Strategic Insights for 2016 (Part 1): Hands-On Comes of Age

Two recent items from The New York Times illustrate a theme running through the education zeitgeist. The first, a story from Seattle ("Preschool Without Walls"), describes a renewed emphasis on outdoor preschool, even in places well outside the Sunbelt.

"There’s the Chippewa Nature Center in Midland, Mich., founded in 2007, where children wear hats and mittens during daily outdoor sessions in the frigid winter months. At the All Friends Nature School in San Diego, which became a nature preschool in 2006, children often spend mornings making sand castles at the beach. And at the Drumlin Farm Community Preschool in Lincoln, Mass., founded in 2008, children learn to feed farm animals, grow vegetables and explore the farm’s many acres of wildlife habitat."

The impetus to this Waldorfian trend seems to be less about fresh air and nature, though to be sure those are factors, and more about hands-on, real-world learning, something we will see echoed in the next item. The second NYT article, "Universities Race to Nurture Start-Up Founders of the Future," describes the curricular push, and corresponding capital investment, by Ivy and near-Ivy universities to create the next generation of business starters (not just C-level business leaders). The university approach essential takes the hands-on, real-world theme to scale, creating lab space and funding streams for incubating businesses pre-bachelor's degree.

"Ten years ago, it may have sufficed to offer a few entrepreneurship courses, workshops and clubs. But undergraduates, driven by a sullen job market and inspired by billion-dollar success narratives from Silicon Valley, now expect universities to teach them how to convert their ideas into business or nonprofit ventures.

"As a result, colleges — and elite institutions in particular — have become engaged in an innovation arms race. Harvard opened an Innovation Lab in 2011 that has helped start more than 75 companies. Last year, New York University founded a campus entrepreneurs’ lab, and this year Northwestern University opened a student start-up center, the Garage."

Smart, strategically-minded independent schools will take notice. Not every student should be an entrepreneur, but more will succeed at creating value through this channel than will build careers in athletics.