Business World Enters Classroom

Job prospects for Americans, the government says, have never been better.

Companies that downsized in the early 1990s are now rehiring workers with profits from Wall Street’s recent upswing. Recruiters are flocking to colleges across the nation.

But Helene Hirsch’s third- and fourth-graders at Erwin Street School are taking nothing for granted.

For the 10th straight year, Hirsch’s class wrapped up a yearlong program on money management and real-world problem-solving Thursday by operating Erwin King Palace, a full-service restaurant in Room 17.

Student wait staff, chefs, cashiers and hosts served nearly 100 teachers, parents and friends who sat at the room’s small desks. In the days leading up to the restaurant’s one-day run, students bought groceries at a local store and visited McDonald’s to see how a professional restaurant is run.

“They had to go through the whole process,” said Principal Marla Mondheim, between bites of a sandwich, salad and fruit. “They submit resumes, have interviews. Then once they get ‘hired,’ they have to organize everything.”

She joked that on the Zagat restaurant guide scale of 1 to 30 for food, service and decor, Erwin King would rate “at least a 27.”

Third-grader and cashier Sarkis Yapudzhian said he applied for his job because “I can do all the math in my head. I don’t even need this register.”

But as the rest of the class learned during the yearlong economic and job-hunting experience, there is more to a job than just numbers.

“She bosses me around,” Sarkis said, elbowing fourth-grader Meline Zurnachyan.

As budding restaurateurs clad in purple and white hats and shirts scurried about the room, head waiter Javier Gutierrez reflected on his dining experience. (The Erwin King staff was permitted to eat in shifts.)

“It was good,” he said with a vaguely discontented expression, “but the service was too slow.”