How long is the course?
Thirty classroom hours. You can space them out anyway you like; an hour per day, an hour per week, four hours per day. You just want to proceed in the given order as the lessons are cumulative.
What does it cover?
MSMBA covers all the fundamentals of business, economics, and entrepreneurship in an intuitive, realistic, integrated fashion. Please see our curriculum outline for detailed concepts and pedagogy. Here’s a list for starters:
Markets, Specialization, Structure and Evolution of Economies, Trade, Negotiation (tactics, ethics, and strategy), Price Discovery, Free Trade, Laws of Supply and Demand, Factory Optimization, Opportunity Cost, Investment Payback, Pitching to Investors, Evaluating Pitches, Profit & Loss Statements, Capital (origin, types, purpose), Price Discovery, Price Structure, Price Propagation, Price Signals, Subjective Theory of Value, Labor Theory of Value, Mercantilism, Capitalism, Business Cycles, Theories on the Great Depression, International Operations, Surplus, Shortage, Nationalization, and more!
What if I don’t know business or economics?
Not a problem! Very, very few of our teachers have any business/econ background. They are all thrilled that MSMBA allows them to understand this material and in turn convey it to their kids.
How is it delivered?
The lessons stream in across the web. Teachers typically project the slides on the wall, and have a student operate the laptop. The slides guide the class through activities, instruction, discussion, and theory.
How long to implement?
You can subscribe today and literally be teaching tomorrow. On the first go-round, teachers average about thirty minutes to get their arms around the curriculum and theory, and then twenty minutes prep time for each lesson. Our jumpstart video takes you through everything you need to get started. Second go-round prep is zero. There is no software to download; everything streams in across the web. You just log in and open lessons from your dashboard. Lesson plans and other docs are right in your browser. See our Jumpstart video for more details.
Do students need devices?
Absolutely not. Our goal is not to give kids more screen time. On the contrary, we want them doing things; building things, interacting with others, managing chaos, foiling the tricks we play, thinking critically about high-level concepts, and experiencing real joy in learning.
What materials are needed?
Some activities require simple, common materials like pipe cleaners, magnets, corn flakes, water bottles, etc. It’s all simple stuff, easily acquired. Sometimes messy! We want your kids to touch, manipulate, and understand the real world. We’ve carefully designed activities to highlight critical features of that world and allow your kids to experience them.
Is Middle School MBA Personal Finance?
No, we’re not personal finance. We’re business, entrepreneurship, and economics (see our infographic). If you’re looking for personal finance, contact us for recommendations.
How do parents react to Middle School MBA?
Parents are thrilled. Their kids come home talking about MSMBA every day. They discuss their parents’ businesses with them. They ask to review their parents’stock portfolios. They explain price discovery to their parents. They relate the drama of head-to-head negotiations and the excitement of pitching companies. Parents typically start posting thanks on social media within days of beginning MSMBA.
Is Middle School MBA PBL friendly?
Yes, the core curriculum is hands-on/activity focused, and very amenable to extension. Contact us for more details.
Does Middle School MBA align with Classical Education?
Absolutely. All learning is connected. We exist to connect a lot of dots for kids, so MSMBA fits beautifully in the logic stage and also works great in the rhetoric stage (we have plenty of both).
What about homeschoolers?
Definitely! However, please note that MSMBA isn’t a self-taught curriculum. Business and economics are about interactions between people and we like to create those interactions rather than just talk about them. Thus, teachers need to serve variously as facilitator, competitor, conspirator, and sounding board, as opposed to the student working on their own.
What about Homeschool groups or Pandemic Pods?
Yes, indeed. Parents make great teachers. MSMBA is built for groups of four or more kids. The kids need not be the same ages. The teacher needn’t be versed in business or economics.
What about Private, Public and Charter Schools?
Yes, yes, and yes! Parents love it when their kids come home gushing about MSMBA. Extremely gratifying for teachers.
What about Summer Camps?
MSMBA is perfect for summer camps! The first lesson, Howdy Stranger!, gets kids acquainted right off the bat. Then the hands-on activities and challenging discussions get them working together and learning from each other. Our one-week syllabus guides your counselor step by step. The syllabus can be split over several weeks to suit your camp’s schedule; some camps like to do academics in the morning and sports in the afternoon. MSMBA fits easily into your time slots.
What about Acton Academies?
Definitely. Acton’s grouping of History, Economics, and Government under the heading of “Civilization” is simply perfect. The best entrepreneurs also understand economics, and the best economics you can get is ours. We recommend assigning two of your older heroes to research and present the curriculum to the rest.
What about International Schools?
For sure! We grew up in international schools. Business is the true international language. We’re fluent.
What about high schools?
No problem. We call it Middle School MBA because it’s university-level material and we’ve learned to teach it to kids as young as ten. But it’s totally appropriate for high-schoolers as well. Our teachers always say that MSMBA is hugely educational for them (the teachers) and not at all beneath their mental faculties.
What about 4th grade?
That’s pushing it. Fifth grade is the youngest we’ve done and they did fine, but for a few of them it was a stretch. That said, we have a pre-school teacher experimenting/adapting some lessons for her kids, and if you read our reviews you’ll see one from a fourth-grader. But as you go below 5th grade, MSMBA becomes less of a drop-in solution. The teacher has to be versed and creative and intrepid. If you want to experiment with “off-label” applications, contact us and we’ll work something out. Many of these concepts can be taught to very young kids, but we haven’t done a lot of it and don’t want to sell anyone a pig in a poke.
Is there a book?
Yes! We have a hard cover companion guide available on Amazon. But the book is not required to teach the course. Everything in the book is included in the software. MSMBA Companion Guide
What about returns?
Full money back, for any reason, up to twelve months after purchase. No fuss, no muss. It’s simple; if you’re not thrilled, we send back your money. (So far, it has never happened. Ever! But you could be the first. Don’t be shy! We believe that we learn as much from failure as success.)