Fifth Graders Learn Business Basics

Jeremy Malander of Salesforce.com Foundation, right, teaches business basics to fifth-graders, from left, Josue Licona, Christina Curtis and Jason Liang, at the Jean Parker Elementary School in San Francisco, Feb. 8, 2007. Students at the school enrolled in a month-long crash course in the fundamentals of business administration. The students learn new words like "revenue" and "prototype," meet venture capitalists and executives, and even tour the glass offices of San Francisco's financial district. (AP Photo/Jakub Mosur) (Jakub Mosur - AP)

He applauds any program that teaches kids communication and sales skills. But in a nation desperate for more rank-and-file scientists and engineers, emphasizing business ownership might send the wrong message to students who have no desire to start a company, Sidhu said.

At Jean Parker, students meet once a week for a couple hours with businesspeople such as Bobby Napiltonia, a Salesforce.com senior vice president. Earlier this month, he pretended to be a VC for Amy Lee and other fifth graders _ something he himself did when launching his own Internet startup before joining Salesforce.

"One of the kids was actually sweating, he was so nervous when he was pitching me. I thought, 'Hey, I know that feeling!'" Napiltonia said. "The best part of this is that they are learning that in the real world, they can do whatever they want, as long as they can get investors to get on board. It's empowering."

The idea behind the program at Jean Parker came in 1993, when the 8-year-old daughter of Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper asked her dad to describe his job. At a loss to explain entrepreneurship to a third grader, he used his daughter's love of friendship bracelets to create a mock company for her and her classmates.

Draper _ founder and managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, which has backed startups such as Skype, Overture and Hotmail _ established BizWorld Foundation in 1997. Google, Merrill Lynch, Salomon Smith Barney and the New York Stock Exchange Foundation have donated at least $100,000 to the foundation, which runs academic business curricula in all 50 states.

Jean Parker teacher Celia Magtoto says the program gets her 30 fifth graders thinking about careers far different from those of their parents, many of whom work blue-collar jobs.

Magtoto was initially concerned that a program promoting business culture could marginalize aspiring musicians, painters and others kids interested in non-corporate careers. But she quickly realized that the kids _ who have music, art and other classes _ rarely glimpse the business world.

The program turns some of her shiest wallflowers into straight-talking ramrods.

"I see kids who normally wouldn't talk to their peers suddenly pitching their company to adults they don't even know _ that's great for self esteem," Magtoto said. "And it's great for them to see that there are adults out there who really care and really listen to them."