Normally, one isn’t really taught the skills of entrepreneurship until at least middle school. However, that’s not the case at James Monroe Elementary School where they offer a special class “Entrepreneurship 802: Welcome to the Shark Tank” for fifth graders.
With a record participation number of 42, the kids are taught skills and lessons on how to be a mini entrepreneur, and they even create their own small business to sell their products at school.
Their amazing teacher, Nathan Manderfeld, says “As many of you know, each year the fifth grade organizes a "graduate school" class entitled Entrepreneurship 802: Welcome to the Shark Tank. This is an optional class for those students that want to learn what it is like to run their own small business. This year we had a record number of students participate. 42 students completed the classwork, created, marketed, and sold an unprecedented variety of products. These students learned the real life skills of customer service, hard work, organization, disappointment and triumph all rolled into one experience. As educators we hope to inspire our students to apply what they learn in school to the real world. We hope that students will care so deeply about what they are engaged in that they will take genuine pride in the hard work they put in and eventually reap those benefits. I can honestly say that these students rose to the occasion! I am proud to be their teacher.”
Mr. Manderfeld also says, “I want to say a special thank you to the Monroe staff and endured a couple of weeks of : Allowing students to be a few minutes late for class, putting up with students bringing money to school, and cleaning up more than one mess created by an exploding "stress ball". That patience allowed for an amazing experience that many of these students will never forget.”
As these students get older they will take these life lessons with them wherever they go. So we thank Mr. Manderfeld and everyone at James Monroe for allowing this great opportunity to be offered! We cannot wait to see what each of those students does with the skills and lessons they have learned!
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