>
> A major problem is that K-12 teachers have little incentive to take
> economics because they don't or haven't in the past seen it as something
> they'll ever have to teach. But increasingly state standards are
> including some economics, so it is being taught but not being taught well.
> We need to make sure the education of teachers catches up with the
> increase in economics in K-12. In addition to supporting economic
> education centers as outreach to current teachers, we need to be more
> active in getting university education students into economics classes.
>
> Kim Sosin, <sosin@unomaha.edu> Chair, Dept of Economics
> Economic Education Web> http://ecedweb.unomaha.edu/
> Economics Department Web> http://unicron.unomaha.edu/dept/econ/econ.htm
> Univ of NE at Omaha, Omaha, NE 68182 FAX/402-554-3747
>
>
I couldn't agree more!
Two weeks ago I edited and paritally rewrote Louisiana's District
Rally exam in economics and today I am doing the same for the State
Rally exam (our "rallys" are state academic competitions).
But the materials are just as bad as the teacher training, which
compounds the problem. A teacher with little or no background in
economics will rely on the text to the student's detriment
In doing that, I borrowed a text from a local high school. According
to that book, products are either similar or identical in both perfect
competition and monopolistic competition, but similar or differentiated in
oligopolies.
The text's definition of public goods is "Public goods
are goods and services provided for everyone by the government." The
text then goes on with the standard definition which of joint
consumption and non-excludibility. National defense and public
education are both listed as examples.
What a mess!
Morris Coats