I believe the children are our future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
Let the children’s laughter remind us how we used to be
Wow, when I think of SXSW Interactive, Whitney Houston is belting “Greatest Love of All” in the background to the inspiring images of Shubham Banerjee and Pia Sen, Gen Z-ers who have a lot to teach all the Millennials, Gen Xers and Boomers out there.
Let’s start with Shubham who joined the SX Create panel via video because he couldn’t miss school. (How cute is that?!) Three years ago, at just 12 years of age, Shubham, motivated by a curiosity to understand how the blind read, created the Braigo, a low-cost, open-source DIY braille printer using Legos. He became the youngest entrepreneur to receive venture capital funding to bring the disruptive Braigo technology to the masses.
Then, there’s Pia Sen. As a high school junior, she developed a way to fight antibiotic resistant bacteria in human beings. Not what you’d expect, she never considered herself a science person until 9th grade. Her mom’s a Shakespeare major she told us.
I’m especially drawn to Pia because, as awesome as she is, she’s not this perfect genius robot. She occasionally slips into Valley speak, and is excited and articulate all the same. Most importantly, she is curious and unafraid to tell you that science shouldn’t stop at the science fair. And, she admits, “I didn’t make a 4.0 (GPA). I’m just not that person.”
When asked how to create more Pias in the world, she responds: “You teach people that they’re more than their GPA. Your grades don’t mean as much as you think they do. They’re just there to show you understand material. But sometimes people think differently. And that’s okay. Some people just can’t get that great test score. That’s perfectly fine. You are what you care about it. You should never not go into science because you think ‘I’m not smart enough to go into science.’ That’s just not true.”
Her response jolts me into recognition that, today, in the career world, we push our people to innovate. We tell them to get out of their comfort zone, take risks, embrace failure. Yet, from a young age, we’re easily exasperated at all the childhood questions of “why?” and we push adolescents to achieve perfection – perfect grades and perfect SAT scores.
At SX Create, the SXSW maker fair, I caught a glimpse into the future – curious kids making stuff and what I learned is that I have a lot to learn. Whitney’s song deserves a rewrite:
I believe the children are our present
Teach us well and let us get out of the way
Show us all the beauty we possess inside
Give us a sense of pride to make it easier
Let the children’s laughter remind us how we used to be
Next year, I encourage you to check out SX Create. Get down on the floor and play, create and let your curiosity run wild. Who knows what we might discover.
