What’s Right With Our Schools: Battle Academy Lessons in Business
CHATTANOOGA, TN (WDEF) – Real world experience can pay off for students long after graduation. At Battle Academy students are learning, step by step, what it takes to run a successful business. It’s a bottom-line example of what’s right with our schools.
Caitlyn Campbell is a 4th grade math teacher at Battle Academy.
She says, “So, we wanted to end the school year with a project that helps the kids to see that what we do in math class has a real-world application, and so they are working on business plans to design a food truck for Honey Seed.”
Campbell continues, “So, today we’re super excited to have the owner of Honey Seed come and talk to the students about what challenges and successes he’s experienced as an entrepreneur, particularly at Honey Seed, and then the students are having a chance to ask him questions. So, they’ve brainstormed with me what they want to know about the business and what points that he can give them to help them make a successful business plan. They’ll choose menu items. They’ll price them, and they’ll calculate what what’s a good price to make a good profit. How do you pay your employees? How do you figure out how much it costs to make a bagel? Distinguish all of that, and they’ll present their business plans to the owner of Honey Seed.”
4th grader Amelia Allen says, I have learned that, like when you’re going to make, to design a food truck, for example, what we’re supposed to be doing. You have to know what you are going to put inside it.”
4th grader Bryn Spencer adds, “We have to always have a plan and think before we do it. So, it’s like because if we’re just doing it all by the mind, then it we might mess up.”
Ms. Campbell concludes, “It’s exciting to see their enthusiasm even at nine and ten years old. We asked a lot of them, you know, are you interested in ever owning a business; starting a business in the future, and a lot of them said they were. So, we’re a multiple intelligence magnet here at Battle. So, we do a lot of emphasis on all the different ways that we’re smart and can show that. So, a lot of kids are able to see through this project, like I can be math smart, but it’s also important to have people smarts to be creative, and they get excited to see that their point of view matters now and it makes them excited to work on things in the future.”
