Teach business?

            TEACH CHILDREN TO DO BUSINESS    

      RUSSIAN POLITICIAN PROPOSES

              By Stephen Wilson 

 

             "I think we must create more business men in school and that a

              spirit of business men needs to be fostered. Therefore we are

              now proposing to include in the school program of Education

              propaganda to create new business men and women. We

              must speak about what government support has to go with those

              words and what advantages must be created for small and

              average businesses. School children have to be prepared for

              not only jobs in the civil service, but in the first place, how to

              work in business and how the state can help them," stated

              the Minister of Finance, Anton Siluanov. While this proposal

              has been lauded by many journalists and the odd psychologist

              such as Irina Benett as representing an opportunity to encourage  

              school students to be more creative and independent, as well as

              young students who are already doing business in their free

              time by buying , selling or blogging, it will emit an exasperated

              groan from many overworked teachers and school students who

              already don't have any free time.

 

              There are so many proposals and further notions for new subjects

              or introduction of new courses and methodology that teachers have

              become disorientated if not overwhelmed by endless changes from

              politicians which are largely unrealistic as well as harmful. We have

              heard proposals to introduce a course on 'Numerical literacy',

              astronomy, chess, martial arts courses and now a 'pro -business'

              course. But often those proposals sound like a great idea, but

              they are often not thought out beyond abstractions and don't even come

              to grips with the specifics. For instance, who would teach such a

              course? What textbooks, if any, would be developed ?, and how would

              such classes be crammed into an already overloaded curriculum?

              We already have a situation where school students actually work longer

              than adults in their jobs. In many cases they study 60 hours or more

              and have no free time. So much for school days being the best days of

              your life!

 

              The proposal has not been without critics. "I think that Siluanov, is

              without  a doubt a specialist in his financial discipline, but unfortunately

              all the specialists in their own areas -such as ecology, spiritual -moral

              upbringing or agriculture - they believe that namely such a proposal

              or course, won't have enough time to fit into the school program. Not

              long ago someone proposed a course on how to pay tax ... It was not

              brought into the school program ... What will be the price for introducing

              those subjects? What will we cut from the existing school program?

              Russian? Mathematics? Literature? " stated the teacher and advocate

              for Children's rights, Yevgenii Bunimovich.                

 

              Ill considered proposals can have a disastrous impact on the school

              system. For instance, new changes are being made in the teaching of Foreign Languages where the teaching of German in school is to be relegated to second place in favor of English. This threatens the jobs of German school teachers

              as well as the number of hours which they usually perform. While previously

              it was acceptable for German to be the first language in some schools, now

              it will take second place . While Russian English teachers' hours are boosted,

              the workload of Russian German teachers is set to fall. Russian German

              teachers understandably feel anxious.

 

              When a Russian teacher once complained to Medvedev about how poorly

              paid teachers were, he was advised to go out and become a businessman.

              But if everyone in education took this advice the whole school system would

              collapse as the job of a school teacher demands practically all your time. It

              might be argued that there are already too many business men and women

              doing business by selling useless products. Yet there is a desperate shortage of well trained plumbers and joiners. It is just that less prestige is attached

              to such trades than say, a banker or businessman in Russia.

 

              That someone from the Duma would propose  teaching business comes as

              no great surprise. Russia remains a highly materialistic society, like Britain

              and America, where the main ethos is not on serving the common good or

              practicing the virtues of honesty, charity or helping others, but in making as

              much money as possible. No consideration is given to the costs of maximizing profits like the cost of pollution, ill health or the psychological damage to people that grows each year. But even learning to do a modest business is

              problematic. I always wondered why there exists so many pharmacies all

              around my way to the local underground station. I can find five pharmacies

              alone along a distance of a few hundred meters. Then there are so many

              clothes shops. But forget about bookshops. They constantly close down. 

              The reason why there are so many pharmacies is because these kinds of                       shops are the easiest to attain permission to open. A new business can be closed  down on a whim due to a rise in rent, tax or countless inspectors who all

              want their share of your income. If you establish a new business, you will

              receive visits from fire-inspectors, tax inspectors and sanitation inspectors.

              And that is just the beginning!

              It is doubtful whether any new 'pro-business' course would cover the  

              realities of maintaining a small business. Reading Kafka might be a better

              way to learn about the reality of doing business than any course or book

              on Classical Economics.