How should I teach my student economics?

Miscellaneous General
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I tutored a student in Accounting and Maths for their final year of high school (I’ve done a fair bit of tutoring as well as this), and now this student would like me to tutor them in Economics (especially in preparation for second year university). I didn’t study economics in my second year, so I don’t know the content of the curriculum all that well. I do know that it’s heavy on calculus, graphs, government intervention, ‘market failure’ etc.

I would prefer to teach what I’ve learned about AE, rather than try to learn the standard university economics curriculum as I teach her (I’ve taught myself material as I’m supposed to be teaching it - very hard work!). Any tips for teaching someone? My plan was to assign readings, then ask questions/debate points after the readings. Perhaps I’d also assign short essays or something like that. What I’d teach her probably wouldn’t help her with the course material directly, but it would certainly add perspective and provide a solid critique of a few basic ideas of the mainstream economics education at the university.

The books I have to work with are: HA, econ in one lesson, econ principles (Pastiano), econ for real people (Callahan), meltdown, theory of money and credit (mises), rothbard’s Great Depression and that little book of essays on the austrian theory of the trade cycle. I also have access to all of the works of Hayek and Mises at the university library (and Menger’s principles).

This isn’t my first time teaching - but it would be my first time teaching economics. Any ideas/advice from anyone that’s taught economics before?

Thanks in advance.

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I think you have to keep in mind that your job here is to do what she/her parents want you to do, and that is to help her jump through all the hoops of the post-secondary education system, and not to actually educate her.

That being said, I fully suggest you try to teach her AE but that you make your clear your purpose and also the implications of accepting the philosophical and ethical teachings of AE: that all government is less efficient than the voluntary society, and that government is wholly immoral in the first place; that you’re interested in teaching her the truth about ethics and economics, even though the truth, or rather applying it to the questions posed in her classes, is something that will guarantee her to fail any economics class (except micro.. maybe)

Point out that knowing the truth and inherent fallacy of most mainstream economic theories will be very beneficial to her ability to navigate this fake world; that as soon as one begins to see how the theories are all based on lies: only accepted on the basis of how fashionable they are, that one begins to learn how to work the system for their advantage - to not waste their time trying to learn the logic or reality-bound grounding of any of the material they’re presented with, and to just play along.

Explain that as conspiratorial as it may sound, the economics profession is really all about furthering the agenda of government. The state controls the funding and the grant money, and so rewards “friendly” works and intellectuals. After all, what kind of incentive does a bureaucracy have to funnel money toward an intellectual or organization that calls for the abolition of the bureaucrat’s title and salary? What you want to teach her is all of the things buried under the rug by the state education system, and to show her that the concepts that most “conservative” groups use in their rhetoric, are really only paid lip service too and almost totally misunderstood by their mainstream, conservative advocates.

Explain that what you can offer is the truth and the economic understanding that will actually help her succeed in business, or at least to understand the true nature of the government and regulators she has to deal with on a daily basis.

Basically, I don’t think you should try to slip AE in silently, I think you should give her the choice and announce your intentions, but really present your case well. You may want to be a little more moderate in some ways depending on her personality and how much she trusts you. Specifically the part about how government should be totally abolished - you may want to tone that down to “government is often the very opposite of what we need in X situation, and that although the texts may be a bit radical, understand that this is the TRUE “loyal opposition” to the statist position” I suppose I’m just concerned that she’ll discover that message eventually, and she may feel a bit duped, liked you’ve tried to trick her into being an anarchist or something :smiley:

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Good and simple economics, like Bastiat. Broken window fallacy and candle-makers petition are better than 95% of the “mainstream”.

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basically :

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Stossel in the Classroom

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I disagree with most of the comments posted here. If she is willing to pay you to tutor her in economics, she’s presumably willing to do so based on the expectation that you’ll help her pass the class, not help her fail the class. If you agree to do so, you would be expected to provide the service she expects. Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t explain the meaning behind what you’re doing. You should make sure she can do the calculations and give the answers required in class. While doing so, you can explain a lot about liberty. This is one skill Austrians might need to work on, although I expect most professors are quite adept at it - teaching good economic sense without forcing a student into conflict. I teach my calculus students how to find marginal revenue, marginal cost, and all the rest - and we talk about what these concepts mean and don’t mean for real economics. That way, they get the message, but also leave the class knowing what they are expected to know in the next class.

Similarly, I hate the current math curriculum. That doesn’t give me license to send students out of my class unprepared for further classes in math.