Entrepreneur contest open to homeschoolers
Chattanooga city government is broadening its Great Ideas entrepreneurial contest to include homeschoolers this year with input from two home educating moms, Ann Cox and Susie Downer, who took part in a focus group at City Hall.
We are interested in promoting the program because homeschoolers are the most likely ones to turn services and bright ideas into moneymaking start-up companies.
The website is www.mayorsgreatideas.org.
The program for the 2006-07 school year starts today. Homeschoolers tend to be outside the regular school paradigm of “getting a good education to get a good job,” realizing that this view is one that belongs to people who will be employees their whole lives, always working for others. Of course, that’s no sin.
But prosperity and authority tend to accrue to those who originate marketable ideas and pursue them to serve people in the marketplace. Prosperity comes to those who take financial risks to chase a new idea, product or service. In many ways, free enterprise is a manifestation of the Christian ideal of service. A good Christian is one with a strong imagination; he is able to see what another person needs, and is able to find a profitable way to make that person’s life proceed more easily, cheaply or quickly. A prospering company is one that serves its customers and looks out for their needs in a framework of charity and mercy.
It is important for Esprit readers to consider ways their sons and daughters can launch profitable enterprises. Ordinarily this is done in the real world, without outside applause, public huzzah or prize money. About contests there is an element of unreality, of PR and showmanship that might let potentially fatal flaws in a business plan be glossed over.
Nevertheless, contests such as city government’s Great Ideas Competition might serve as a catalyst among homeschool families who are service- and mercy-minded. In the contest, students submit a plan for a service or business.
The entrepreneur has to have a keen eye for bureaucratic requirements of the contest, which mimic real-life duties imposed by civil governments. For example, he must pay attention to contest rules, guidelines and deadlines. The rules envision an approved mentor who is supposed to help with “the four Ps” of the business plan and marketing.
“The Great Ideas Competition gives students an opportunity to dream and then to put practical wings on the dream,” says Charlene Becker of the Hamilton County Department of Education.” This is a real world application of an idea. It connects students to the way businesses start — with an idea in someone’s head and then is developed into a plan for completion. In developing this plan, the student must research, listen to judges’ feedback that will help them return to the drawing board for improvements, and then complete the steps of the plan to the actual fruition. What a way to stretch student imagination and to connect them to actual businessmen and women who help them develop and refine their thinking! What a preparation for life-thinking, doing, collaborating, and celebrating completion!”
Check the website for entry rules and deadlines.
—DJT
