

Ask PG: An incubator to teach programming to street kids in Turkey - nyist

I have in mind an incubator similar to Y Combinator but instead of taking applications from entrepreneurs we will teach programming and internet technology to street kids and give them money and advice to start their own company.<p>These kids live in the street and survive by selling paper napkins, bottle water etc. There are many non-profits that help these kids, but they teach them music, sports, art or send them to school. No one is teaching them how to start a business by teaching them a skill.<p>I am planning to teach Google App Engine with Python and separately also Arduino.<p>I am inspired by Paul Graham's essays advocating less schooling and more doing.<p>I strongly believe that school is evil. I believe that professional classes and schools inhibit general human progress by hiding knowledge and glamorizing book learning. In Turkey there is a general belief that without a university education a child cannot be successful in life. But some of world's most successful companies are founded by people with no formal education. I want to prove that a system based on learning by doing starting from earliest possible age is the right way to prepare a child to a happy and productive life.<p>I am asking for your advice in any aspect of this project. Thank you.
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arkitaip
"I have in mind an incubator similar to Y Combinator "

What you are describing is a charity not an incubator.

"No one is teaching them how to start a business by teaching them a skill."

How do you plan doing this if the kids cannot read or write? Why is this even
an important skill for a child?

"I am planning to teach Google App Engine with Python and separately also
Arduino."

These kids probably don't even have access to decent food, clean water,
reliable electricity, etc, so how are they supposed to have access to
computers and Internet? Will you provide these things? Will there be a
facility where the kids can come to?

"I strongly believe that school is evil."

This is your privilege talking and frankly it's a slap in the face of those
kids who cannot afford to go to a decent school.

~~~
nyist
arkitaip: In fact, I don't want to do it as a charity but as a business.
That's why I called it incubator.

I assume that kids can read and write but do not have further education.

Yes I hope to provide access to computer and internet. There are many
organizations who help these kids. I may ask their cooperation or I can start
a place myself or even start initially in an internet cafe. The details are
still vague, that's why I posted here.

"This is your privilege talking and frankly it's a slap in the face of those
kids who cannot afford to go to a decent school."

This is what I want to prove. You can be a successful entrepreneur without
going to brand name school.

~~~
wallawe
Just curious, where does the business part come into play? How do you plan on
making money?

~~~
nyist
The way Y Combinator makes money. If I understand correctly, they invest in
the companies they sponsor.

~~~
mahmud
If you want to raise kids to make them into successful people so you can
invest in them, why not also have some fun? Make babies! Get laid, get pregos,
raise them _then_ you will be a major stock-holder in their success.

~~~
jamesjguthrie
Can't agree more!

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neya
I do not have enough experience or merits to advice you professionally. But,
from the bottom of my heart I wish you good luck for this project and wish you
success. This is a GREAT initiative. A small tip - If you wish to ask this to
PG directly, edit your title to 'Ask PG' instead of 'Ask HN'.

All the best.

~~~
nyist
Thank you. I edited the title.

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mahmud
This has "confused" written all over it. There are too many axes to this:
there is the education part, the charity part and the business part. Pick one
and think it through.

Also, I think your take on education is misguided, at best. The successful
people you describe are not entirely _unschooled_ , or uneducated, as the
popular confounding goes. You are underestimating the amount of resources they
have at their disposal, both knowledge and material.

But instead of getting bogged down by arm-chair philosophizing on education
and child-rearing (how did that work out for Rousseau?) I suggest you grab
_one_ kid off the street and teach him or her first. If your objective is to
educate, put your pupils first, that's what teachers do. Start with one and
"iterate like hell".

~~~
nyist
No, there is no education part. Everyone will learn on their own. There is
StackOverflow, online manuals, tutorials... And there is no charity part. I
don't like charity. The idea is to tell the kids that they can start their own
company. That's why I call it incubator. And I think it is important to have
more than one kid. Again like in Y Combinator.

~~~
mahmud
good luck!

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ivan_ah
I think there //is// a need for training people in the computer skills. In
particular (1) system administration and (2) web development. These two skills
happen to to be precisely the kind of things you need to learn hands on, and
not in a formal education setting (University).

I have put some thoughts into starting a similar program (think hacker space,
but with daily lectures and access to a big bookcase of technical literature).
Email me if you would like to discuss.

Do you think you can get funding from the city or government to run this? I
have some ideas for how such a peer-to-peer educational system could fund
itself in the long run, but to get things started you would need some cash.

~~~
nyist
Thanks Ivan, definitely I would like to discuss, I just sent you an email.

I agree about hands on education and those are the two things I would like to
teach (and Arduino eventually).

Hacker space describes well what I have in mind.

I will have some cash of my own but not much. In Turkey, it may be possible to
get funding from local government. I need to do more research.

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1123581321
It's too bad you believe school is evil. Probably your best chance at helping
is to attach yourself to one of the schools with an auxiliary program.

I personally do not think you can build a profitable business out of this
unless you have a lot of contacts and investors to help your students,
similarly to how many YC companies would not succeed without the alumni
network acting as a network of customers and referrers.

~~~
nyist
"how many YC companies would not succeed without the alumni network acting as
a network of customers and referrers."

I agree but this happens in time. First I need to start and show that it is
possible to build successful internet companies without going to school. All
of the information is available online.

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dworrad
I think it sounds like an excellent idea. I would suggest creating a "crowd
funding" project to try and raise some backing. Kickstarter is probably not an
option as their TOS won't allow this. But there are many other options out
there - [http://www.quora.com/Where-is-the-kickstarter-to-help-
launch...](http://www.quora.com/Where-is-the-kickstarter-to-help-launch-non-
profits)

Good luck

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umrashrf
One way to monetize this can be letting companies recruit for those kids
beforehand. Companies pay you monthly, yearly or whatever which you can invest
back in those kids and once they are something, they may get a job.

~~~
nyist
But the idea is to build their own business, not to get a job.

