Hello, I’ve enjoyed being a casual reader here and I am now seeking to probe the collective expertise of this forum for some constructive teaching input.
Its summer and I’m spending hours every day re-vamping my courses. Economics is not my primary field of study but it is one that I enjoy teaching and enjoy learning more about and I'm proud of the course I've developed over the few years that I've taught it. But its time for me to review my economics course and I know you guys have your own systematic perspective, which I value.
So if you’re interested, I’m curious as to how YOU would use the time if you were in my shoes. I don’t really stick very closely to a textbook and I have a considerable amount of freedom in what I cover. So if you had about 45 class periods of 90 minutes each, what do you think are the most important things to cover with teenagers getting their very first academic taste of economics? (such as topics, readings or excerpts, experiences, questions that need to be considered and discussed, etc). Perhaps what things do you think absolutely should not be taught or addressed?
The course is a short introductory elective and there is a wide range of reading abilities and interest levels. This I can't change. The scope of the course has typically involved 3 major modules which I am open to changing: one on theory, one on private-sector personal economics (personal finance basics and introductory business basics), and a third unit on structures, systems, and institutions in the economy as it currently is. That gives me about 3 weeks per module, which feels right in terms of depth.
Also bear in mind that this is not a deeply ideological class. I'm not looking for ways to indoctrinate kids into a certain philosophy. While I do advocate for the value of markets, beyond that general assumption I try to approach it through the tackling of fundamental questions and then along the way show how different thinkers and systems have attempted to answer those questions and how it has played out historically.
So anyway, that’s what I’m looking for. I’m not sure if anyone will be interested in helping, but if you are please don’t hijack this into a debate about schools and education policy and such. The question is basically, what should an introductory high school economics class teach?
I am not sure about the last two modules of your course, but here are some ideas for what I would teach during the theory portion.
Primarily, I would focus on introducing the students to the "economic way of thinking". Here are probably the most important concepts in my opinion:
1) scarcity. Because we have limited resources, we have to make decisions regarding how to use them. This concept can be usefully illustrated using examples involving a one-person economy and drawing the production possibility frontiers.
2) decisions are made at the margin. One doesn't necc need to go into details about optimization, just give the students a flavor for thinking at the margin. The important things to emphasize, for me, are A) incentives matter and B) sunk costs are irrelevant for decision making (a harder concept to grasp than some think). These can also be illustrated with one-person economy examples.
3) comparative advantage. Here one can begin to expand beyond the one person economy and explain the gains from trading with others (even when they are better than you at everything).
4) markets/supply and demand. Once one introduces them to the concept of trading one-on-one, we can expand to the institutions that facilitate trade (markets) and the processes involved with many trading with many (supply and demand).
5) externalities. Then the last thing would to be explain how externalities can lead markets to suboptimal outcomes. I know a lot of Austrians on this board dislike the idea of externalities, but if your students do take more econ classes in the future or even have to debate economic concepts outside Austrian circles they will encounter this concept. It would be a great disservice to the students to ignore the topic all together.
And despite the suggestions of others in this thread, I would NOT spend any significant time on methods or methodology if this were my course. You cannot assume high schoolers are all equally interested in learning how to pursue economics as a science. Instead, try to equip them with the most *practical* intellectual tools that economics has provided us so they can make better decisions as adults. Methodological individualism, praxeology, the flaws of positivism--none of these things would be well used (or even gainfully understood) by your average high schooler unless they had a intense interest in the subject.
I would probably also avoid macroeconomics all together too.
Of course thats all my opinion.
Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine - Elvis Presley
I don’t really stick very closely to a textbook and I have a considerable amount of freedom in what I cover.
That is great to hear from a teacher. I wish all schools were like that.
I've said this before to a few people, so I'll tell you too. I don't teach or anything. I just try to get my friends into Austrian economics a lot. The thing that works for a lot of people is showing them video clips at first of smooth-talkers. I listened to Milton Friedman here, here, and here, and all three of those videos got me really interested in similar types of thought, which led me to economics. For the most part, I think economics is kind of boring for most people. No offense to economics; it's just a confusing topic a lot of the time. But once I got interested in Friedman's views on drug legalization and other topics, those were the tunnels that got me interested in libertarian ideas and Austrian economics.
So, in conclusion, if I can give any advice - brings kids into economics by means of various un-economic topics. It gives everything much more relevance.
In my opinion you need to make a 'big deal' out of value theory and methodological individualism, and your students need to have a deep fear of overlooking the unseen, for adopting superficial analysis.
