OK, maybe I'm exaggerating just a little about the topics of discussion. For the past several years, Tuck students have donated time during the spring term to teach local elementary school students about free enterprise, business, and economics. One day each week, for five weeks, Tuck teams of three spend about 45 minutes in the classroom, introducing new topics and coordinating activities with students. After their brainstorming session, they present their ideas to the whole class, and we explain how their business would contribute jobs, goods, and services to the local economy.
Students are remarkably bright.
Ila Sellingham, a fourth-grade teacher at Hanover's Ray School, has worked with the JA program for the past five years. She believes students also enjoy the variety of teachers. Sellingham takes full advantage of the JA program by working it into the rest of her curriculum. To help them determine the feasibility and marketability of their product, the extensive exercise even involves decision trees and marketing surveys that students administer to other classrooms. We work it into everything else.