Teacher as a Business Owner

A family friend became an Edward Jones Advisor last year and I learn something new about the Edward Jones company every time we meet with him. Many aspects fascinate me and I think there are many parallels to education.

1.  Although it is a large company, each agent works as their own entity.  They work independently (classrooms) but each individual's success leads to the success of the whole company (school/district). To help ensure success they provide each new agent with mentors and advisors who help the new agent build their business. There is always someone only a phone call away who can answer questions and give advice. This is an area I think schools could learn a lot from. Often we hire who we think is the best for the job, but we don't always support them. Burn out rates for teachers in their first five years is incredibly high.

2. Edward Jones has a thorough screening process. Our friend told me about his interview process and sounds intense. A phone interview, mock client meeting and other meetings/interviews. I got the impression from talking to him that they care more about personality and how you handle situations than background knowledge.  Yes, teachers need to know their content in order to be successful, but I also believe most successful teachers can learn new content if they need to teach a new class.  Many of the best teachers I have had all had similar traits: passion for their subject, ability to build positive relationships, clear communication and they cared about their students.

3. Each Edward Jones Agent is required to have their own facility. A new agent starts working in the same building as another agent and after a year or so they transition to their own facility. What is each teacher treated their classroom like a separate entity?  What if each teacher spent as much time on parent/family/student buy in as a business owner did?  

I know there are many differences between a business and a classroom and in many ways there should be.  I also think that there are many ideas we can learn from the business world.