Is "economics" still a required course in high school?

[TexasBushwhacker]

Honestly, no one seens to understand the basics. Rick Perry thinks supply drives demand, when it's the other way around. People buy the whole "corporate tax cuts create jobs" bullshit.

I just got into a Twitter conversation with a tax cut advocate, because he says they "create jobs". I explained that the only thing that creates jobs is DEMAND for a company's products. He agreed and said COMPETITION was what created demand. Um, no.

[6000eliot]

1. Judging by how stupid the country has become,

I'm not sure anything is required learning anymore.

[Warpy]

2. The whole GOP has it exactly backwards

which is why they keep pouring money in at the top and then sit scratching their asses and wondering why it doesn't tend to flow down.'

It's a pump, guys, and works from the bottom up.

[ret5hd]

11. They're not "scratching their asses and wondering". Not a single one of them.

They know exactly what they are doing. Neither the redneck right wing auto mechanic nor the educated right wing banker believe their own shit. They can put on that slack-jawed confused look, saying "...but you don't understand! It will work if you give it a chance!!!" But I don't believe them for a second.

[Warpy]

14. They all firmly believed it starting in the 70s when Reagan started to push it

That old supply side snake oil was effectively peddled by the B actor turned corporate pitchman. Republicans couldn't get enough of the stuff, not even in the mid to late 80s, when it was clearly failing.

They keep trotting it out, though, because it's keeping the party coffers full. No, they don't believe it's ever going to reach Main Street, not any more, but they've stopped caring because their cash flow is so healthy.

Main Street prosperity theology churchgoers are the main ones who still believe it. They're going to be hard to discourage. With luck, their numbers will diminish.

[JonLP24]

25. The idea was from Hoover Republicans

Even after the great depression they kept pushing trickle down theory. All the people working for Reagan did was repackage it, rebrand it, and resold it.

[TexasBushwhacker]

19. The Twitter genius also said that without tax breaks

companies have to raise their prices. I told him if Apple gets a tax cut, new iPhones will still cost $800. Why? Because that's what people are willing to pay for them.

[JonLP24]

26. Tell him companies are already charging as much as they can get away with

Raising prices only works if their is an increase in demand. For example if somebody sold something for $4 and sold 3 but raised to $5 but only sold 2 then they made less money for a very simplified example.

[Pope George Ringo II]

3. Even in the 80s we got a semester in high school.

If I'm honest, it was really just a class to give a coach something to do in the morning.

[pangaia]

10. Ha, my 1950s chemistry teacher was the football coach.

We had a great football team...

[Warpy]

17. The football coach was a substitute teacher in high school

I had one class he taught. The first kid who mouthed off at him was dumped ass down in the trash can.

At the time, I admired his style. I wouldn't have wanted to be the kid, though.

[OriginalGeek]

27. Our football coach was my algebra teacher

I don't know dick about algebra.


I graduated in 81 but I don't remember ever having an economics course. OR even a semester. But I went all 4 years of high school to a private, christian school run by fundie baptists. If I weren't an atheist I'd think it was a miracle I can even read.

[JonLP24]

28. Our football coach was a driver's ed teacher

Good thing they had him in teaching an easy course instead of something like algebra.

[OriginalGeek]

31. lol, our driver's ed teachers

were some clowns that the school hired just for that. Father and son team that were noticeably creepy to the point that the girls didn't like it and very few took that class there after the first few years.

[exboyfil]

34. Same with me

My children are required to take an Economics course in junior high and another in high school though. My older daughter double dipped and took a community college Microeconomics course. High School credit and credit towards her engineering degree.

[MadCrow]

35. Same here

My algebra teacher was the coach too. He just taught the smartest kids in the class. If the rest of us didn't get it, too bad. I remember I only got 53 on the final. I think I barely passed the class.

[Pope George Ringo II]

18. Let me think...

Off the top of my head, chemistry, physics, biology, geometry, algebra II, health, economics. American history, world history all taught by coaches. One of them was a heck of a teacher, a couple weren't bad, a couple at least tried, and a couple were just killing time.

The football team won the division pretty much every year. My high school had its priorities.

[exboyfil]

36. Two of the junior high coaches were excellent

for my daughters. One was Algebra and the other was American History. Two old crusty near retirement teachers that I just loved. I have a passion for both subjects just like them. I would have loved having them when I was a kid even though I was about as far from sports as you could be.

Their English teacher on the other hand.

I had a Biology teacher who was a football coach. He was a good guy, but they were unofficially peer matching classes (all were the same course but the better students got the better teachers who demanded more). I was a transfer, and I had a friend who was a football player (also very smart). We ended up with over 100% in the class, but we did not receive an award at the end of the semester (because we were in that class). The coach seemed uncertain about the subject matter until we got to human anatomy, and boy did he know that subject.

My Driving instructor was also a coach. He popped tranquilizers like candy.

My ROTC instructor was also a football coach. Next to my Honors English teacher, he did the most to prepare me for college. He is one of the finest men I have ever known (a Marine Corps major).

[pangaia]

37. WOW! That's quite a list of jocks.

So, were they actually teachers first, or.. coaches who were put in classrooms to fill out their schedule.

On out chem final, we were given a sample of something and had to find out what it was. I was the only one who used up his sample and didn't know what he had. So, I had to ask the teacher (football coach) for another sample.
HE WAS PISSED... took it out on me for playing in the band and orchestra and being a wimp.

So I said to him something like, "Look, we march around a filthy football field all week and on Sat afternoons in the cold (games were on Sat afternoons then),playing stupid music when we would rather be rehearsing REAL music in a warm room. How about you bring your football team to band and orchestra rehearsals and concert and set up, take down, usher, sell cookies..."

