Teaching about Economic Growth

I would like to share alittle about how Japan attained it's economic growth. In 1953 Li Nausuke, a Japanese official was quoted saying:
"There is a saying that when one is besieged in a castle, to raise the drawbridge is to imprison oneself... Even though the Shogun's ancestors set up seclusion laws, they left the Dutch and the Chinese to act as a bridge...might this bridge be of any advantage to us,.."
When Japan opened it's doors to foreign influence, it transformed itself into a modern industrial power.

Xeni Jardin, coeditor of the blog BoingBoing and a contributor to Wired magazine and NPR, wrote a thought provoking editorial in Sunday's LATimes (10/9/05). She raises the question of whether tech vendors, such as Yahoo, Microsoft and Nortel, have a moral obligation to protect the secrecy of bloggers in repressive regimes, such as China. To elaborate, she tells of a Chinese reporter who used an anonymous Yahoo e-mail account to ask a colleague in New York to post a report about the Chinese Communist government's warning that dissidents may try to use the internet to spread damaging information about an upcoming Tianamen Square massacre commemoration. Yahoo did not defend his secrecy and handed over his name to Chinese security agents. The man was arrested and he is serving a 10-year jail sentence. She points out that these major companies are letting the enormous potential profit in China to trump moral principles. The arrested man was "practicing his profession, not committing a crime. The legal entity of Yahoo Holdings is not in China, so it is not obligated to operate within the laws of China or cooperate with Chinese police." she concludes by writing, "Real journalists don't help imprison a man for reporting the truth -- even if that would ensure profits."

I teach history at the middle school level, and I have to say that economics is possibly even more neglected in the curriculum than geography. Students seem to have no idea what "economics" is all about, have never heard of even the most basic concepts or laws.

Every main history standard for 7th grade includes economic factors (the infamous gpers-geograpic, economic, religious and social structure), yet it seems as if there is no material to introduce and reinforce basic economic concepts to students. It certainly is not covered in elementary school.

How can we shortchange such a vital area of instruction? I personally never had economics until college, and by that time I had a strong aversion to the topic (rooted in ignorance and perhaps a little fear). Once I took an introductory course I found I was highly interested. I can't help but feel this is another place the curriculum for public education is coming up short in modern times.

Do we really believe anyone can be even minimally educated without a rudimentary foundation of economics? If economics is recognized as being key to all history teaching, why isn't time blocked out in the curriculum maps and pacing plans for basic instruction?

I know good teachers throughout the state and country do their best to remedy this problem in their own classrooms, but it would be nice if we could see it more clearly reflected in the standards, textbooks and instructional plans.

This is my first year teaching history, and I have pulled together some lessons to try and help my students get at least the fundamentals. At the beginning of the year they write a paper based on an interview with a relative in which they gather information for each of the GPERS areas, including economics. I also taught them about the law of supply and demand, profit and loss, regional commerce, labor specialization, development of new technologies,feudalism of course, capitalism, mercantilism and several other key ideas. I need to do more and hope that next year I can improve on what I've started.

Any ideas out there?

For an economics class or life skills class you could teach students about Asian Companies and their role in business with the United States. You could talk about tariffs, trade agreements, and how students can do business with Asia for importing commodities for sale in the US. I recently had some good shipped into the states and learned real quickly that you need a broker to negotiate customs, but there are products available in the East for very cheap and that can be made in mass quantities.

I agree with you rboller. I never learned about economics in school unless you count home ec which doesn't prepare you for the intricasies of world econ. I think it would be very valuable if the standards did better prepare our students for more in depth discussion of how economics has changed the course of history. One example that comes to mind would be the Silk Road. It helps students to understand the importance of trade and of supply and demand. Chinese silk was desired throughout the ancient world. No on else knew how to make it so they had a huge economic advantage and could charge what ever price they wanted.

