ENTREPRENEURIAL IMAGINATION MAIL: Responses to my column for Jewish World Review.

Nancy Lebovitz makes an excellent point: I’ve long thought that the schools are designed to produce employees, and wondered how the structure and practice would be different if the intent was to produce entrepreneurs.

P.S. It’s not just my opinion that schools are designed to produce employees–I’ve read (in John Gatto’s books) that the standard school structure was developed in Prussia to get people used to being factory workers.

I have no clue about the history of the standard school structure; and of course there’s nothing wrong with being an employee rather than an entrepreneur; but I do think fostering an entrepreneurial imagination should be a priority for schools. And as I said in the JWR piece, that imagination can also translate into confidence and career planning for people in non-entrepreneurial positions and in the nonprofit world.

And Jim Corbett writes, along the same lines: In Sacramento we have built a mentoring system around our universities and community entrepreneurs and professionals who work with them. It has been real joy to see our young people grow and prosper in the world of entrepreneurship.

The concept for the Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy came from William L. Haeberle D.B.A., a professor from Indiana University. He was my professor 30 years ago in the MBA program. A truly unique man…..

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