In “Teaching Capitalism in the Last Days of the USSR,” Steve Mariotti discusses his experience teaching capitalism and business to students in the final days of the USSR as it was changing to Russia.
Mariotti is a Kaizen interviewee and the founder of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). Before NFTE, Mariotti was a successful entrepreneur and a teacher in some of New York’s most challenging schools. Because of his innovative methods for teaching business concepts, Mariotti was named Teacher of the Year for New York State in 1988.
In a humorous and inspiring piece in The Wall Street Journal, Scott Adams (creator of the popular Dilbert comic strip) writes that most college students should learn the skills needed to run a business, which will prepare them for post-graduate life. Mr. Adams touches on several of his clever entrepreneurial ideas as a student that allowed him to master “the strange art of transforming nothing into something,” and he gives some excellent advice to burgeoning entrepreneurs.
On Friday, April 15 Rock Valley College will host the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour, which takes place from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the Student Center Atrium. The RVC website states: “The Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour – the first ever collegiate entrepreneur tour – includes keynotes, exhibits, workshops, and question-and-answer sessions with young entrepreneurs. Students will brainstorm with business professionals and meet like-minded students through networking events.” CEE’s Executive Director, Dr. Stephen Hicks, will be a panelist at the event.
Professor Donna Matias of the University of San Diego School of Law describes some of the regulatory obstacles that entrepreneurs — especially those with low income —face:
Jeffrey van Davis talks with Dr. Stephen Hicks about the inspirations for making his documentary Only A God Can Save Us, which explores Martin Heidegger’s involvement with the National Socialist movement. Mr. van Davis also discusses the process of making the film and its public reception. Parts I-IV are embedded below.
Vedran Vuk, writing for Not PC, lists five common problems with business school students. Ironically, at the top of his list is “Lack of Entrepreneurship.”
Martin Heidegger is considered by many to be the most profound thinker of the 20th century, and his philosophy continues to be influential.
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In May of 1933, Heidegger joined the Nazi Party and became the first Nazi Rector of a German university.
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Heidegger’s final words of despair in a famous Der Spiegel interview make it clear that he had no faith in democracy: “Only a God can save us.”
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The film Only A God Can Save Us is a critical view of Heidegger’s so-called “flirtation” with Nazism and examines the elements of his philosophy which may have led him to support the National Socialist revolution.
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Come watch highlights from the two-hour documentary film about this controversial philosopher and stay for a discussion panel featuring Jeffrey Van Davis, the film’s director, and Rockford College faculty members Stephen Hicks (Philosophy), David Sytsma (History), and Jules Gleicher (Political Science).
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Friday, March 4 from 3-5 p.m. in the CEE office in Burpee
Eduardo Marty is the Founder of Junior Achievement Argentina, an educational outreach program. Students in JA are taught how to prepare a business plan and raise funds. Approximately 50,000 students per year across Argentina participate. Marty has also held academic posts as professor at the University Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala, and the University of Buenos Aires. He was the host of Buenos Aires’s major television talk show Boom—Politics and Economics. We met with Mr. Marty in Buenos Aires to talk about his business education programs for young people and the state of entrepreneurship in South America.
. Kaizen:Where did you grow up in Argentina?
Marty: In Buenos Aires. I went to elementary and high school here and the University too.
Kaizen: Before university, what was your education like?
Marty: Well, I went to school called National Buenos Aires. That’s the oldest high school in Buenos Aires, created in 1770. It’s a public school, but it’s a very prestigious one. It was the first school in Buenos Aires. To enter, you need to pass a very tough test once you finish elementary school. From five students submitting and applying—they accept just one. Our education is divided into elementary school and then secondary school. When I was in sixth grade I tried to pass the exam and I did it, so I was one year younger than the rest.
The Jewish community attends that school a lot. It is a very intellectual community here in Buenos Aires. By the way, you know that after New York Buenos Aires has the second largest Jewish community in the hemisphere.
In “Teaching Capitalism in the Last Days of the USSR,” Steve Mariotti discusses his experience teaching capitalism and business to students in the final days of the USSR as it was changing to Russia.
