Find Your Place in the Universe: Chris Crane at TEDxAshokaU
Indigenous social entrepreneurs are solving the global education crisis by running fully financially sustainable schools, a model the speaker scaled through the organization Edify to help expand access to education. The speaker argues that access to education is a fundamental human right, exemplified by the determination of mothers who sacrifice deeply to give their daughters a chance to become successful, modern professionals. The primary call to action is for others with business experience to step into social entrepreneurship, channeling their skills into funding these community-led educational ventures. ## Theses & Positions - Education is a social justice issue and a human right; its lack in developing countries is one of the world's greatest problems. - The best model for addressing educational scarcity is financially sustainable, community-managed schools. - These indigenous schools, owner-operated by local entrepreneurs, are successfully educating children in slums and rural areas without external government subsidies or donations. - The speaker advocates for leveraging developed-world business experience (like loan financing) to rapidly scale up these existing, proven, community-led solutions. - For mothers in these communities, educating a daughter is a critical act of sacrifice to secure a place of honor and economic stability in the community. ## Concepts & Definitions - **Social entrepreneurship:** Focuses on using business principles to solve major community problems. - **Financially sustainable schools:** Schools that do not rely on external donations or government subsidies but generate revenue locally. - **Arua:** A word from the West African language of Twi; a woman who works in a business suit and is respected by her husband and children, holding a place of honor in her community. ## Mechanisms & Processes - **School Funding Cycle:** A school can build a classroom for a cost of $5,000, repay the loan (typically in 3 years), and the proceeds can be recycled to build another classroom or equip a computer lab. - **Edify's Scaling Mechanism:** Established the loans to fund the expansion of independent schools, allowing for rapid, self-perpetuating growth of educational infrastructure. - **Teacher Reliability:** The owner-operators running these schools ensure teachers attend every day, unlike the underfunded public school systems in developing countries. - **Training Offered:** Partnership with the University of San Diego provides teacher training, complementing the foundational education provided by the schools. ## Named Entities - **University of San Diego** — Partner in providing teacher training. - **West African language of Twi** — Language source for the word *arua*. ## Numbers & Data - Cost to build a simple cement block classroom: **$5,000**. - Cost to equip a computer lab: **$5,000** (implied by comparison to classroom build cost). - Daily tuition rate per child: **30 cents to 60 cents**. - Loan repayment period: Loaned funds are paid back in **3 years** (with a 5-year maximum mentioned). - Schools currently impacted by Edify loans: Over **600** schools. - Children impacted by Edify loans: Over **150,000** children. - Edify's vision in 4 years: To impact **one million** children. - Edify's vision in 10 years: To impact **four million** children. ## Examples & Cases - **West Africa Classroom:** A specific example of a simple cement block classroom, costing $5,000 to build. - **Maternal Sacrifice:** Mothers laboring in **100-degree heat and high humidity** making personal sacrifices to ensure their daughters can become *aruas*. - **Isolated Village School:** A school started by a woman using meager savings and borrowed money from friends and family to build initial classrooms made of inexpensive wooden slabs. - **The Microfinance Pivot:** The speaker, a businessman of **25 years**, was asked to manage a microfinance organization, leading to his involvement in social enterprise. - **Speaking Error Example:** Speech recognition misinterpreting "social entrepreneurship" as *"socialist lunch errors,"* *"so much inertia,"* and *"social manure shop."* ## Tools, Tech & Products - **Speech Recognition Software:** Software used to transcribe spoken words, demonstrating frequent errors when transcribing the term "social entrepreneurship." - **Computer Labs:** Equipped using the loan funds, allowing for modern learning resources. ## References Cited - **Dr James Tuli:** British professor of Education who conducted pioneering research on affordable, financially sustainable independent schools. ## Trade-offs & Alternatives - **Self-sustainability vs. Aid Dependency:** The alternative to the model is reliance on external donations or government subsidies, which the speaker notes the successful schools avoid. - **Business Skills vs. Social Mission:** The speaker's transition from profitable business management to nonprofit management required adapting existing business best practices to a social context. ## Counterarguments & Caveats - Some disadvantaged children look through open windows to get as much learning as possible, indicating an active, persistent desire for education despite resource limitations. - The school operators are sometimes limited in capacity, meaning children may look through windows because the schools cannot accommodate all the very disadvantaged. ## Methodology - **Research Model (Tuli's):** Traveling to seven countries in Africa and Asia to document and prove the academic success of children in humble, owner-operated schools compared to underfunded public schools. - **Expansion Model (Edify's):** Using a loan mechanism ($5,000) that is paid back within 3-5 years, creating capital to reinvest in subsequent infrastructure projects. - **Teacher Training:** Formal partnership with the University of San Diego for teacher skill development. ## Conclusions & Recommendations - If interested in social entrepreneurship, the speaker strongly encourages stepping through that "door," especially those with significant business experience. - The primary impact of the speaker's involvement was providing a **market-based solution of loans** to allow indigenous entrepreneurs to scale their proven local models. ## Implications & Consequences - The model demonstrated shows that education can be a self-funding, scalable utility rather than a perpetually subsidized charity. - The empowerment of mothers, particularly through educating daughters into *aruas*, directly translates into improved community status and economic opportunity. ## Verbatim Moments - *"It is of course education so I ask you is it fair is it social justice that hundreds of millions of children in developing countries don't have the same gift."* - *"they are fully financially sustainable they don't receive donations from anyone they don't receive any government subsidies"* - *"she wanted to educate her son and provid an education for the other children in the community and that that hit a heartstring for me because I knew how meaningful it was for me to provide a good education for my son."* - *"I started an organization called edify dorg to make loans to these schools for $5,000"* - *"I used to have I used to have Thrills when I do a million-dollar business deal but those Thrills faded quickly now I have this longlasting Joy"* - *"if you're wondering if if you should open that door to social entrepreneurship if that might be your place in the universe I encourage you to step through"*