energizing students with enthusiasm to do and learn, innovate, and create. Here is a glimpse of what the program designers have been carefully curating and caringly facilitating.

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Challenges:

Challenges that sent the students out into the streets. Challenges that enabled their students to try out ideas, structure them from scratch, make mistakes, fail-innovate-fail-innovate…and take their ideas through several iterations.

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Harvesting and Refining:

Learning through challenging projects enabled their students to uncover breadth as well as depth (quantity as well as quality) in real life situations, giving rise to deeper insights and reflections. These were then further refined with the help and feedback from in house mentors, as well as invited mentors who are experts in the particular fields.

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Reflection:

Here are some student reflections on types of frustrations:

“Success after failure and improvements is way more satisfying”!

“Fail-innovate-fail-innovate…results in an improved product”!

“Facing rejection repeatedly builds confidence”!

“Approaching strangers helps break out of comfort zones”!

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Curated challenges, caring mentors, a safe space for experimentation and reflection, has now opened up enthusiasm, hard work, stimulation for focused thought, motivation to learn the theory, theory is now appreciated as in support of the process…even sparking caring and compassion from within. All this is already within the students. It has not been taught. Space has been created in which students can flower.

Here are some compassionate reflections:

“Selling nimbu pani seems like an easy business, but it is a task.”

“People are kinder than we realized.”

“Now I realize how difficult it is to earn money, I think twice before asking for money from my parents.”

“I saw how my older brother grew and matured through this program, and can already feel the same happening within me.”

Self-Compassion is recently being recognized as one of the highest needs of this era in human history, for a shift in consciousness:

“I want to learn work-life balance in order to be energized and not depleted, so I can be more productive.”

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Does prioritizing self-compassion have a place in business?

Ethical business practices play an important part in customer relations, and even business to business relations. One visiting mentor-expert impressed upon the students that being ethical may take more time and trouble, and may present more challenges, especially till one establishes trust, but in the long run, win-wins are much more satisfying.

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​Watch Ethics Video here.​

During one of the challenges, the students made a mistake to increase profit, which led to the invaluable experience of having to win back dissatisfied customers. This of course led to a decrease in profit. However, they realized through this experience the vital importance of balancing profit with customer satisfaction, that quality matters to build a network of customers, and that customer feedback helps to perfect the product.

They also learned that facing and addressing problems together brings the team together, the role of playfulness, cooperation, and collaboration, and how to create Win-Wins, which may not always be possible, in the short term but always well worth prioritizing, for I, personally am sure, of the win-win-win in the long term. The third Win I add, which may require short term loss, but ensures long term gain, is the environment – inner (within ourselves), and outer (the outside world) Win-Win-Win. You win, I win, and the entire eco-system wins in the long run.

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Theory, lectures, degree prep:

From many educators and students, I have heard that the actual exam prep does not take much time. In fact, when the theory is linked to the students’ Challenge Experiences, it gets absorbed and processed with speed and ease. A day of lectures at Dnyansagar College and an Economics Marathon at the Let’s Enterprise Space, as well as sessions and workshops related to the BBA curriculum were smoothly woven into the practical, experiential program design.

I look forward to the day when more school and college programs look like this one. Serving students who will tomorrow serve the world in ways that make sense! The old ways are over a century old. They are inexpensive and convenient for mass education, but do not make sense today at all!

As I said, for the Win-Win-Win, we will have to reconsider expense and convenience in the short term, for the love of our own children and grandchildren.

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New role of human teachers, facilitators, and mentors:

There are new inexpensive ways to take care of mass education. By the way, millions of youngsters are already using these to educate themselves. And there are many gifted human teachers, of which we have more than we can imagine, also in millions. Let us hit the ‘refresh’ button on the criteria for what makes a teacher, facilitator, coach and mentor. Human Beings oriented to inspire and encourage students, rather than deliver content that holds both teacher and student in an unhappy, counterproductive downward spiral.

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Embracing chaos:

The universe is all about order in chaos. The human mind abhors suffering, misunderstands that suffering is caused by chaos. Tries to avoid chaos by creating systems to keep things in order and in control. This is un ecofriendly in the most basic way. Anyway, it is just impossible! It works like a pressure cooker without an outlet, all cooking efficiently inside (saving time, fuel, and money), till the pressure blows the lid off. We have the option to allow ourselves to experience the natural order in chaos personally, so that our systems can reflect that alignment with the order in chaos of the universe.

What are the one or more doable ideas in this newsletter that inspire you to change right now? I would love to know!

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Know the author:

Urmila Samson has been working for education change in a non-formal capacity from the late 80s. Non formally, because not many were ready for change in education at that time, and education systems were so well entrenched and well-functioning, that one could not make much impact from within the system. After working in six main stream schools and mirambika free progress school (1981 – 1992), Urmila had three children of her own, and learned experientially how children learn – through living life and picking up what they need to along the way. This way of being and learning naturally, she later found out, once internet arrived, is known as unschooling.

The various education spaces at the leading edge of change that Urmila has participated in non-formally, (2014 – 2018) are Unschooling, Homeschooling, Self Designed Learning, alternative and innovative Learning Centres, alternative as well as mainstream schools open to change. A growing number of students are coming out of these education spaces and finding that the available higher education options are both limited and limiting. Urmila was very excited to find Let’s Enterprise at the leading edge of change in Higher Education!

At first Urmila put a lot of energy in Outreach for Let’s Enterprise’s new Multidisciplinary Entrepreneurial Development program. Once the program kicked off, she is keen to promote this model in higher education, and is heartened to find many education leaders open to these ideas. Not only education leaders, but industry leaders are eager to co operate in the creation of entrepreneurial mindsets. Entrepreneurial mindset, in its deeper sense, is something youngsters can benefit from across the board.

She is a pioneer of Unschooling and Homeschooling in the country and a TEDx speaker.