Teaching Economics
There have been many discussions recently which center on fundamental mistakes that media pundits, politicians and just the general public make when dealing with economics. Some of these are probably due to ignorance and some are definitely due to the desire to push an ideological point of view. The most troublesome are where positions are taken on policies when the evidence itself is in dispute.
We can't do much to change the thinking of true believers, but we should be able to educate the uniformed. At a minimum this would enable them to recognize those cases where the evidence is shaky and then apply the appropriate degree of skepticism.
It seems that college level courses have a high degree of agreement as to what are the fundamental ideas that should be covered in introductory material. I don't think the same is true for K-12. Most people don't go on to college so if they are to get any understanding of economics it will have to take place in grade school.
Many schools are now teaching practical money management, that is, balancing a check book and creating a budget, but this seems inadequate given how complex financial deals have become. People who have gotten into trouble with mortgages and credit card debt admit that they didn't understand what they were doing.
Politicians depend on the fact that there is a great deal of ignorance around and use this to promote dubious policy ideas without fear of being challenged. People end up supporting policies that are against their own self interest as a result.
My question is what should be taught to younger students and at what point in their education?
The consequences of economic policies can be profound and those who are most affected don't seem to know enough to participate in the discussion. Look at the recent list:
Trade agreements such as NAFTA and CAFTA
Expanding EU and other regional economic groups
Estate tax reform and/or changes to marginal income tax rates
Flat tax and/or VAT taxes
Carbon taxes or caps or consumption (gasoline) taxes
Agricultural and export subsidies
Central bank policies
Financing national health and retirement programs
Cost-benefits of early childhood education
Relationship of crime to economic status
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Comments :
You're putting the cart before the horse
all those topics you mention will have little clarity or meaning without first learning basic principles and learning how to conceptualize these principles in everyday life....not to mention basic policies issues.
These concepts should start to be taught in high school and in a way that students find it relevant and engaging.
Sadly, economics is not taught that way.
relevance
I asked:
"My question is what should be taught to younger students and at what point in their education?"
The list of topics was solely to illustrate that economics has a place in current society.
I haven't gotten any suggestions on other site as of yet either. I'm hoping for some real ideas like: teach balancing a checkbook in sixth grade, or explain compound interest in eight grade, or whatever.
--- Policies not Politics
The mock stock market stuff might work too
for example if the teacher acts as "broker" and takes a set fee plus a percentage, students have to figure out for themselves how often, when, and what to buy/sell.
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
Ya see, this shows something very telling
when I think of "economics" as a school subject, I think of a branch of the social sciences or a humanity.
Economics in this realm is a combination of theory, principles, laws and concepts. It's an introduction into field that every economist tasted before going on to a PhD....just like a future pharmacist took some principles core course in Chemistry and a doctor in, say, Biology or Anatomy.
An intro into economics at the high school level should cover the basics starting with what exactly economics is at its essence.....the study of how we deal with scarcity and scarce resources that have alternative uses. It's a study of human action and behavior and laws and relationships that result in the use of these scarce resources and the trade offs we make every day as people and a society with these resources...in terms of supply, demand, the role prices and (why they rise and fall) marginalism and how markets function. It shows people why we do what do in an economic world whose potential is limited and controlled by scarcity and trade offs.
Such a core study teaches people how to properly conceptualize the economic processes around us and how to avoid fallacious thinking...not to mention fallacious notions of what economics actually is and how it's relevant.
The macro and micro things you mention are relevant issues within economics...but they are a bit obscure without first learning proper foundations....and that means an intro to economic thought and its history from Adam Smith and David Ricardo to Marx and onto Alfred Marshall and Carl Menger. And then into the 20th century with Mises, Keynes, Hayek and Samuelson and Schumpeter....all the way into the present with all the concepts, laws, principles, struggles and the challenges, the break throughs and the progress and the disputes and agreements and so on.
Imagine learning about advanced astronomy without learning the basics of Newton and Einstein's general theory of relativity! Not gonna be easy since these basics are so involved in all the highly complex and ground breaking work astronomers are studying.
Of course, economics is much more close to home in our daily life and serves a good framework for understanding what's going on. Again, imagine trying to understand basic geology wit learning about the fact the the earth is round and that we have an atmosphere and a sun and on and on and on. Basics matter.
Things like balancing a check book and whatnot are well covered in basic personal finance and money management...but are not really the stuff of "economics" per se.