He really didn't like that but that shut him up and he gave me another sample. I got a C-.. my worst grade in HS.
Except for a D in biology...I think..

[Pope George Ringo II]

38. Well, it was Texas, so I'll let you guess what class earned them their paychecks.

American History spent a week on the history of basketball. Good times.

[pangaia]

45. Ah, got it.

I lived in northern NJ and we had a super music program. Probably 15-20 of the kids studied with members of the NY Philharmonic, including me..We were lucky..

[anneboleyn]

42. I graduated from a magnet program in 1990 and we did not take"economics" but AP U.S. History

A.P. European History, A.P. English, A.P. French, A.P. Spanish, A.P. Physics, A. P. Chemistry, (the magnet programs were/are big on the A. P. courses), etc. We didn't have a course titled "Economics."

[anneboleyn]

43. This was in California. We did economic theory as part of our A.P. history courses but not

as a separate course.

[marylandblue]

4. Economics was not required in my high school nt

[irisblue]

5. Trickle down economic theory warped the reps.

[Atman]

6. Was it ever?

In 1977 I took "Math For Daily Living" just to get the fourth math credit required to graduate. All about balancing checkbooks and shopping. As close to "economics" as i ever saw.

[bettyellen]

9. We did a unit on economics in social studies. Sort of like basic theory

Just to familiarize yourself w basic terminology I think.

[spanone]

7. the right has been running on tax cuts since reagan, never worked, never will..

and fools keep falling for it....amazes me

[Stuart G]

8. I taught it in my classes when I was a high school teacher, but it was not required.

I still think it is not required today, but that was in the 90s..I first started teaching consumer related economics,...like bait and switch..and how that works..in the 70s..wait....70s?????..yes 70s

[Wellstone ruled]

12. Was required in all Wisconsin

Public Schools during the 50's. Usually in 10 or 11th Grade,when most of the Students were 16years old. 16 was the required legal age to drop out of State Schools.

[Wellstone ruled]

33. Just a addition,

this was in conjunction with Civics and Badger History. And yes,there was a Econ and Bookkeeping Class offering in the 12 th Grade.

[CozyMystery]

13. Not required in my four kids' high school. They learned it on their own.

[WinkyDink]

15. Class of '67 here. Wasn't required then.

[TexasBushwhacker]

20. I graduated in 75. I took it senior year

Economics one semester and government (civics) the other year. Houston Independent School District. I guess it depends on the school district. We took Texas history in 8th grade, world history in 9th, American history in 10th and then Government/economics as a junior or senior.

[trof]

16. Econ isn't usually taught until college.

[jalan48]

21. When I was in school it was "Home Economics".

[Adrahil]

22. Has a whole course ever been required?

We did a unti on economic theories in my civics class.

[GeorgeGist]

23. Certainly you knew the 'Rick Perrys' in HS ...

and couldn't believe they got accepted into college.

[JonLP24]

24. I took like an economics 101 course in college not high school

Tax cuts and the like actually lead to more monopolization rather than competition.

[dhol82]

29. Graduated h.s. in 1964, Philadelphia

Went to the all girls egghead school.
Economics was not offered as far as I remember.
We did an awful lot of other really good stuff though. Over 90% went on to college. Which is where I think most actually took economics.

However, I have to say that most kids graduating high school in those days, were able to manage life in all its permutations.

[politicat]

30. Yes, but...

My sibling teaches social sciences at high school level, and is half of their department leadership. Sibling spent this summer reviewing the board approved texts for next year's standards and was appalled. Sib is fairly middle of the road politically (though moving left fast and hard) and is hard-headed on social sciences -- if there's not primary source documentation, or solid math, it's opinion, not fact.*

Sib says all current texts seem to have been ghost written by Ayn Rand. Bad data, bad facts, untenable positions. This is the result of textbook publishers having to write for the TX market. If it won't sell in TX, they won't publish it.

Which leaves aside that teenagers have studied like teenagers since we started sending them to high school -- they learn the material at the time, then flush it from RAM about 20 minutes after the final, and don't think about it. That's considered fairly universal for most students, and it's probably a bug in the human operating system. So even if they were learning good material, they have little motive to retain it.


*There's a story here about my elder nibling and their faith, and nib's attempt to use their holy text as a source, and Sib giving Nib hell about it. Nib said mildly, "You know you can get excommunicated for that, right?" Sib shrugged. "Doesn't make me wrong," Sib said.

[HeartachesNhangovers]

32. Economics was not even offered at my H.S.

But I graduated 38 years ago - it was a simpler time.

[Eugene]

39. Class of '81 in Massachusetts. Not offered as a course.

Macroeconomics was discussed in the context of U.S history.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

40. It was rarely, if ever, a required high school course.

Sometimes some of that information got included in other classes, like math or social studies, but not very often.

And cutting taxes has NEVER created jobs. Government spending on things like infrastructure, does create jobs. So does raising minimum wage, oddly enough. If people have money to spend, they buy things. That, as you noted, creates jobs.

[The Genealogist]

41. It was offered in high school when I was a student

I took the course fall 1990. I was a Social Studies lover. Economics was the only Social Studies course I took (and I took most of that were offered) that I didn't ace. I got a B+. The teacher showed us "The Gods Must Be Crazy."

[CTyankee]

44. In grad school I took an Econ course. The Marginalist theory damn near killed me.

I could never figure it out. So I gave up...

[Spider Jerusalem]

46. It wasn't when I was in high school, and that was nearly 25 years ago (n/t)

[Xolodno]

47. Don't believe it was required...

...and I live in California. But, the universities required it for entrance. But even then, actual economics was a small portion, the rest was more finance and how to be a stock broker.

I went on to major and graduate from econ. To be honest, the science is hard and very counter intuitive. I know a lot of people who bailed and went into finance or math.