Business-based learning is especially suited to the home school family with high school-aged children. But business-based learning is useful to any teenager in public school, private school, or home school.
In the past, a teenager would often apprentice with a workman or shopkeeper to learn a trade. A son might even apprentice with his father to learn the family business. Certainly, the world we live in has changed since that time. But in our day, the pendulum has swung way too far to an education with almost no roots in practical reality.
Think of it, a young man or woman can complete 6-7 years of college, graduating from graduate school with a Master's in Business Administration. Yet they have not ever started their own business nor worked for one day in a real business situation. They "know" a lot, and are completely ignorant of reality.
A case in point is a marketing course I signed up for at a community college. I dropped the course because it was void of usefulness, but I kept the book. In writing the course, Micro-Business for HighSchoolers, I looked through that college-level marketing text book for things I could teach the students about marketing. I could find not one thing in that entire, large, expensive college text book that was of any value to anyone starting a business.
This is a scam, as big of a scam as anything in our society.
Business-based learning is taking the learning objectives of a high school or business college education and fitting those objectives into starting and running a real-world business.
This concept does a number of things for the teenager. First, it fits learning into what is needed right now today. Second, it gives the teenager a deep sense of self-respect as he sees other people valuing his work, wanting it for themselves. Third, it provides the teenager with cash to pay for some of the larger elements of learning that make life meaningful.
The teenage years are ideal for starting a business. The student does not have to support a family or any household or living expenses. Since the focus is on learning, any money earned is a bonus. as a result, the teenager can freely make mistakes and learn from those mistakes without any fear of financial disaster.
On the other hand, this is part of school. As such, just going out and making money is not enough. The idea is to weave real learning into the immediate needs of serving customers.
To be sure that business-based learning provides real learning experiences with a successful business experience takes a good plan and careful attention from the parents.
A family intrigued by the concept of business-based learning should find a program such as Micro-Business for HighSchoolers (not yet available) to ensure both learning and a good chance of business success.
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For more on project-led learning, visit Project-Led Learning.
Maybe you have a student homeschooling high school and you want to know that they can write effectively both in entering college and for life. Or maybe you want to learn to write (and teach writing) well. Check out The Writing Conservatory. You will be intrigued by what you see.
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