Week #2- Book

This past week, I have continued to read the book Creating innovators by Tony Wagner.  I just finished chapters three and four and am beginning to enjoy the different stories he tells.  In one chapter, he tells the stories of four different innovators that created real change in the world while making money and a name for themselves.  From special dirt to modified bikes, the inventions created were mainly used to help third-world countries solve problems that were literally killing thousands of people a year.  After telling each story, Wagner would then analyze how these kids grew up and what led to their innovation and success.  Some themes I noticed he kept bringing up was how the parents allowed their children to "do what they wanted to do" and not to shut down creativity or passions at a young age. Another theme Wagner loved to point out was how teachers were rarely the reason for the success of theses students.  The few teachers that were mentioned were seen as outliers at the universities and did not have tenures or full funding.  These teachers mainly taught innovation labs and other hands-on, project-based classes.

These classes that Wagner kept talking about reminded a lot about our own class Communications for Entrepreneurs.  I feel like I have learned how to apply my knowledge in this class versus AP classes where I am just absorbing information.  The $200 dollar project is a great example of this because I have used real networking and marketing skills to make actual profit.  While I am lucky to live in Brookline where classes like these are not frowned upon, most school systems in American would not always support this type of class.  Overall, Wagner's main point from telling all these stories was that if we want our next generation to make a real difference, we need to support their ideas and help them find purpose in their work.  Some cool ideas!