My journey to becoming an Edupreneur
How I went from slinging hotdogs and cocktails, to teaching design thinking and innovation to children.
Is it really possible to have the best of both worlds?
This is a question that has often popped up in my mind when thinking about life and the important decisions we make. And after 35 years, I think I am finally starting to understand exactly what the “worlds” are, and what it means to have the “best”.
Both, please!
Throughout my life, I have always had a strong sense of duality, a desire to explore both sides of the proverbial coin.
Growing up in the peaceful English countryside and then moving to the hustle and bustle of London and Seoul, has made me both a country boy who is comfortable mowing lawns and chopping logs, and an urbanite cycling through the chaotic concrete jungle.
When it comes to work, I have two distinct ways of thinking. The artist in me likes to focus on originality and creativity, whilst the scientist in me solves problems in a more methodical and analytical manner. The reason for this is because both science and art played a major part in my academic life. Some of my fondest school memories were the lazy afternoons I spent painting and drawing in the art department. In contrast, at university I found myself stuck in the chemistry labs doing experiments rather more than I would have liked.
Of course, these somewhat opposing schools of thought have had an influence on my work life too. My imagination has led me to start some interesting ventures, from selling art prints in London market stalls to running my own British hot dog bar in Seoul. And my passion for innovation and science has guided me through jobs at startups dealing with AI and blockchain technologies.
So, how is this all related to me becoming an Education entrepreneur?
Tom the Teacher
In between these various experiences in my life, back in 2009 when I moved from London to Seoul, I worked as a teacher for a couple of years. I mostly taught English to elementary school students at private academies, but I also taught some Science.
I did enjoy certain aspects of being a teacher, mainly in the way it provided a creative output for me. However, I was put off by the privatization of education in Korea, and the corporate machine that many academies operate as, churning out factory-like classes with an assembly line of teachers brainwashing tired students for endless tests and exams.
So, after working for a variety of different institutes where the owners put financial gain ahead of the student’s development, I decided that I did not want to continue working in this environment, and I moved on to other endeavors.
The education rat race
As I spent more time living in Korea though, I discovered that this aspect of the education industry, like many of the country’s distinct social structures, was a direct result of Korea’s rapid development and economic rise over the last half century. It was understandable that Koreans associated success with academic achievements, as that was, and still is to some extent, the general narrative across the world. And so it was inevitable that, as parents became more affluent, they would invest their savings into private education, viewing it as an essential part of a child’s route to success.
I slowly came to realise the true problem with education in Korea is not the way its structured and society’s attitude towards it. The biggest problems stem from what the children are learning and how they are learning. I won’t dissect the what and the how in this blog, as there is much to discuss and I will dive deeper into this in future posts.
What I would like to highlight though, is the lack of creativity and independent thinking being taught in classrooms throughout Korea. Don’t get me wrong, Korean children are extremely bright, smart and creative when they are young. But as they grow older and become teenagers, their minds are trained to think in a systematic and uniform way with one goal in mind, to achieve high scores in standardised tests.
From middle school onwards, learning becomes fiercely competitive and a student’s life revolves around studying for the university entrance exam. A race to the top begins and it usually continues on into university and then the workplace. Sadly, this highly competitive and results-driven environment often leads to high levels of depression among both the youth and adult society in Korea.
Now, you may think that this is quite an outdated viewpoint. There is no denying that in recent years, attitudes and norms have started to change within society here. Nonetheless, this unrelenting, one size fits all approach to education and working life in Korea remains the mainstream ideology.
So, what’s this all got to do with duality?
Finding my yin and my yang
As some of you may know, I am mixed race. My father is British and my mother is Korean. This is the obvious explanation for the reoccurring theme of duality in my life.
I often tell people that I get my independent and free thinking spirit from my dad, and my more logical and analytical mindset from my mum. That may sound cliched, but looking back at my upbringing, I really do feel like I was exposed to both a western and eastern way of thinking. For example, during my schooldays, I remember feeling more pressure from my mother than my father to achieve top grades, and I always felt that my father understood more the need for extracurricular activities such as sports and art.
