A class by itself - Hunt School 5th and 6th Grade Class Inc

Nation's Business, Nov, 1985

A Class By Itself

Free enterprise and patriotism "started getting pretty popular some years ago,' declares Tracy Gilbreth, a teacher at Hunt School in the rural community of Hunt, Tex.

As part of the national return to fundamental capitalistic interests, Gilbreth's students in 1973 established an enterprise that echoed Junior Achievement, the organization of student-run companies that make and sell products throughout the country under the guidance of volunteers from the adult business world.

There were important differences, though, between JA and what was done at the Hunt School.

A Junior Achievement company is composed of high school students, and it exists only for a school year. Gilbreth's youngsters were elementary school students, and their company is a continuing business venture.

Hunt School 5th & 6th Grade Class, Inc., today chalks up annual sales of $15,000 to $25,000 from a variety of ventures.

They range from bake sales to barbecues, from raffles to the manufacture of a bona fide product advertised in the Neiman-Marcus catalog.

Gilbreth says that through the corporation, his students, ages 10 to 12, are the youngest members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "The reason we belong,' he says, "is that if you're going to be in business, you have to be professional-minded.'

The corporation, registered legally, is run by charter, and each year's class members determine whether they want to approve, by a two-thirds vote, any changes in the charter. Each class member then signs the charter.

Leadership is provided by sixth graders. To be a corporate officer, one must maintain straight As. Use of profanity is cause for impeachment.

Every member of Hunt School 5th & 6th Grade Class, Inc., has a job to do, and responsibilities are not taken lightly. Tasks may include raking leaves, organizing a bake sale or negotiating a bank loan.

"These kids know more bankers by their first names than I ever did,' says Gilbreth. "They'll look anyone in the face and shake his hand.'

A loan became necessary when the 1984-85 version of the corporation decided to buy a $13,500 pickup truck and raffle it off. Corporate officers negotiated the loan, and rank and file members sold $16,000 in raffle tickets.

The company's most notable product to date--the one that has been in the Neiman-Marcus catalog--is the Texas Hill Country Weather Stone, a novelty item that is no more than an old rock suspended on a barbed-wire stand. The Weather Stone comes with instructions that read in part:

"Place stone outside of any shelter in exposed area. Allow stone 30 minutes to become acclimated. By observing the stone, the following conclusions about the weather can be assumed: If the stone is wet--rain; if the stone is dry-- not raining; if the stone coughs--air pollution; if the stone jumps up and down--earthquake. . . .'

Weather Stones are sold in 37 states and 17 foreign coundtries. Complimentary stones are owned by Dallas Cowboys football coach Tom Landry, Walter Cronkite, Norman Vincent Peale and Ronald Reagan.

The corporation has its own post office box, its own telephone and its own charge accounts. It also controls the distribution of profits. Over the years the students have purchased numerous items for the school, including a sound system for the auditorium and AM/FM radios, televisions and telephones for each classroom.

So proficient have students become at running a business that, during the 1984-85 school year, representatives of Hunt School 5th & 6th Grade Class, Inc., presented speeches promoting the free enterprise system to students at Texas Tech, Texas A&M, the University of Texas, and other colleges and universities.

Individual rewards are reaped during the second year of participation. Each year, the sixth grade benefits from an all-expenses-paid trip, funded by corporate profits.

Students make all the travel arrangements. Sixth grade classes have been to Los Angeles and to Cuernavaca, Mexico. One year the class flew to Washington to attend a meeting of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and meet its president, Richard L. Lesher. The next year sixth graders visited Norfolk, Va., for eight days.

"They have found,' says Gilbreth, "that hard work and being polite and dependable can take them to the Norfolk Hilton, where they can eat steaks for a week.'

Photo: A Hunt, Tex., banker talks to members of the Hunt School 5th & 6th Grade Class, a company that has been operated by successive classes for a dozen years. The company's varied ventures bring in as much as $25,000 annually.