Creating Entrepreneurs at Ishpeming High School

Kim Carr, Ishpeming High School business and technology teacher, teaches classes that I wish would have been available to me when I was in high school. Her students use the tools they have learned in her classes to run a small business, Hematites 'R Us, at the school. The store carries a plethora of Hematite (the school's mascot) items such as t-shirts and blankets. The entire responsibility for the store lies with the students. From ordering inventory to scheduling other students to work at the store as well as all of the business operations like paying bills and making deposits.

Carr's classes teach the students the various skills needed - computer basics, computer information systems, accounting, and designing web pages. What a great idea and concept! Here is a teacher that knows how to teach the subject matter to students in a way that makes it interesting to the point where they want to learn and can excel.

Even in college I never had a class that allowed me to directly apply what I was learning in a 'real world' scenario. My experience with learning was a stagnant, time tested (in other words - we've always done it this way), ordeal that usually left me bored and wondering if I had chosen the correct career path (accounting).

Like I said, Kim Carr should be commended for making the subject matter relevant and interesting for her students. My only complaint is that when I tried to access their school store from the Ishpeming Schools website I received an error message. I wanted to check out their t-shirts.

Let me know if anyone has a way to get to their store website.

Pasties, the U.P. Treat

Most of us that reside in or used to reside in Michigan are familiar with the pasty. It is a staple of Michigan's Upper Peninsula popularized by Finnish miners working in the copper mines. When traveling the U.P. (or Yoop, as some refer to it) you can't pass through the tiniest of towns without seeing a sign offering up fresh homemade pasties. Until recently, there has never really been another food product to tag along with the pasty phenomenon. Wheat Carlson, from Munising, is working on changing that. He and his business partners have developed some pasty products that include – the Fudgie Pastie, a pillow shaped like a pasty, and “Toivo and Eino's Finnish Really Secret Pasty Sauce."

I have had pasties topped with gravy, sour cream, and once with nothing at all. Some folks prefer ketchup on their pasty, I haven't tried that one. I am looking forward to trying the pasty sauce. The sauce is thicker than ketchup and a bit spicy, but not hot. It is said to taste great on other foods such as french fries and hamburgers in addition to pasties.

You can order the pasty sauce online as well as t-shirts and other pasty-themed products at PastyPower.com.

Save our State Parks

Should we sell off our state parks that do not generate enough revenue to pay for themselves? Should our state continue to pursue short term fixes for long term problems? Our state parks generate an estimated $400 million annually for Michigan's economy. They are great places of recreation and relaxation. They are 97 reasons to get out and go someplace new.

When you sell a state owned parcel of land it is gone forever. It will melt into the homogenized, plasticized, and modernized “strip mall plague” of America. Or it will become some housing development with a stupid name like “Pine Tree Meadows” aka what this place looked like before we bulldozed it and threw a bunch of identical houses on it.

Another idea to help save our state parks is to scrap the park entrance fees ($6 per day) in favor of tacking on a few bucks to license plate fees. This would shift the burden to all Michigan residents and businesses and would generate much more than the daily entrance fees. I know that I would much rather pay a few extra bucks a year for my license plate fees and not have to see former state parks full of fast food restaurants and condos.

What do you think?

Exclusive Audio of Detroit City Council Meeting

Hey everyone! I just wanted to share with you some exclusive audio from the recent Detroit City Council meeting where they continue to argue about their decision to not try and keep the Detroit Zoo open. They are working on trying some last ditch efforts to save the zoo and I really do hope that they are able to keep it open. I just don't care for all of the political grandstanding and time wasting that is currently being exposed. It seems to me that if this really was important to the council they would have made something work last week no matter how long it took.

Anyway, without further ado, here is the audio from the recent meeting.

Detroit City Council wasting time arguing