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B-School for Beginners

An elementary teacher has developed a curriculum to teach entrepreneurship.

The youngsters in Ronni Cohen's entrepreneurship class learn more than what it takes to sell the products they invent. They learn how to sell themselves entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship Educator:
Ronni Cohen, Burnett Elementary School

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A student enrolls in a course titled Economics, Technology, and Entrepreneurship Education and submits the following design abstract for the class's Inventor's Portfolio component:

"Eating pasta has never been easy. Most people won't eat spaghetti dishes at a restaurant because they find it embarrassing to eat. My pasta twirler makes eating spaghetti fun and easy. You'll never have to be embarrassed again."

Before she submits her idea, the student takes pains to complete the homework required of an entrepreneur: initial market research to identify a need; product research and development to meet that need; a determination of the land, labor, and capital requirements of production; and market surveys to hit upon a competitive price as well as a catchy name for the product.

Nothing remarkable there. But what saves the Pasta Twirler from the Annals of Unsung Inventions is the profile of its creator, Jessica McClafferty. Her occupation? She's a student at Burnett Elementary School, in Wilmington, Del. Her age? Ten.

Jessica is among scores of Wilmington students who've been taught entrepreneurship at a tender age by an extraordinary elementary-school teacher, Ronni Cohen. For almost a quarter of a century, "Miss Cohen" -- this year's Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year -- has been enlightening fourth graders about economic concepts such as scarcity, opportunity costs, and profit, and even about the intricacies of the Federal Reserve and the U.S. currency systems.

This year Cohen was one of 85 contenders for the Entrepreneurship Educator award. The judging panels singled her out for her "phenomenal" teaching materials, which she creatively synthesizes from sources as varied as newspaper comic strips and children's books such as The Toothpaste Millionaire. Cohen also won praise for her innovative teaching methods and her devotion to teaching entrepreneurship. She's clearly passionate about the broad impact her techniques can have at a tender age. Here's how she begins the executive summary in her award application: "Elementary-age students are too young for entrepreneurship education. NOT!"

Her style is hands-on, far removed from the rote lecture formula often found in the classroom. "You don't say, 'The definition of demand is... , ' " explains Cohen. "Cooperative-learning groups provide opportunities for collaboration, brainstorming, and collegial exchange." Her students learn by doing. On Market Days the children form "corporations" and sell their "products" in the classroom. They learn how money moves in a program called Bank on It!, using an in-school bank that Cohen persuaded the school (and the bank, Wilmington Trust) to open in the fall of 1992. A unit called EconoM&Mics uses M&M candies to teach business basics such as production of goods and services, sunk costs, competition, and brand-name loyalty. (Two excerpted questions: "What seasonal items illustrate the concept of sunk cost?" "What factors might make you choose M&Ms instead of the store brand?") When asked to make a gadget to solve a problem, Cohen's students devise inventions such as a hamster-propelled ball that mops the floor. And they knock on doors, polling neighbors to determine preferred names for their products.

The junior entrepreneurs meet the kinds of business contacts their grown-up counterparts interact with regularly. Frequent classroom visitors include patent lawyers, bankers, and other businesspeople, as well as the children's parents. "I don't think we can stand at the front of the classroom and lecture any longer," says the 46-year-old teacher. "I don't think we learn that way."

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The sponsors of this year's Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year award couldn't agree with her more. Shortly before his death, last August, Ewing Marion Kauffman, benefactor of the Kansas City, Mo., nonprofit foundation bearing his name, decided to devote a portion of his billion-dollar estate to discovering and celebrating the Ronni Cohens of the world. "As he looked at the ills of society, he thought that the best way to create jobs and make healthy communities is to have a strong entrepreneurial base," explains Calvin Ward, associate fellow for training and development at the Kauffman Foundation's Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership. "One way of encouraging that is through the Educator of the Year award."

As this year's winner, Cohen will receive a $15,000 stipend to spend a summer at the foundation, where she will be given the opportunity to "tweak, revamp, refine, and further develop her teaching innovations," says Ward. The ultimate goal? To disseminate her teachings throughout the country.

Talk about a tough homework assignment. Though entrepreneurship, as an academic subject, has been creeping into curricula since the late 1960s, it has yet to achieve status as a required discipline. Part of the reason is the subject's innate quirkiness. "I've often wondered how you teach a course in entrepreneurship. How do you teach a course on hanging by your fingernails?" quips B. Thomas Golisano, chief executive of Paychex Inc., in Rochester, N.Y., and one of this year's Entrepreneur of the Year judges.

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