A great recent article by the outspoken Stefan Theil in Foreign Policy magazine -- reproduced in Canada's National Post newspaper and sent to ADM courtesy of his abundantly wise father from the land north of the 45th -- lays out some rather grim trends afoot in the French and German education systems.

Basically, it would seem that French and German high school curricula have become resident specialists in the curious neo-science known as "globalization-bashing."

Students living in those Western European powerhouses are being fed massive doses of purely anti-capitalist rhetoric on a daily basis, with horror stories from the post-Cold War transition period becoming regular fare for these young up-and-coming Western Europeans.

In France, the standard three-volume Histoire du XXe siècle is the dominant resource used by French pedagogues as part of their frequent railings against the globalization tide. To wit, the tome boasts the following peculiarities:

** Capitalism is described at various points in the text as “brutal,” “savage,” “neo-liberal” and “American.”

** Start-ups are described as “audacious enterprises” with “ill-defined prospects.”

** Entrepreneurs are linked with the tech bubble, the Nasdaq crash, and the mass layoffs across the [French] economy.

In Germany, it's even worse. Add to this the fact that it's happening in the world's third-largest economy:

** German textbooks are written often from the perspective of a future employee with a union contract.

** Bosses and company owners show up in caricatures and illustrations as idle, cigar-smoking plutocrats; sometimes linked to child labour, Internet fraud, cellphone addiction, alcoholism and, of course, undeserved layoffs.

** One 10th-grade social studies text titled FAKT has a chapter on “What to do against unemployment.” Instead of describing how companies might create jobs, the section explains how those without jobs can organize into self-help groups and join weekly anti-reform protests “in the tradition of the East German Monday demonstrations” (which in 1989 helped topple the Communist dictatorship). The not-so-subtle sub-text? Jobs are a right to be demanded from the government.

If this is happening in France and Germany, what are the prospects for young people in the Czech and Slovak Republics, whose secondary education systems are churning out hordes of graduates compelled to seek out little more than a steady salary and corporate fringe benefits?

I sometimes spend two to three hours standing in front of groups of young Czech university students and aspiring Czech entrepreneurs giving public speeches. Our sessions are generally highly-energized and exciting, and the exchanges following my bit are oftentimes very spirited and full of promise.

When I conduct the all-important follow-up to my speeches days later, the results are hardly as optimistic. These same youngsters, who only weeks before were full of promise for what the new economy might promise them, and how they might find their place in it, later seem deflated, listless, and completely without direction. Like a tragic former young colleague of mine -- talented beyond her years -- who still, I've been told, turns to the bottle every time she can't solve her personal problems; a phenomenon worthy of another blog post, to be sure.

Naturally, I'll try to find out where their problems emanate from.

I've determined that much of the blame falls squarely upon the shoulders of their parents and supposed role models.

Far too often, young Czech graduates and aspiring businesspeople are encouraged by their post-Communist elders, siblings and -- worse -- grandparents, to "just keep quiet and get a job." Their ultimate self-actualization, in the latter's opinion, should be to seek out that all-critical security blanket which comes courtesy of a regular (high) salary and benefits. They are never advised to seek out the more risk-seeking arena which is the cutting-edge of entrepreneurship.

As I mentioned yesterday, the lifeblood of any emerging economy is the small- and medium-sized entrepreneurial (SME) sector. SMEs are the engine that gets a national economy too heavily dependent on manufacturing, as is Cesko's, onto the 21st-century tech track, more tapped into what's happening on the rest of the planet via the Internet.

Is "just getting a job" becoming the new Czech ideal? I'm beginning to fear this is so.

I and some local colleagues have recently begun an aggressive hiring drive for our new Prague e-operation. How's this for a relevant selection of feedback from some of the interviews we'd recently conducted:

From a recent discussion with a potential Czech equity partner:

** "Yes, Mr. Mezei, but what you're talking about takes lots of money. Do you think you're going to be able to compete with the established interests in the city, who are likely going to make your life a living hell and set out to destroy and possibly harm you physically, even if you've got enough start-up capital to carry you through, and even if your practices are completely above-board?"

When interviewing a graduate from Prague's prestigious VSE, Vysoka Skola Ekonomicka/Economics University, for a possible position in our company, asking him were his career goals:

** "Well, I'd like to have a nice car, a nice home, and hopefully I'll make enough salary for a mortgage soon, because the banks are offering mortgages these days pretty freely, you know."

ADM: "But experts are claiming there'll be a recession soon, and the Czech Republic's not immune to this. You sure that taking out a mortgage is a suitable goal?"

Graduate: "Well, my brother's doing it, and so far he's okay."

ADM: "But that was five years ago...the financial and economic conditions have changed radically since then. You think the Czech Republic is immune from the subprime mortgage crisis in the US? Do you think that you're going to be able to afford a mortgage on the salary you're presently making, or that the bank is just going to give you a mortgage like that?"

::: Naturally, the grad had no suitable answer to this, since all that he had been spouting to me earlier was jargon. And that really wasn't him speaking, either...it was the countless bombardment of nightly TV Nova television commercials and ubiquitous advertising billboards and placards dotted around Prague's public transport network and tramcars advertising "instant mortgage and credit approvals.":::

Entrepreneurship is a decidedly a dirty word in this city.

I always like to ask my colleagues what they're reading at home or as they commute, because this is usually an apt indicator of how seriously they take their continuing education, and where they're likely headed in the future (I don't want to place a limit on how long the future is, to avoid anything smacking of cliche).

I'm also always curious about podcasting, and whether they own the required technologies like an iPod or portable .mp3 player to capture much of the educational radio and audio content so rife on the 'net these days.

My unscientific poll results -- I'm sad to admit -- so far are woefully paltry. More than 6 out of 10 people I informally ask don't even have a clue what I mean when I say podcasting (even translated into Czech), which is pretty revealing if you ask me.

Then if I ask them what they're reading, I get the usual Covey and Welch platitudes.

They have no clue about the overly popular:

TechCrunch

Fast Company Expert Blogs

or

EUX.tv.

My big question to all of you is, when will "just get a job" eventually become "just make a job" in the Czech Republic?

Because all the tools are presently out there at your disposal. You just have to jump in.

--ADM