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Teach economic principles and practical legal advice in high school
vwilderbenson at 1/25/2008 3:13PM
Teach economic principles and practical legal advice in high school
I think high school is the place to do this -- introduce the kids to some important, simple but challenging concepts and realities about how our country and how the world works. Give students a realistic view of these things. I think if we did, that could reduce conspiracy-minded thinking. And there is an appalling amount of that out there.
Though I find the usage of the word "reality" in this post to be a bit troubling, I definitely agree with the idea of teaching economics in schools. Just like you said, some basic, unbiased knowledge about how the world and national economies work could go a long way in educating our population.
In fact, I think there should be a stronger emphasis on social sciences in general. History, politics, law, geography and other things like this have been on the backburner for too long. And we should start teaching these things early. People don't give young children enough credit for understanding difficult content. If we treat students like they're stupid, can we be surprised when they don't respond well?
Good idea Wilder
I am a Baby Boomer whose high school social studies for senior year (1964-65) was a semester of economics and a semester of government. I would have thought that this course of studies was the beginning. Too bad other schools failed to follow suit but, then, we must blame states that allowed the teaching of "constitutional history" which ends up being nothing more than the recitation of the American Revolution and not an examination of the Federalists and Anti Federalists.
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