A mix of David Gordon's intro for the value and meth ind parts, and Hazlitt/Bastiat for seen-unseen (the depth of analysis required, and awareness that insights can be counter-intuitive)
I think its important to make sure any beginner student also comes away having considered the concept of 'consumer sovereignty'.
Where there is no property there is no justice; a proposition as certain as any demonstration in Euclid
Fools! not to see that what they madly desire would be a calamity to them as no hands but their own could bring
Perhaps what things do you think absolutely should not be taught or addressed?
Twisting economics into mathematics.
Let me throw out some things, but i would be very interested in see the final product of this.
I think Economics in One Lesson would serve as a great high school textbook, I also think you could create some great games for unintended consequences. Like, think of an unintended consequence of [fill in the blank] and then show some of the great drrr moments of government policy. If you can just plant a seed of scepticism in their minds that helps them remember there are intended and unintended consequences of any action and that you can violate laws of human action by asserting your personal brand of normatives
You could start off with a prize if anyone can prove a Giffen Good or a prize for the best try...
Have a project to see if anyone can find a "free lunch"
PM me if you want some extra help
Read until you have something to write...Write until you have nothing to write...when you have nothing to write, read...read until you have something to write...Jeremiah
Pick up a copy (or download the PDF) of Robert Murphy's Lessons for the Young Economist as soon as it comes out in mid-August.
before reading the other comments, 2 things came to my mind of what I wish I were taught in high school.
1. what is seen and what is unseen. Bastiat
2. the importance ( and ease) of savings and personal thrift. compound interest, the damage of inflation ( what inflation is).
maybe you could also discuss how much each of them currently "owes" uncle sam. including unfunded liabilities, over $100,000 for each working american
Be responsible, ease suffering; spay or neuter your pets.
We must get them to understand that government solutions are the problem!
Thanks for the replies so far. I'll look into each of the items mentioned and report back on how I'm going to incorporate them. If anything else comes to mind feel free to include it here. I'll eventually put an outline of the course here for constructive criticism.
Economics in One Lesson and the Concise Guide to Economics are two free resources you can use.
Stossel, a weekly libertarian talk show, hosted by John Stossel, has covered many issues. Most of its episodes are fully available on Hulu which you can use.
Viception covered many economic issues. It covered prostitution and illegal drugs in its 3rd chapter. It covered the Marshall Plan, the Great Depression (including Austrian business cycle theory, inflation, and money), free market anarcho-capitalism, cell phone usage while driving, regulation to protect consumers, price gouging, predatory pricing, price-fixing, self-interest, energy independence, roads, price controls and drug companies, the U.S. healthcare system, job outsourcing, local recession, trade imbalance, tariffs, speculators, sweatshops and the minimum wage, child labor, building codes, worker safety, charging money to leave private property, wage slavery, college aid, resource exhaustion, air pollution, climate change, endangered species, income inequality, equal pay for equal work, civil rights, teacher-athlete wage comparison, machines cause unemployment, future jobs, poverty, past unregulated capitalism, a few rebuttals to why poverty exists, and the broken window fallacy in its 6th chapter, although more issues were covered in its 6th chapter than I listed.
Several of you have mentioned the "seen vs unseen" concept and I think that's a great rudimentary idea that I don't currently include. Does anyone know of any good essays or books or articles that might analyze this idea and give examples? Although the concent is great and very simple, the 19th century language of Bastiat would be an obastacle for many students. Anything more recent?
Is economics required to finish high school or is it an avoidable elective?
Confucius: Several of you have mentioned the "seen vs unseen" concept and I think that's a great rudimentary idea that I don't currently include. Does anyone know of any good essays or books or articles that might analyze this idea and give examples? Although the concent is great and very simple, the 19th century language of Bastiat would be an obastacle for many students. Anything more recent?
Economics in One Lesson is largely derived from Bastiat's work (including the "seen/unseen" stuff), but uses more contemporary language.
Method ---> value ---> price ---> market mechanism
I would venture into the new Keynesian, Austrian, and Marxian positions on each topic. I'd have the kids compare and contrast the various positions in order to test their understanding of the subject material. I don't think you should get too technical/specific; keep it general and elucidate the underlying differences.
"If we wish to preserve a free society, it is essential that we recognize that the desirability of a particular object is not sufficient justification for the use of coercion."
Check out the textbook 'The Economic Way of Thinking' (Heyne, Prychitko & Boettke) too. It's great.
'Economics for Real People' (Callahan) is awesome too. Together with the 'Concise Guide to Economics' and 'Economics in One Lesson', this will be an awesome program.
The state is not the enemy. The idea of the state is.