Grant - But why?
Me - We are taking care of Khylee right now. You're going to have to sacrifice some fun for now while we have a baby in the house.
Grant - What does sacrifice mean?
Me - It means giving up something for yourself in order to benefit someone else.
Grant - Oh! Sort of like an OPPORTUNITY COST.
Me - Ummmm. Yeah.
So where does an eight year old learn a term like opportunity cost? Learned it at school of course... along with other microeconomic zingers like natural resource, human resource, capital resource, scarcity and barter.
Okay. So it's better than some words he could learn at school, but why is my eight year old son learning such grown up terms?
I have no idea, but I would guess it has something to do with standardized achievement tests and trying to raise school scores.
Just a guess.
So here is a test question for those making the decision to alter the curriculum to include microeconomics in second grade....
What is the opportunity cost of teaching to the test instead of teaching old fashioned things such as grammar, computation, penmanship and history?
Never mind. I can see that answer all around me as I look at a society that is increasingly functionally illiterate and unable to perform basic mathematical tasks.
OKAY - Stepping off my soapbox now....
Grant - What does sacrifice mean?
Me - It means giving up something for yourself in order to benefit someone else.
Grant - Oh! Sort of like an OPPORTUNITY COST.
Me - Ummmm. Yeah.
So where does an eight year old learn a term like opportunity cost? Learned it at school of course... along with other microeconomic zingers like natural resource, human resource, capital resource, scarcity and barter.
Okay. So it's better than some words he could learn at school, but why is my eight year old son learning such grown up terms?
I have no idea, but I would guess it has something to do with standardized achievement tests and trying to raise school scores.
Just a guess.
So here is a test question for those making the decision to alter the curriculum to include microeconomics in second grade....
What is the opportunity cost of teaching to the test instead of teaching old fashioned things such as grammar, computation, penmanship and history?
Never mind. I can see that answer all around me as I look at a society that is increasingly functionally illiterate and unable to perform basic mathematical tasks.
OKAY - Stepping off my soapbox now....
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