Local restaurant run only by high school students
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KIFI Local News 8 recently reported on Sandcreek Middle School’s great in-school food service, ‘The Firepit’. The report strangely says that no other restaurants offer something unique (?), but the unique aspect of ‘The Firepit’ is that students are the waiters, chefs, and delivery people. They field menus around school and in their classroom’s tabled area, take orders from customers (teachers), cook the food in cooking class and deliver the food (to in-class tables or other classrooms).
This gave me the idea for a business to be run in Idaho Falls solely by students, with the company’s board of directors consisting of the applicable-content teachers. A restaurant, a basic car tune-up shop, or a general labor force (like the groups of Mexicans who make themselves available for manual labor on streets) could be businesses run by students.
Say a restaurant business is organized. Business students from our local high schools could work together on business plans, financial documents, marketing strategies, and setup and execute a small pay system to the workers. Art students from our local high schools could work together to execute the business group’s advertisements, signage, and menus. Home Economics students could prepare the menus and cook the dishes. Computer-savvy students from our local high schools could work together to setup the restaurant ordering systems, business software, network, and of course the obligatory website. English and drama students could serve as hosts/hostesses, waiters, and bussboys (a step up from the proverbial “Do you want fries with that?”). Positions would also be open to any students to break into the business through janitorial, construction, safety, inspections, secretarial, etc.
The students involved in the business could have three different levels of responsibility (or trust), depending on how well students perform at lower levels. This is akin to students currently taking Art I, II, or III, Welding I, II, or III, etc. The students could call themselves partners (I, II, or III). Students wanting to join the business would be interviewed by the faculty board of directors and higher-ranking student partners.
Students would run all of the day-to-day operations, so they have to design clear authority trees. Students would have to be firable, and the reasons for termination and who can do terminations would have to be spelled out carefully in the business bylaws.
Think of the real-life applicability and immersive learning experiences this scenario would provide to our local youth. The faculty board would be teacher advisors who also approve extra-credit work or work-study credits at the students’ respective Idaho Falls high schools. Quarterly profits could be both reinvested into the business and paid out in bonuses. As years go by, the reports and records kept by previous student partners could help the next generations learn from previous mistakes and build on the business.
This experience would give our local students a great education in entrepreneurship, and the entire Idaho Falls community will benefit when these students graduate and pursue business plans locally. Even if few start their own businesses, they will all develop stronger work ethics. They will be able to see the other side of workers arrive late or not at all to work, that the business is depending on those workers. I predict students involved in this type of program will be seen by local employeers as better workers. Certainly students would be able to list this learning experience as relevant work experience when they apply for jobs.
My final thought on this is that menu items could include Bonneville Brownies, Hillcrest Ham Sandwiches, Lincoln Lambchops, or Skyline Spaghetti. Okay, those are cheesy, but the idea is to design the atmosphere and food to be local.
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Comments
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0 
0 ..Would there be a corner for local High School Jazz bands to Jam?
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0 0 That’s an awesome idea, keeps with the idea of student-centrism, and involves another discipline of students that could contribute to the success of the project and gain real-world experience themselves.
Nice.
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This is a great idea - one that has been talked about and done by many business and marketing teachers around North America. The experience all students need is to know how they can live within the economic and business environment. Not all students will end up being entrpreneurs nor will all students end up working in restaurants or in auto garages or be general labourers but the experiences they will have doing those things in an education context will be important throughout their lives. They will learn how business works - they will learn the risks entrpreneurs take - they will learn about the lives of employees and owners - they will learn about the value of hard work and the appreciation of quality and customer service.
Now all we need to do is convince the public and our school officials that this kind of education is just as important, if not more important, than many of the other, more traditional, school subjects!
Visit my blog at http://theteachinglife.blogspot.com/