Economics: More Important Than Ever
It is difficult to turn on your television or your computer these days without reading about America’s economy. Today the Dow Jones Industrial Average saw its biggest percentage drop in over two decades. That alone would be a huge news story, if it had not come two days after the Dow’s biggest point gain ever and just a week after the biggest point loss ever. Lest one think the credit crisis is limited to those in Wall Street and those invested in it, the effects have trickled down to our street, where lending to consumers has mostly dried up, and many banks have either merged or gone out of business. My own bank sold itself just hours before it was to be seized by the FDIC after essentially running out of money and was unable to obtain loans for more. We taxpayers just agreed to spend $700 billion–a fourth of our national budget–in an attempt to rescue the banking and lending industries.
Times like these are why I believe a strong background in economics is so important for every American citizen. This is why I love teaching economics. Helping students understand what events like this mean–for themselves, their families, their communities, their country, and their planet–is what motivates me as an economics teacher. If part of education is preparing students to live in the world outside school and be effective citizens, economic education is an important part of that preparation. Today’s events prove just that.
I love connecting economics theories and ideas with current events, to let me students know how the information they are learning in my classroom pertains to life outside its walls. When economics makes the news, as it sometimes does, students often ask about the meanings of all these stores, and rather than just tell them, I like to think I give them the tools to figure it out on their own. Economics isn’t in the headlines often, so I will take advantage of it when it is.