School and Community Fall 2023

much to produce and who gets what is produced within the constraints of scarcity. The economic way of thinking provides the tools necessary to understand economics, approach scarcity and evaluate modern issues and policy. Economic education is citizenship education. One of the primary goals of all schools in the United States is to ensure students graduate with the tools necessary to be productive members of our democracy. Economic education is central to the development of the informed citizen because it provides learners with tools of analysis, using the world around them as their laboratory. The economic way of thinking, also known as cost/benefit analysis, is crucially important as it is a fundamental decision-making process. The ability to evaluate the benefits of an alternative is crucial to realizing that the cost of one decision will prompt the loss of benefits of the next best alternative. This idea is especially relevant when considering political options during national campaigns, voting for ballot issues during local elections and the great or small decisions studied in history classes. Economics approaches these issues not from a political party stance, but from the merits of the perceived benefits of policy options via an objective, normative and artful approach. In essence, the objective is the hard data. The normative is what society has decided it wants, and the art is to figure out the policy best suited to align the objective data with the normative goal. Making the “economic way of thinking” a habit of mind is crucial to objectively evaluating the “best” policies. Gaining a basic understanding of the economic society in which students live equips them with a strong position for analysis of numerous issues and debates. Should a sales tax be levied? What are the impacts of said tax? Will it actually raise money for the government, discourage a particular behavior or perhaps generate some unintended outcome? Citizens who vote on local tax issues should be equipped to consider the type of tax, the elasticity of the item being taxed and thus the likely success of the objective of the tax at fulfilling a policy goal. It is amazing how many issues in political campaigns find economics at their base - to raise or lower interest rates, lower the unemployment rate, etc. Students who have an economic education can consider the presented policy alternatives with an analytical framework and a basic knowledge of how

a policy impacts numerous other social/political areas. A number of years ago, a particularly hard-working and intellectually curious student came to me at the end of the school year to let me know that he did not get what he was expecting out of the economics course. He said that he expected to leave class “knowing exactly how the economy works.” Instead, he indicated that we don’t perfectly know how the economy works and that we, as humans, are doing our best to reach an acceptable outcome - issues in the world are more gray than black and white. In my mind, that is one of the best reflections on learning I have ever had a student deliver. The framework of economic thinking allows us to consider alternatives from perceived benefits and follow a course of action that we think is best, knowing that we are giving up benefits from another possible path that was forgone. In a world of sensational headlines and ironclad political positions, economic education allows students to understand that there are benefits to multiple courses of action and that no single policy is the definitive path to success or disaster. As we continue the school year, I encourage all teachers to incorporate economic education into their lessons. Quality instructional resources are abundantly available. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis includes online curriculum for elementary, middle school, high school and college learners through their free Econ Lowdown platform, among other lessons on their website. The Foundation for Teaching Economics produces numerous lesson simulations which do an excellent job of teaching how the economic world works in an easy to implement and impactful manner. Additionally, Marginal Revolution University provides numerous economic lessons and videos to build an understanding of these topics. Check these sources out and start integrating economics into your lessons - you will find the lessons fun and our students need them as fellow citizens in our democracy! Rodney Gerdes is a social studies teacher and department chair at Oakville High School in the Mehlville School District as well as a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’ Educator Advisory Board. He is a three-time Oakville High School Teacher of the Year, 2022-2023 Mehlville School District Teacher of the Year, and 2023-2024 St. Louis Regional Teacher of the Year.

S&C FALL 2023 | 39