🐴 Weekly Roundup: Teen Success Stories (#120)

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💡 DEEP DIVE

Skip College, Start (or Buy) a Business

Here's a hard truth for today’s teens: If you're bored in high school, you'll probably be bored in college too.

That's what OpenEd CEO Isaac Morehouse tells ambitious teens who are itching to fast-track their education in the latest podcast – featuring student success stories.

The better question? Map out where you actually want to go. What do you want to learn? What experiences matter most? Then list every possible path to get there.

Meet Aiden Prout. At 17, while his friends were stressing about college applications, he noticed a simple problem: traditional gardening wastes water and time. Using 3D modeling skills from an OpenEd course, he developed garden boxes that cut water usage by 93.5%.

First-year revenue? $150,000.

“Wait a minute,” you might be thinking, “what if I don’t have an idea for a new business or innovative technology?”

Before you write off your hopes of becoming an entrepreneur, consider something bigger that’s happening: There's a massive transfer of wealth taking place across the country right now. Baby boomers who built profitable local (often boring) businesses are looking to retire. And they need buyers.

"You don't need a revolutionary tech idea," says Codie Sanchez, investor and author of Main Street Millionaire: How to Make Extraordinary Wealth Buying Ordinary Businesses. "The real opportunity is in boring businesses that solve everyday problems."

Think about it: While your friends are racking up student debt, you could be learning to run a landscaping service, cleaning company, or local construction firm. These businesses are already profitable because they solve real problems. And many of them are ripe for transformation.

Is this path right for everyone? Of course not.

Is it easy money? Far from it.

But for ambitious teens feeling trapped in the system, starting or buying a business – even a small one – might be exactly the education they're looking for.

TRENDS

The AI Tutoring Experiment That Backfired → High schoolers using ChatGPT aced practice problems but bombed the actual tests, revealing a crucial flaw in how some teachers are using AI (#3 on Edutopia’s list of The 10 Most Significant Education Studies of 2024).

Old School, New School, No School → While traditional classrooms haven't changed since 1905, Jon England explains how microschools and worldschooling are reshaping what education looks like.

🛠️ TOOLS WE’RE LOVING

• The Exit Ticket Technique → How a simple Post-it note at the end of each lesson reveals exactly what students are (and aren't) absorbing.

• Go Henry → An app to teach kids financial literacy and the value of saving (and growing) what you earn.

• Reading recommendations for a 2nd-grade struggling with spelling:

  • The Good and the Beautiful

  • Spelling Power

  • IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing)

  • Night Zookeeper

• NatureEye Virtual Field Trips → Students pilot real drones over Icelandic volcanoes from their living rooms, guided by local experts.

(MEME) OF THE WEEK

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

That’s all for this week!

– Charlie (the OpenEd newsletter guy)

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