Raise kids fearless so they can have better chance for success: Esther Wojcicki

Esther Wojcicki (left) and Songyee Yoon (right)

Parents and our society should not fear to raise kids fearless because they have “the best chance of succeeding," said Ms. Esther Wojcicki, the educator in the Silicon Valley for 40 enthusiastic years devoting herself to the programs of nurturing independent and creative talents and mom to two CEOs and a doctor.

In a dialogue with Dr. Songyee Yoon, NCSOFT's Chief Strategic Officer and NC Cultural Foundation's Chairman, on the 13th (Korean time), Wojcicki emphasized that education should play a role in creating independent and creative minds who are not intimidated by mistakes and failures. Yoon agreed, saying that education needs to be changed in a way to encourage an individual's passion based on their "differences", not to evaluate them by grades and numbers.

Their conversation on future education has started from their shared concerns about changes in our society by the fast advancement of new technologies such as artificial intelligence. Now AI can create texts, pictures, and songs 1000 times faster than humans.

“Inevitably, the ability to create unusual things will become more important in the future," said Yoon. Although it is necessary to change the method of nurturing talented people, education in countries such as Korea is designed to produce people who are indifferent from each other.

As a new era is opening, educators and parents should have the mindset of trust that will eventually lead to a different outcome, said Wojcicki.

"I think the main characteristics that define a successful person is belief in yourself and being willing to make mistakes," said Wojcicki. "I was a friend of Steve Jobs, and he was such a person. He introduced computers and smartphones, but he also seemed like a crazy person to people at first."

Wojcicki is an actual doer, often letting her granddaughters loose at a vast TARGET store despite her daughters’ opposition to raise them as independent individuals. Her three daughters benefitted from their mother’s progressive parenting. Her eldest daughter, Susan, is now CEO of YouTube, her second daughter Janet is a professor of pediatrics at UCSF, one of the most prestigious medical schools in the United States, and her youngest daughter, Anne is the founder of '23andMe', a famous genetic data startup in Silicon Valley. As the author of the book ‘How To Raise Successful People, Wojcicki had been teaching at Palo Alto High School's journalism program in the United States.

Yoon criticized the typical Korean education system that lets students rely heavily on private education such as Hagwon and be evaluated based on their grades, which is not suitable for the new era. She said hefty reliance on private education would hamper the development of sense of independence and diversity in children. She said that education should help each student solve the problem that he or she is passionate about.

The NC Cultural Foundation has launched a 'Projectory' project where children can focus more about themselves. Under the program, children do not pay attention to each other, do not use honorifics, and do not use respectful names. It only supports them to exchange their ideas and develop independent and creative thinking.

But even with these efforts, culture does not change easily.

"What if we give kids 20 percent of the time in school to do something that is not standardized, and where they can come up with their own ideas, work independently, and don't have to worry about the grades?" asked Wojcicki. She noted that children between the ages of 0 and 5 are all independent thinkers. But dependent education produces dependent children.

"It is important to create a culture where children can feel 'okay' when they try something new, and they are not intimidated even if that thing fails," said Wojcicki. It is for the same reason that Google runs a project to allow its employees to try new things independently with 20 percent of their time.

Based on her philosophy, Wojcicki and her former student joined hands to launch an online platform called 'Tract.app' in 2020. It is a platform that allows kids to create and lead educational projects where students can learn from other students through multimedia, thereby promoting creativity and independent thinking.

Yoon agreed that educators and parents should focus to inspire children's independent thinking. For example, her children grew up hearing all the conversations about inclusion and equality that their mother have had with her colleagues from various research institutes in the United States, and the children naturally developed their own independent ideas about inclusion, Yoon explained.

The consequences of a culture that fosters an independent and creative mindset are enormous. Silicon Valley's startup ecosystem is a prime example. Wojcicki told the story of one of her students from Mexico. After he failed entering Stanford University, she, as the teacher, advised him to apply for the Y Combinator, a startup accelerator in Silicon Valley. He went to Y Combinator and met the co-founder, and the two came up with an idea to revolutionize shipping goods around the world. This startup, 'Nowports', went up to a valuation of $200 million, and the founder is only 22 years old. Going to a good school is not the only way for success, told this story.

Yoon said that such a huge startup ecosystem would not have been possible if everyone focused on the same problem and thought in the same way. Instead, individuals’ different strengths and different passions made it possible, she said.

“Only when everyone is encouraged to do their best to solve problems will a huge ecosystem (like Silicon Valley) work successfully, and only then will it be able to have a positive impact on the world,” said Yoon.

Wojcicki recommended five principles as a more specific methodology for nurturing creative talents - Trust, Respect, Independence, Collaboration, and Kindness (TRICK).

First, trust them. "When adults trust children, children believe in themselves," she said. Second, listen and respect even the most crazy ideas. Third, to give children independence. Only an independent thinker can be creative. Fourth, make them realize that more brains are better than just one. A sense of belonging can make a huge difference. Fifth, be kind to people who have failed. This creates a culture of courage that allows you to carry out your independent ideas until the end, even if you fail.

"I think it is necessary to try to give children the courage and creativity to clutter up and have different objects regardless of place and time, and to break existing orders," said Yoon, adding that the NC Cultural Foundation would like to create more spaces like this so that anyone can enter the space and show their independence and creativity to the fullest. She and the foundation have been an active supporter of research for the future generation, such as those of Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) Center in Stanford University, and many others in Harvard and MIT, and they are in support of building new models of education such as 'Projectory.'

Wojcicki and Yoon plan to continue their unfinished stories by appearing at the event of 'Next Creativity Conference' to be held to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the NC Foundation for two days on Oct. 20 and 21.

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