Economics: It's elementary

Social Studies Review, Fall 2001 by Charkins, Jim

Many of you saw the article in the Spring/Summer 2000 California Social Studies Review, explaining the Nine Principles of Economics that form the basis of the economics strand of the 1998 California History/Social Science Standards. It would be an important reference in content planning. In this article, the rationale behind the K-3 standards will be described.

Before investigating the economics in the Standards, however, a few propositions merit discussion. While some who have suffered through a technical college course in economics may disagree, the most important concepts in economics are relatively simple and extremely powerful. Two concepts from which all of economics flow are scarcity and choice. People can't have everything they want, so they choose. No rocket science there! The power of these two concepts, however, is immense. If people accepted the fact that they can't have everything they want, society would have fewer loan defaults and fewer bankruptcies. If children read The Bernstain Bears Get the Gimmes or If You Give a Mouse a Muffi and learned the lesson early, their lives would be much easier from the beginning.

The second proposition is that economics can be taught in Kindergarten. As will be demonstrated in an accompanying article in this issue, there are simple and effective ways to begin teaching children fundamental economics concepts at a very early age. In fact, most of what is taught at the early ages is the message that most adults try to teach to children without calling it economics.

The third proposition is that it is not only possible to teach economics at an early age, it is essential to do so. Economic analysis is a skill. Like any skill, the earlier it is learned, and the more it is practiced, the better will be its mastery. We don't start teaching children mathematics or language arts skills in the 12th grade, nor should we do so with economic reasoning. Some economists claim that economics is not as important as math and language arts. They are wrong. It is more important, since it provides the rationale for acquiring all the other skills.

These concepts are basic to student success in school and in life. For example, in terms of applying cost/ benefit analysis, kindergartners must understand that they can't have everything. They must choose and they are responsible for both the benefits and cost of their choices. In the first grade, they should begin to understand that there are alternative ways of allocating goods and services. Traditionally, many students do not learn about this concept until much later in their educational experience. By grade two they can begin to use a very basic decision-making model. In grade three, they begin to use the concepts of allocation, alternatives, advantages and disadvantages, opportunity cost, and choice.

Finally, economics is an important and essential part of social studies. If economics is understood, not as the study of money, but as the study of choice, then it is impossible to comprehend how social studies could be taught without economics. When children learn about the maritime explorers of the 15`" and 161, centuries, they learn that Columbus sailed west to reach India. Without understanding why he wanted to reach India, the story loses much of its richness. To understand that pepper and nutmeg were actually worth more than gold, and that the Spanish and Portuguese were in a race to find a less costly water route to the spice sources in order to break the Venetian monopoly adds an exciting dimension to the story. Similarly, to understand the Westward movement, it is helpful to know that most of the trails taken by the pioneers were discovered and recorded by fur trappers. Jedediah Smith, the first American to enter California, was a fur trapper, looking for the elusive river that, so it was thought, would cross the continent, and make the trip to China and its rich trade goods far easier. Both the spice trade and the fur trade exemplify the unity of the social sciences.

Without some understanding of the economics, geography, government, sociology, anthropology, and history, it is impossible to appreciate the full story. To understand the hardships endured by Magellan and his sailors, students have to see the vast distance he sailed without touching land. To understand the life of the fur trappers, students must understand the geography of Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, and California. The question is why people would endure such hardships? Without that question and an understanding of the difficulties endured, history does become a series of dates and events, with little excitement or relevance. With them, the investigation of the human experience becomes an exciting adventure, full of all of the events and intrigues that so excite young moviegoers and TV watchers today.

Now to the Standards. These include both the Historical and Social Science Analysis Skills to be applied in kindergarten through grade 5 and the specific content standards in grades K-3. They are: