In fact, the students paid him outright disrespect, opting to talk to their neighbors, listen to their Walkman radios or even use Mariotti's forehead as a target for spitballs. Fed up, Mariotti shut the textbook and tried a different approach. He marched into the classroom and, without warning, went into a mock sales pitch, trying to sell the watch on his wrist. The students perked up. From that session, Mariotti also took home a lesson.
Children born into poverty often have a comparative advantage in small business.
Mariotti says those lessons benefited the kids on more than one level. At face value, he was teaching his students the basics of operating a small business. On a deeper level, entrepreneurship teaches the students how to communicate better, a skill needed as they explain a product or close a sale. It pushed them to also focus on reading and comprehension a must when dealing with fine-print details. By 1987, Mariotti wanted to evolve the curriculum into a large-scale program.