Critical thinking and Economics?

 In an act of positivity, which is turning towards the negative as I write, I have changed the name of my blog to Teacher and Grammy Tales. Positive because I know I am a good teacher, I would likely be better at a college because of my presentation style, I have been "teaching" for over 30 years. I know my content History and Civics. I find Economics tedious and unnecessary for high school students who are not going to be going into Business or Economics as a profession. 

Why is that? Full disclosure, I have a fear of Math that is somewhat lessened at the ripe old age of 63, learning what a Circular Flow Model is, what the four factors of production are, what the three basic questions of economic are, etc, etc. is not essential. It just isn't. I have been in conversations with Social Studies teachers about Economics and still, no I don't think knowing those things taught as they are where I teach or have taught teaches critical thinking about Economics. It is Math on a slight dose of steroids, but Math all the same. I wholeheartedly believe that Financial Literacy/Personal Finance should be taught, but not by Social Studies teachers. A semester of Finanical Literacy taught through the Math department by lovers of Math or Maths would give students so much more than what they are getting from the Social Studies Department. 

I realize that most states have standards mandating the teaching of Economics, which is where I was two years ago still not being convinced that Economics as it is currently taught and as it is in Oregon's standards is essential. No, I am not hedging here when I say ,"...as it is taught...." Integrate Economics into U.S. History, World History, and Civics. As a standalone all it is doing is taking up space that could be devoted to critical thinking within the context of History and Civics. Maybe some districts and states do it differently and they do teach critical thinking, but I haven't seen it where I teach. It is purely here are the facts, a bit of why and then move on to the next concept. There is some integrating of the basic topics in Economics with each other, but very critical thinking. 

I have just spent 10 weeks over half in CDL, Comprehensive Distance Learning, and in person teaching the academics of Economics. The only concept that students have even a slight grasp of is The Basic Economic Questions, What to produce, how to produce it, and who will buy it. But they can't think critically about those questions. With the context of systems of governments I believe they could begin that process.

For the last week and a half we have been going over Budgets and Budgeting. At the most basic level they get it, you have to stay within a budget.  They understand the why and they understand that going into debt is bad and hard to dig yourself out of. As I wandered around YouTube looking for informative and entertaining videos I have found a set of videos created by Alux that pretty much says poor people are stupid and all they have to do is read/listen to the various books Alux promotes and they will be billionaires. Ok, it doesn't come and say that though the video we watched "15 things poor people waste their money on," does intro with "Where billionaires come...." My new teaching, oh wait admin says I don't know how to teach, goal is do my best to get my students to think critically about all of the Personal Finance/Financial Literacy videos out there. 

I am thinking to begin is to teach some History of Poverty first, from the mouths of historians and maybe economists. Then moving on to videos, self help and not so much help. 

https://youtu.be/-c6115s_Rs4

Chelsea is my new Personal Finance guru. Ok, I've only watched the video I posted here, but still. I have met my personal goal of moving from the negative to the positive in one post! Rant at you later.

The Pandemic boon and not so much

 

Yes, the pandemic was a boon to this woman who has extreme crowd anxiety. A boon and also a back-slide, I have been able to avoid crowds or to put it more distinctly I am in charge of when I engage with others in person. Now with going to “Hermiston Hybrid,” my anxiety is increasing. But I will endure and I will do my best not to inflict it on my students. I have had only three students say they are considering not coming back to in person. I wish instead of dropping all four grades into this “hybrid” situation they had started with 9-10 for two weeks and then moved to adding 11-12. Having all four grades moving about the building, plus staff, should have a learning curve. All of this is dependent on our metrics, though our Governor has said all schools need to move to in person in some fashion by mid April.

While I cannot say that I flourished and thrived under the restrictions of the Pandemic, I did relax. I read and webinared my free time and learned so much about Civics and History. So much that I couldn’t use it with my students because my two Civics/Economics colleagues though both younger and in the profession fewer years than I had the blessing of the admin to arrange, I won’t say dictate, the what and when of both Civics and Economics. I was allowed some input, but my expertise when asked for was ripped apart by the former lawyer each time. So I stopped, I stopped not because I was wrong or had things turned around I stopped because his rapid fire questions never allowed me to think my answers through. After waiting a short time he would begin to  rephrase the same question for me and if I began to talk before he was done, “I hope you don’t do that students. Or I am still talking.” Loudly and angrily. I always wanted to say back, “Is that how you talk to your students?” But my nature does not allow me to be so extrovert, my pathology keeps me from defending myself when confronted with males and some women who see me as below them, allow their misperception of my silence as stupidity or worse acquiescence. It is obvious to me that what I need to do is get all this negative out of me. I start writing a piece and it inevitably begins to get more and more negative. So I stop. Pack that piece away and in a few days move on to something else. I have been trying to write in my old blog every day or at least a few times a week. I will have to continue to do that, to flush bits of negativity out and hopefully to also bring some joy back to my writing.