potential to energize kids with business
ideas and equip them with practical
planning tools to help them implement
those ideas. Lemonade to Leadership:
Nurturing Entrepreneurs by Bonnie
Drew is an effective course in entrepreneurship for young people through age
12.
1 I am entirely convinced that students who have been educated in a way
that promotes initiative and ingenuity
should also have some practical and explicit training in how to apply their talents to starting a business. This program
provides exactly that.
With examples of businesses suitable for
teenagers, instruction on writing a business plan, suggestions on how to finance
the venture, and more, Carol Topp’s Micro
Business for Teens website2 and resources
provide excellent tools for young adults
who are ready for a more robust challenge
and are ready to work hard toward financial independence.
No argument is truly persuasive without some good stories, so let me finish
up with a couple. Last summer at one of
the state conventions, I met a mom who
told me about her six-week Lemonade
to Leadership class. Bubbling over with
excitement, she told me of various ideas
that her middle school students had come
up with, and she pulled me across the exhibit hall, where one boy from her group
had a table selling his products: little bags
of crayons molded into fun shapes such
as dolphins, cars, and rockets. The young
man was 11 years old and had already
sold his melted, remolded crayons to a
small chain of restaurants in his city, with
potentially more sales ahead. Already he
had earned over one hundred dollars and
was just getting started!
Interestingly, he did have to overcome
one unpredicted hurdle—getting a sufficient supply of raw material. At first,
when he approached the preschools and
daycare centers asking for old crayons,
few places were interested in helping
him. However, when he changed his vocabulary and offered to “recycle” the old
crayons, he received instant support and
a supply of raw materials. Oh, the power
of knowing your audience and having the
right words to reach them!
Another boy I met gave me his business card, which he pulled out of a duct-tape wallet. I also noticed a rather cleverly
made duct-tape belt around his waist. His
business? Duct-Tape Creations—
custom-made duct-tape accessories. When
www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com
I asked if he’d sold anything, he looked
at me askew, answering, “Of course!” His
younger sister, I understand, was busy
painting and framing a collection of pic-
tures she was planning to display on the
wall of a hotel owned by a relative, with
prices starting at twenty dollars! Hey, if
you can sell one, you can sell a hundred.
a nation of employees and few owners;
most of us are dependents, not “
independents,” which is not good for the nation. In order to prevent a future where
the elite few will own everything and
control everyone, we need more people
who will think like our forefathers and
fewer who just want to keep a job so
they can stay comfortable.
So, although we cannot expect a return
to the small-scale, agrarian economy of
our founders that fostered such energy,
we can make every possible effort to regain and retain the type of independence
they embodied—as we strive to do with
homeschooling. Entrepreneurship education is a superb place to strengthen and
expand those efforts, both in our families
and our society.
Andrew Pudewa is the director of the
Institute for Excellence in Writing
(
www.excellenceinwriting.com) and a
homeschooling father of seven. Presenting
throughout North America, he addresses
issues relating to teaching, writing, thinking, spelling, and music with clarity and
insight, practical experience and humor.
He and his beautiful, heroic wife, Robin,
currently teach their two youngest children
at home in northeastern Oklahoma.
It’s one thing to
miscalculate a percentage
for a textbook problem,
but doing so in a real
business is a lesson that
hurts and will mean a lot
more than a lower score
on a math test.
Aristocracy: Education and the Future
of Freedom,
3 Dr. Oliver DeMille notes
that once upon a time we were a country
of “owners” and that to be an American
was to be an owner, a farmer, a mer-
chant, or an artisan—in short, to be in-
dependent. There were few “employees,”
and those who did work for another ex-
pected to some day break out on their
own. Today, however, we have become
Endnotes:
1.
www.excellenceinwriting.com/ltl-t
2. microbusinessforteens.com
3.
www.excellenceinwriting.com/tca
Micro Business
for Teens
Books and ebooks available at
MicroBusinessForTeens.com
