In the news
By Bill Meyers
USA Today
TODAY'S ENTREPRENEURS: PROFILES OF SMALL BUSINESSES
Nobody knows how she came up with the revolutionary ideas that could change the way children are educated in the USA.
"They just popped into my head," says Donna Blevins, the 60-year-old
former-teacher-turned-entrepreneur. "And I really wanted to do
something positive."
"God speaks to the heart of certain people, gives them a vision and
they follow," adds Jack Gilbert, Blevins' business partner. "He saw
that Donna's heart was heavy with passion and she just followed."
Blevins' journey from the classrooms of impoverished Appalachia to
the boardrooms of high-powered venture capitalists is hardly complete.
But Be Smart Kids, her fledgling Tennessee-based company, has
already helped 1,500 youngsters advance their reading, writing and
computing skills by combining high-tech software and high-touch
stroking. The Be Smart Kids approach to pre-kindergarten and elementary
school education revolves around weekly half-hour computer sessions at
the company's learning centers. Each one-on-one tutorial costs about
$20 and is a fast-paced multimedia frolic.
"I was floored by this," says Robert McElrath, an investor in Be
Smart Kids and Tennessee's former commissioner of education. "Donna has
shown how fast children can learn. It's the most exciting thing in a
long time."
The mother of three daughters, Blevins hadn't taught in 25 years and
couldn't use a PC when she decided to put a new curriculum on the
computer in 1991.
She borrowed a dusty old PC from a vocational school in her hometown of Greeneville, a hamlet of 17,000 in northeast Tennessee.
Blevins taught herself the technology and reviewed more than 1,000
pieces of educational software. She chose 70 of the best and organized
them into lesson plans for teachers.
An 18-month-old toddler, for example, pushes the letter "R" on the
keyboard. A bunch of balloons on the computer screen blows up and turns
red while music plays. Then the balloons burst and the teacher
reinforces the alphabet, phonics and counting lesson.
A 2-year-old points and clicks with a mouse that meows like a
kitten. Then it's time to trace numbers on the screen with the teacher
while a musical bear dances.
And a 4-year-old plays Sea School, manipulating a digital fishing
rod to pick up letters and words with the teacher's encouragement.
"Children sense when we're having fun," Blevins says. "And if we're
having fun, they have fun. Our teachers are cheerleaders, but they're
always in control."
Be Smart Kids wasn't an immediate success in Greeneville. Blevins'
cutting-edge curriculum was unproven, and some parents weren't
interested in having their children participate in an educational
experiment.
While she waited for positive word-of-mouth to build, Blevins went
door-to-door and began recruiting students at day-care centers.
Today, after hundreds of thousands of interactive lessons with
balloons and bears, test scores for Be Smart Kids' kids are soaring.
Blevins recently administered the standardized TerraNova test to 20
of her students. The 4- and 5-year-olds performed at a second-grade
level. And the 6-year-olds achieved like fourth-graders.
Joy Parker, who has sent her 6-year-old daughter, Taylor, to Blevins
for the past 3 1/2 years, marvels at her offspring's ability to do
complicated addition and subtraction problems.
"Be Smart Kids has made things come so naturally for Taylor," Parker
says. "She makes me buy math books so she can show me what she has
learned."
The big challenge facing Blevins and Gilbert is expanding their educational business and making kids smart all over the country.
Gilbert, a 57-year-old engineer who has launched several high-tech start-ups, knows it won't be easy.
"One of the biggest hurdles is that people continue to ask us, 'Who are you?' " he says.
Be Smart Kids needs cash as well as credibility.
The company generated only about $100,000 in revenue last year,
although it has raised $350,000 from a group of high-net-worth
individuals.
The goal is to raise $2 million for a roll-out of Be Smart Kids learning centers beyond Tennessee.
There seems to be demand -- and even some desperation -- for a product such as Blevins'.
Parents, educators and state officials across the USA agree that
preschool education needs to be dramatically improved because crucial
learning patterns are established during the early years.
As a result, legislatures in many states are debating how to enrich their preschool programs.
Gilbert hopes Be Smart Kids can sign contracts with several of these
states and bring Blevins' curriculum to more children. The entrepreneur
is also targeting large day-care chains and corporations that offer
employees educational assistance.
But, as McElrath says: "It will take a lot of convincing. We've had
so many so-called educational fixes in the past that didn't last and
had no chance to work."
Still, the Be Smart Kids team is determined to go to the head of the class.
Says Otto Wheeley, the company's east Tennessee-based venture
capitalist: "If we can make money and do something worthwhile for
society at the same time, I'd love that."
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