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In
many rural areas, both communities and schools are under threat.
For many country towns and villages, changes in agriculture, business,
technology, and society have decimated the local economy and eroded
the social cohesiveness that once characterized rural life. Farming
and ranching are dominated by agri-business enterprises. Manufacturing
and industry keep moving to other countries. Rural residents must
look to larger towns and cities for their livelihood, moving away
altogether or commuting long distances to work. Most newcomers to
the area are also commuters. And people who work in the city tend
to spend their money in the city. One by one, the little shops on
Main Street close their doors, unable to compete with big discount
stores and suburban shopping malls. Rural schools in turn suffer
from the drain of dollars and of population.
As
the remaining residents loosen their ties to the local community,
support for the school–once a center of daily life in many
locales–erodes even further. Many rural districts lack the
resources to maintain school buildings, much less to offer competitive
teacher salaries or support instructional reforms. At the same time,
rural schools must address the issues that face educational systems
across the nation: how to strengthen student achievement, how to
work effectively with diverse student populations, how to engage
students whose connections to the values and responsibilities of
human citizenship seem ever-more tenuous.
To
boost both the local economy and student achievement, a growing
number of rural schools are turning to entrepreneurial education.
In school entrepreneurship programs, students create small businesses
under the guidance of the school and, often, community partners.
As Craig Howley and John Eckman (1997, p. 55) observe, "Integrating
community development and economic revitalization with real-life
learning experiences can give rural towns a chance at renewal, while
students find meaningful uses for their skills."
Entrepreneurial
education gained prominence among educators concerned about opportunities
for inner-city youth; it is receiving more and more attention among
rural educators as well. While it bears some conceptual ties to
traditional vocational and business education, entrepreneurship
is in many ways an outgrowth of the economic and social changes
that have left vocational programs struggling to adapt to a technological,
information-based economy. Rather than focusing more narrowly on
teaching a specific vocational skill, entrepreneurship encourages
students to identify and create business opportunities as well as
to develop the skills needed to implement them.
With
some programs, students go only so far as to develop business plans,
leaving community members to put the plans into action or waiting
till after graduation to start up their own enterprise. Learning
is most powerful, however, when students are able to follow through
with their plans and gain hands-on experience in actually operating
the businesses they have helped to design.
Many
entrepreneurship programs draw on the resources available through
vocational education, such as agriculture, woodworking, or metal
shop facilities and teacher expertise. Others link to community
resources, such as a local construction company. Still others, particularly
crafts enterprises and retail shops, may be entirely self-created.
A
vast majority of entrepreneurial programs are geared to high school
students. However, middle school and even elementary students also
can benefit. In one school, for example, elementary students operate
a successful greeting card business; in another, students run a
school store, with their classmates as customers.
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