Senegal’s Magatte Wade on Education & Economic Freedom in Africa

This week on “The Learning Curve," Cara and Gerard talk with Magatte Wade, the founder & CEO of Skin Is Skin and an advocate for African dignity and prosperity. Her forthcoming book is The Heart of the Cheetah. She shares her journey from Senegal in West Africa to America, and how she came to experience the power of free enterprise to promote upward mobility and human dignity on her native continent. She describes some of the regulatory practices in both Africa and America that either help or hinder economic activity and prosperity.

Stories of the Week: For over a century, educators have used the Carnegie Unit, a time-based measurement of student progress. But now the Carnegie Foundation is seeking alternatives that more accurately reflect content mastery. In New Hampshire, the president of the American Federation of Teachers filed a lawsuit against the education commissioner to block Education Freedom Accounts, which were created in 2021 to help eligible parents afford private school.

Guest:

Magatte Wade is the founder & CEO at Skin Is Skin and an advocate for African dignity and prosperity in home country of Senegal. Fluent in Wolof, French, and English, Ms. Wade is an accomplished communicator, speaking at the U.N., The Clinton Global Initiative, the Aspen Institute, TED, Conscious Capitalism, and variety of higher education institutions, including Harvard, Yale, MIT, and the Wharton School of Business. Her TED Talk is, “Why it is too hard to start a business in Africa - and how to change it.” She has appeared on Forbes’ “20 Youngest Power Women in Africa” list, and was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum at Davos, a TED Global Africa Fellow, and a “Leading Woman in Wellness” award winner by the Global Wellness Summit. She serves as the Director of the Atlas Network’s Center for African Prosperity and on the Advisory Board of the Whole Planet Foundation of Whole Foods Market. Ms. Wade’s forthcoming book, The Heart of the Cheetah, highlights African poverty and the future of human flourishing.

The next episode will air on Weds., December 21st, with Prof. Michael Slater, Emeritus Professor of Victorian Literature at Birkbeck College, University of London, and the world's foremost expert on Charles Dickens and his works.

Tweet of the Week:

News Links:

Ed Week: The Head of the Carnegie Foundation Wants to Ditch the Carnegie Unit. Here’s Why

https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/the-head-of-the-carnegie-foundation-wants-to-ditch-the-carnegie-unit-heres-why/2022/12

NH Department of Education sued over program that sends funds to private schools

https://www.wmur.com/article/nh-lawsuit-school-funding-12922/42203675