I’ve straddled my career between education and entrepreneurship, bringing educational experiences into our businesses and bringing entrepreneurial experiences into my classrooms. There’s an invigorating synergy that results when adults re-experience the infantile joy of discovery learning or when kids start realizing their abilities to solve adult problems.

I experienced it at the TEDx events we hosted at our local independent bookstore when all ages consumed and shared new ideas. It happened when my students engaged the entire community to bring new life into a historic community park.

So I was a little taken back when I embarked on an economic development project that revealed a dangerous separation between how students are learning in school and the skills adults need in the workforce. I wrestled with the research showing that students are well-equipped with the technical skills and knowledge but lacking the soft skills needed to thrive in life and work. I heard the refrain time and again from managers-- “These kids can’t communicate or think critically, they aren’t empathetic.”

Or maybe they just haven’t had enough access to engage in real-world problem solving when they are stuck in desks learning ever growing amounts of information.

From my students, I saw the apathy resulting from constant drilling and test taking. But I also saw the extreme drive they had as they stayed up night after night to compete at Odyssey of the Mind World Finals or when they sacrificed nights and weekends to attend City Council meetings and community engagement sessions to accomplish their initiatives.

Our Tisk: There’s a sad disconnect between the student experience and the work/life experience. Students long for more opportunities to engage in real-world problem solving and communicate with the adult world. The adult world would stand to benefit from more access to captive and creative young minds currently locked in their educational silos.

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