Beyond Civics and the 3 R's: Teaching Economics in the Schools

During the twenty to twenty-five years after World War II, children in the United States were increasingly taught to understand their nation, its history, and its economic greatness—as an “economy”—rather than in social, moral, philosophical, or political terms (i.e., as a society, a community, a republic, etc.). Equally powerful was its message that the U.S. economy was an unprecedented marvel of productivity and a facet of Americanness of which to be proud and to defend. During this time period, not only did an economics education movement emerge, but economics increasingly was taught as part of social studies, history, or other classes, and a huge amount of curricular material was developed and disseminated for classroom use.