Value those who can think outside the box

Education is most valuable when it teaches you how to learn and how to think

Last week I had a wonderful “Kilkenomics alumni) catch up over a pint of Guinness (of course!) with a “regular” from my favourite annual event who, in their “day job”, is a professor of Economics.

I mentioned to them that my youngest son intends to study Economics at University, is currently getting his online UK universities application ready, and had just shared with me his draft “Personal Statement”, that begins with the line: “who pays for the street lights in Cayman?”. In his personal statement, he went on to explain that this question occurred to him as a young teenager given he knew Cayman has no income or corporate tax and lead him to study the combination of Economics and Maths at “A” level in preparation for further study at University.

This excited the Professor of Economics, who said: “well, I’d love to have someone with that ability to think and be curious at my University”.

They then went on to talk about a case study he gives undergraduates. He first gives them a well thought out and reviewed paper with multiple ways to measure quality, then asks the students to explain how they would determine the quality of a particular business providing on-demand consumer goods (I’m being vague, as that way they can…