Real-Life Decision Making
You're a horticultural therapist working with a group of high school students. These students live in the middle of a large city. Many of them have never gone for a hike, planted a seed or experienced nature.
Because many of them have social issues to deal with, such as poverty and youth crime, you're looking for a gardening experience that will help improve their minds and spirits and rejuvenate their self-esteem. At the same time, you hope to teach them about the natural world.
With your help, they start a herb garden at the school. These plants are easy to grow and will be useful to the students to take home or to sell on the side to earn a bit of spending money. As the plants grow, the students become increasingly enthusiastic.
They work hard, and begin to sell the fruits of their labor. They're excited to see the plant growth and are excited by the revenue they're generating. You're also pleased with their progress.
Then, a couple of the students get much bigger plans. They want to use the herbs to make salad dressings to market to a wider audience. They think they will have a chance to earn large dollars this way. They ask your permission.
You have some misgivings about the idea. Will it be too much to take on? Would a failure at this venture bring down the student morale? Would it remove them too much from the healing process of gardening that you started?
What do you do?