In general, not just for Asia, the students don't understand the concept of Economics. I was teaching my Eighth Graders about the progressive era and the Grangers, and the book was telling them how the farmers wanted money to be worth less (inflation) so they could borrow money and then when they paid it back, they would be paying back less than before. It was a tough concept for the kids to understand. I think that when economics is being discussed, and inflation and the idea of supply and demand, it is best to use metaphors that the students can understand from their own everyday life. For instance, I took that opportunity to describe inflation using examples of what they might buy today. Then I moved on to supply and demand and did the same thing. When you explain the concept by telling them about the XBox 360, you would be surprised at how many students actually seem enthralled instead of bored. They even ask questions and try to understand the concept, because they see how it effects them. So I think it's best to lecture them a little, and then have them discuss the information. When I taught this it was the first time, and it was a whole class discussion. However, when I get to teach it again, I will have a complete lesson developed in which they listen to my lecture with notes and then have discussions in small groups. They could then make up a story whatever the economics topic you are talking about. I like stories because they produce a gradeable product and also get students to use their imagination - thinking of what it was like to be around at the time.

I agree with many teachers who believe that economics is under emphasized in our curriculum. For example, similar to Algebra word problems, social studies text should include more activities and exercises based on economic/mathematical concepts. I have seen some simulations work in classrooms such as the classic 'Oregon Trail' to use math through interdisciplinary learning. The newer PC games such as 'Civilization' offers great simulations to demonstrate to students both budgets and bureaucratic planning using numbers. I sometimes wish such game companies would put free sample shareware with the textbooks to demonstrate classic human events. If SimCities could be made into SimSchools, not only would students learn the better use of economics, maybe our administrators could learn it to gain better experiences on economics.

With so many economic-related organizations in the world, can't they help develop better curriculum. I have seen many of the U.N.-based children's workbooks and charity-based organizations do a great job in relating the value of "money/time/capital" to the children's realities... In addition, shouldn't organizations stop focusing on the profit motive of Western capitalism and money-based economics with our youth, and begin to introduce socially sustainable economies of the crowded future??? One of the only reasons I might support the school voucher idea is that some schools and families need that slap of 'economic reality' in regards to their children's education. I don't like the idea of public funds going to private academies, but the idea that student's future personal economy depends on their early education... and if they have an educated choice to help schools shape up????

INTERNATIONAL / ASIA PACIFIC | July 28, 2006
Chinese Workers Protest at Factory Making Toys for McDonald’s
By JIM YARDLEY
Rights groups accused the factory of violating Chinese labor laws, including provisions limiting overtime to 36 hours a month.

The article comments on Chinese workers in Dongguan who protested working conditions at a plant that makes toys for two major corporations here in America, McDonalds and Disney. They are forced to work long hours and are not paid if they refuse.

“The rights groups accused the factory of violating Chinese labor laws, including provisions limiting overtime to 36 hours a month. Instead, the group said, total overtime per worker can reach 70 hours a month, and workers can have their pay deducted if they refuse to work the extra hours.

It always amazes me that we hear so many of these stories and yet we do nothing about it. Parents, stop taking your kids to McDonalds, buying them Disney toys and Nike shoes! We consistently comment on and criticize our large, greedy corporations and yet we allow them to get away with outsourcing and exploitation of other countries and their inhabitants so that we can save a few bucks on food and toys. Hey wait last time I saw those toys were pretty expensive. So if “Workers earn $71.75 a month, the minimum wage in Dongguan, but also pay a quarter of their earnings for room and board,” then who is getting the rest of the money? Those Disney execs in bright red Ferraris? Or all those Happy Meal peddlers in brand new Armani suits and dresses? It is obvious that the labor isn’t seeing any of it. But riots are good yes; they breed competition. There is always someone hungrier willing to do the work for next to nothing. Too bad those people seem always to be in horribly exploited places like rural China.

This is a link to an NPR Story about Chinese monetary policy. This could be used as part of a lesson about the inter-connected global economy, money supply or how currency strength effects growth. I would recommend it for high school students because of the advanced vocabulary.

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104690511