Ellen Rosenthal is the president and CEO of Conner Prairie Museum, Inc.

Thoughts on Hoosier Values
Our group, Trailblazers, pondered the question of what would be needed to insure Indiana’s future business growth. Participants made suggestions – better K-12 schooling, more capital for investment, continued growth of cultural venues, and finally, more drive to expand private businesses and take them public. In regard to the latter need, participants wondered whether the relatively low cost of living in Indiana was actually a deterrent to growth in that entrepreneurs could sell out relatively low and still live comfortably. Having grown up on the East Coast, I had a different take on the issue.

I wondered whether Hoosier culture might not be as conducive to relentless, competition driven business growth. This is not to say that people in Indiana aren’t competitive, just that they have a more well-balanced, less obsessive approach to life. To my mind, that’s a good thing. After arriving in Indianapolis, I was delighted to see how little jockeying for social position there was to be compared to what I had experienced. I noted that Hoosiers value family, church and hard work. And, that they lived their values. The competitive tension that permeates life in New York is harder to recognize here. Frankly, I’m glad.

The Need to Create a Culture of Learning
Since our conversation, I’ve had further thoughts about what Indiana needs to continue to grow. To create the kind of creative, curious workforce that we will need in the future, we need to improve K-12 schooling and to create a grassroots effort to improve Hoosier interest in and excitement about learning. That kind of initiative involves taking a broader view of education, one that goes beyond the teachers in classrooms to include families. Indiana families need to set expectations that kids will make learning their top priority and they must take the time to make learning fun by doing things such as, reading books with children, watching educational television, or making family visits to museums, zoos and historic sites. Richard Florida (and others) have convincingly made the case that the growth of the American economy and the future success of this nation depends on a burgeoning “creative class”—people who have a fundamental curiosity about the world around them and who value creativity, difference, and merit. It is these people who are best prepared for the sort of knowledge-intensive industries upon which America’s continued prosperity depends.

Studies have shown that the kind of guerilla approach to education I’m describing stimulates curiosity and encourages continual learning. I would go so far as to suggest that the state work with museums and other learning environments to make family learning visits more affordable and accessible for Hoosier families.