We are members of a home-school cooperative at our Church where many home-schooling parents provide subject matter expertise to the whole in a particular subject. I have been asked to provide a class on economics. Although I have been a management consultant for over 30 years (a graduate of Auburn University where the Mises Institute resides), I need help.
During the past six months, I have been an avid reader of the current debate currently on-going between Austrian versus Keynesian. How do you think I can best present a functional comparison between the two that high schoolers would understand? What is the moral difference between the two that would resonate with them? How best to wade into this difficult subject? Are materials available? Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Essentially, so much you could go into in terms of economics. How many lessons you have, just one? How much time? etc. I don’t know the age of the home-schoolers, but the above is a Comic Book - yet has a seriously profound underlying. Fun, entertaining & even there is a lot for adults to learn and take away from it aswell. Basically addresses individualism, non aggression, division of labor and property rights - basis of civilization all within 60 odd pages of a Comic Book. Pure awesome. You can take any of those 4ish points and expand to your hearts content.
If you have a second lesson or time, this one deals with inflation & how the people are cheated. You could relate this to central banks, money supply, who owns the printing presses and the current economic crisis. Lot of extensive material to draw on if you want to get advanced and depending on what area you want to focus on. What has the government done to our Money?, Against the Fed, Mystery of Banking by Murray N. Rothbard.
An Introduction to Economic Reasoning by David Gordon
“As the only text of its kind, this book is engaging, funny, filled with examples, and never talks down to the student. It is perfect for homeschoolers, but every student, young or old, will benefit from it. Indeed, a student familiar with its contents will be fully prepared to see through the fallacies of the introductory economics texts used at the college level.”
How many lessons you have, just one? How much time? etc.
This is suppose to be a full three month course. Bi-weekly sessions lasting an hour. I am trying to work out something that would be engaging and keeps their attention. They are a very bright group and enjoy challenging conventional wisdom. The students are high school juniors and seniors.
I think the comic book approach would be a good start. I want to keep the sessions interactive and conversational. I appreciate all your suggestions, I will check them out and let you know what develops.
If this is a long term course you might want to ease into the Austrian vs Keynesian debate by exposing them to good economic theory. Start with economic basics like supply and demand, comparative advantage, division of labor, etc. I think a strong understanding of basic supply and demand will go a long way. It will help once you get into the supply and demand for money (I found The Mystery of Banking a good read on this topic). I bet you could also get a few good lessons out of Economics in One Lesson (maybe get some of Bastiat’s works to further your preparation). Also, a very good introduction for ideas might be What Has Government Done to our Money. What I found lacking in my education, and I suspect most people will fall into this category, is a good understanding of money. Next time you pay cash for your goods at a grocery store, ask the clerk if they accept Federal Reserve Notes; be prepared for ``let me ask my manager.‘’ Also, use a few good object lessons. Pull out a silver dollar (silver eagles are legal tender at $1), put it next to a Federal Reserve Note dollar (also legal tender at $1). Use the T-Bone steak indicator. As for the moral aspect to economics, I’m currently reading Our Enemy the State and it does a pretty good job in discussing the difference between economic and political means of living. Also of interest might be a discussion of what moral hazard is.
There is a vast amount of information available. Let us know what you ultimately decide to use, you might even be able to come up with a resource that other home schoolers can use to introduce the topic.
25. The Lesson RestatedThis I guess should provide a strong framework. You can probably couple things together into the one lesson if they flow and everyone understands it, not wasting time going over the same thing for the hour. The chapters are relatively short, but on the main things it may be useful to use the full hour. i.e Broken Window fallacy…
Or the Concise Guide to Economics by Jim Cox gives more food for thought.
I think tackling the basics is the first order of business but I would like to make sufficient progress along the way to be able to shift the context to the various economic theories and how they differ. I like the both the concise guide and the lesson. I have thought The Introduction to Economic Reasoning very good too.
One of the options I am looking at is to put assignments up on the web using a Learning Management System and have regularly scheduled on-line session using GoToMeeting or Wikis. Something that can drive the class when I am traveling on business but yet giving me access to questions. The modular nature of the materials would help in an arrangement like that.