Chapter four had a nice change of pace. Instead of focusing on examples of people who are doing very well in the business world, this chapter focused on social innovators. The example was of a girl (Laura White) who grew up in Atlanta, quit swimming (even though she was a national champion by the age of 12), and started a program to teach under privileged kids how to swim when she was just in high school. When she was 16, she worked for a large non profit that started up many volunteer projects in the area, and she was soon in charge of many volunteers. She continued her work while at Tulane University in New Orleans, and she has made a great difference in many people's lives. Her parents raised her similarly to the other examples that were given in earlier chapters: not too much structured time, allowing their children to choose what to participate in and what not to participate in, encouraging passion, as well as encouraging quitting when the passion is no longer there. Laura did very well in school, but as she put it, it was just to prove that she could and that she was dedicated. She was a person that challenged other people's ideas, and spoke out very often.
An insight that the author made, was that this behavior isn't always encouraged by authority figures. These personality traits are what lead to Laura becoming who she is today, and if those traits had not been encouraged by her parents, she probably would have become a different person. I found this chapter more interesting because I feel that I can relate to it more than I could relate to the examples in the previous chapters. The other examples felt like I was comparing myself to geniuses who did really well in school without even trying. This example felt more like something I would do. I do reasonably well in school, but most of the mandatory classes are quite dull to me. I like finding other, more interesting classes to take, as well as finding out of school activities to do that involve working with people from all backgrounds. I even did a similar program to Laura's, but instead of teaching inner city kids how to swim, I thought them how to snowboard. This chapter was able to recapture my interest in the book as a whole, and I will continue with this book to see where it goes.
Thanks for reading,
Zank
I'm with you: social entrepreneurship is incredibly promising and exciting. I also think that more and more kids are finding school the way you do: not overall engaging but with some opportunities to do interesting work. We need to make more opportunities for this! Your snowboarding program sounds amazing. I hope it's continuing.
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