What kids need to know (that school doesn’t teach them)

In Google’s early days, employees spent 20% of their time on side projects.

Turns out, a little unstructured time leads to insane innovation — this is how Gmail was born.

Why don’t we do this in schools?

It’s not hard to imagine what could happen if kids were given 20% of their class time to explore topics of their choice.

But unfortunately, in school, structure reigns supreme.

❌ And that’s why school won’t prepare your kids for the real world.

School prepares kids to follow the rules and the rubric, not to exercise their autonomy and creativity.

To be successful in our fast-changing world, kids need to:

• Innovate

• Solve problems

• Think like an entrepreneur

That’s why I founded Prequel — to teach kids the skills they need to thrive in the real world.

And the results speak for themselves. 👏

Beyond the essays — schools don’t teach useful communication skills

Most of what kids learn about communication is useless after graduation. 🗑️

Take it from the creators of Axios (a successful modern news company). 👇

In school, kids are taught that:

• Complex sentences = complex ideas

• Big vocabulary words = big intelligence

• Endless essays = endless insights

As a result, kids are being taught to communicate in ways that only work in the classroom and don’t benefit them in real life.

Take a look at this rubric for an AP English Language and Composition class.

Note that there isn’t a section for grading how well a student was able to engage a reader.

And creating engaging communicators should be our #1 priority.

🚩 We’re teaching kids to write essays, cover letters, and emails that no human will ever have the patience to read.

Kids can begin grasping useful communication skills from an early age, so there’s no excuse to put off teaching this imperative life skill.

Most schools don’t require a financial literacy course to graduate 😯

Only 23 states require financial literacy courses to graduate. Outside of those states, only 10% of students take a financial literacy course.

In 2021, over 37.9 million Americans were living in poverty.

Which is one of the big reasons why…

Kids need to learn about money. 💰

But even an MBA degree and good grades don’t correlate with success, according to this study. That’s because schools aren’t great at teaching students how to earn money.

At Prequel, we don’t use textbooks to teach kids how to start revenue-generating businesses, we teach them to bring their ideas to the market — because the best way to learn is to do.

And it starts at home.

The real world is the ultimate classroom

School is separate from the real world. Kids rarely get opportunities to reach outside of the classroom walls.

But the best way to learn is by taking action in the real world.

Our students have proven it, again and again.

👉 Will Burkhart learned how to be persistent and embrace rejection by reaching out to entrepreneurs and VCs to interview on his podcast.

👉 Peyton Verhoeven learned you don’t need a degree to start doing what you love by building her business while still in high school.

👉 Fathima Shaikh learned to find her passion by building a company to support a cause she believes in.

👉 Jada Coronel learned website development, market research, pitching, and marketing all by building a business at BETA Camp.

👉 Rhett Jones learned that it was possible for a high schooler to make real-world change when he was able to raise thousands from private investors.

When kids take action in the real world, they:

• Discover lifelong passions and career paths.

• Get experience that stands out on college applications.

• Learn skills that will serve them no matter what path they choose.

🏫 To raise successful kids, make the real world their classroom.

🌎️ If you didn’t respond on Friday…

This is your last chance to shout-out your city so we know what places to visit on our first round of in-person meetups!

Can you please take 30-seconds to tell us where you live? 👇

Until next time,

Ivy

CEO Prequel, BETA Camp, Apollo, AI Masterclass

Follow my journey on LinkedIn