Ultimately though, I believe I subconsciously absorbed and adopted both mindsets into my life. It’s only recently in the last year, that I have realised how fortunate I was to have been brought up in this well-balanced environment.
At the beginning of 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, I was at a crossroads in my life. I had experienced working in various industries, and I had also dabbled in being an entrepreneur. I had found some success and joy, but also some failures and lows, in both the 9–5 world and the startup world. And so, I took a long hard look back over my life, and tried to find the patterns. I thought about the decisions I had made, and what had motivated me.
As I started to think about all my experiences, one thing stood out — diversity. I have never really focused on one thing or specialised in one area in my life. I have always sought to find a balance. I have studied and explored the worlds of both art and science. I have experienced living among cultures from both sides of the world. I have been both an employee and a boss, a student and a teacher. Most importantly though, I have experienced what it’s like to succeed and fail.
This balanced approached to life is my yin and my yang.
Innovation in education
Once I figured out that my true strength lies in my diversity, I started to think about education systems and if children today were learning and developing a diverse range of skills and mindsets in the classroom.
I suddenly became intrigued with this idea and it brought me back to thinking about education in Korea, and how it is very one-sided and there is a lack of diversity in terms of what and how the the students are studying.
Then, I started to do some research online about education across the globe and what I discovered both surprised and excited me.
It is quite clear that there are contrasting styles of education on either sides of the globe. In Asia, schools and academies are more focused on rote memorization and developing hard skills in literacy, numeracy and science. While in Europe and America, education systems put more emphasis on comprehensive learning and developing creative and independent thinkers. What surprised me though was the lack of schools and education institutes everywhere, offering a balance of both.
On further inspection, the problems in education are systemic and global. In most regions there are many cultural, historical and socio-economic factors to consider. Again, I will save this for a future blog post as the reformation of education has been a widely debated topic over the last few decades.
I highly recommend the work of the late Sir Ken Robinson as a starting point for anyone interested in this topic. His views on education and the importance of creativity, are enlightening and inspirational. For a brief introduction, watch this video clip animation of his which brilliantly highlights many of the issues.
Despite being shocked by the slow pace of change in the education sector, the entrepreneurial fire in me was reignited because I saw an opportunity. An opportunity for me to utilize all the skills I had developed over the years, and apply them to something not only creative and innovative, but also something meaningful.
I began to get that feeling I had always got when I had a new idea for a venture. But this time it felt different, because I knew that I was uniquely positioned to make an impact. As cheesy as it sounds, all the different experiences I had gone through in my life felt like they had happened for a reason, and it was like the pieces of my life puzzle were falling into place. I had finally found my calling, as an edupreneur.
Teach Today for a Better Tomorrow
So, it was January 2020, and as I embarked on my new journey, the good news was, I was not alone. There are many educators, schools, governments and leaders around the world who share my views about education and are taking meaningful action to change the way children learn.
The bad news was the pandemic struck had just struck as I had set out my vision and made a business plan for 2020 which was based around an offline education program.
I will explain how I dealt with the virus and the impact it had on my strategy in the forthcoming blogs. But the global pandemic has only highlighted further the need for more diversity and adaptability in education.
The world we live in today is vastly different to the one I grew up in just two decades ago, yet schools and learning methodologies have barely changed.
We are at the beginning of a knowledge revolution that will forever change the way we live, learn and work. The future is about understanding and managing knowledge, and it will be the creators, innovators, and problem solvers who can adapt and pivot when necessary that thrive in this technology-driven world.
My passion and goal now is to inspire the youth of today to build a better tomorrow, and to prepare children everywhere for this rapidly changing future.
I want to be a part of the education revolution that is nurturing the next generation of changemakers across the globe. I’m starting in South Korea, one of the most educated and innovative nations in the world, but ultimately I hope to encourage diversity and work with students and educators from every continent.
To learn more about how I am doing this at my startup Teach Today, please follow me as I write this blog series and express my thoughts and share my experiences throughout 2021 and beyond.
For now, I will be posting on LinkedIn and Medium, as I have made the conscious decision to take myself off other social media platforms this year. Please feel free to comment, share your opinions and connect with me on my LinkedIn anytime.
