April Higgins knows even the sharpest students can get tripped up on a complex subject.
“What is the basic economic problem all societies face?” Ms. Higgins asks her class. Ava Watson, raises her hand: “Scarcity.”
The class responds in unison. “People have unlimited wants but limited resources.”
Not bad for a bunch of sixth-graders.
Scarcity, elasticity, marginal returns are now being taught in some schools to children as young as 10 years old. The push, educators say, was spurred by the 2008 financial crisis and is designed to help students become more comfortable with economics, financial planning and entrepreneurship. Catch them young, the thinking goes, and adult activities like balancing a checkbook or taking out a loan will be easier.