Teaching Entrepreneurship Through The Classics

In 1987, Dow Jones Irwin published a book entitled The Class Touch by Clemens & Mayer. (1) That book was an interesting examination of the lesson sin management that can be learned through the study of classical literature and the writings of the great thinkers and philosophers throughout history. That book got this author, who has long used the classics as a vehicle for teaching business and managerial ethics, to begin thinking and experimenting, in the classroom, with ways in which the classics can be used to teach important principles of entrepreneurship. This article is a report on the results of that experimentation over the past half decade. But first it is important to understand why it is so important to consider such novel approaches to the teaching of entrepreneurship.