Business & Economics Program
Overview
Every well educated person should thoroughly understand how to provide for himself and his family. The family has many needs: spiritual, emotional, mental and physical, and we must provide for each. In our society, having a family involves making and managing money on some level, and this involves running your own business, interacting with business or interacting with government, which gets its operating finances from business. Depending on the division of labor in a household, a particular person may not be directly involved in financial affairs but an understanding of this aspect greatly enhances understanding of financial constraints and requirements and allows the student to make wise societal decisions.
Business
Understanding how businesses work and the fundamental elements involved in providing goods and services to customers, from systems as simple as lemonade stands, lawn mowing, recycling plastic bottles, baby sitting and giving piano lessons to running complex organizations where things like getting employees, suppliers and customers, making contracts, handling money, customer service, human resources, following laws, paying taxes, insurance and planning have to be attended to, is important to every person and family in our modern society.
A well educated modern individual should grow up learning about marketing, accounting, planning, budgeting, investing, business law, management and hard work and responsibility so that taking care of these things is second nature and doesn't interfere with enjoyment of life. We believe that students can be taught in school, under parental oversight, to provide for themselves, pay for their education, be wise and productive members of society and put this into practice while in school. This doesn’t have to interfere with other school activities and should be a large part of what school is all about.
We use the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) program for teaching business.
Economics
Why do people act as they do? Real economics answers this question: each person has a set of values, wants and needs, that motivate him or her to act as he or she does at any given moment. We only really realize what these values are when we see what people choose to do. Understanding the principles that govern such activity allows us to better anticipate others' needs and actions and to plan in such a way that we can all be better supplied and happy. The best system we know for this supply is freedom constrained by a recognition of certain personal rights under a limited government. A proper understanding of economics guides the individual into the best action and prevents harmful action.
We use “Economics for Real People” by Gene Calahan and “The Law” by Fredrick Bastiat as two of the texts for the economics program.