These thoughts came to me one time when I attended a meeting with some other educators. There was a guest speaker; a lady from a nearby county’s office of education. Her purpose in coming, I believe, was to offer some input from an “outside observer” on how we can better prepare students for that world “out there,” the “real world.” As she spoke to us she felt it necessary to apologize at one point for suggesting that we follow the example of “business” in how we do some things in our schools. She was obviously bothered by the idea that we might find anything in “business” worth emulating. She seemed to be ashamed of business (or specific businesses perhaps). I have sometimes found this same attitude among other educators; sort of a vague sense that everything we call "business" is evil, profits are evil, educators and schools should not be contaminated by it all.

As she went along with her talk I was musing about the fact that business is central to the existence of communities, states, and nations. We have business education departments in high schools. We offer a number of business classes, and in many ways in and out of those classes we strive to prepare our students to become quality, productive workers, managers, and entrepreneurs.

As an observer at this meeting, it was not my place to question the speaker on what concerned her about businesses. Why did she appear to feel that there is something to be ashamed of about looking to business as a model for how to operate our schools? After all, we are a business also. We are in the business of education.

And what are these businesses of which she is ashamed?

• Is it the businesses that provide the tens of thousands of food items we find in the local grocery store, available any day we happen to choose to go to market?

• Is it the companies that provide paper and books and pens and pencils that we use at school, home, and work each day?

• Is it the manufacturers of furniture such as the comfortable mattresses on which we sleep and the desks in our classrooms?

• Perhaps it is those big chemical companies that have given us such things as batteries to power our flashlights and cell phones; insulation to protect our homes from extreme weather conditions; comfortable, affordable, easy to wash fabrics; detergents and stain removers to do the washing; the gases used in modern, energy efficient lighting; and thousands of other important items.

• Is it the engineering labs that produce the equipment used by other companies to make computers, fiber optic cable, and precision medical instruments?

• Or is it our local company that uses technology to produce the equipment which in turn is used by television broadcasters to help bring us news of what is happening throughout the world every day?

• Perhaps it is the farmers, large and small, who produce enough quality food to feed not only our own, but the people of many other countries as well.

• Is it the mass marketers such as Walmart and Target that bring us tens of thousands of reasonably priced products for use in all aspects of our lives, readily available whenever we have a need?

• Should I assume that we should be ashamed of all the above and thousands more which provide the products and services we use everyday, pay taxes which support every level of government, and provide the millions of jobs which enable us all to live? Oh, and by the way, they also support our public education system.

Yes, I am very curious as to what businesses we should be so ashamed of. The wealth and well being of communities, states, and nations comes from the collective production of the people. It is the businesses of communities, states, and nations that enable the level of productivity that allows for the improvement of the wealth and well being of the people. Schools and school districts are among those businesses as well as beneficiaries of other businesses. In fact, businesses in the Unitied States, large and small, are making greater contributions to schools today than ever before. We would do well to watch these businesses and learn from them.

Note--Please try to avoid comments about abuses you know of by various business leaders. Yes, there have been many. The leaders of some companies have ripped off customers or stockholders, have sometimes lied or cheated to gain their desires. Even the leaders of some of the most essential businesses (like chemical companies) have at times made very foolish decisions, causing harm to people and the environment. I believe that we should hold these leaders responsible for their actions and try to prevent such actions in the future. But none of these actions warrants a blanket condemnation of businesses in general. Without them we could find ourselves living in a medieval life style, facing all the current abuses and more.