The typical method of presenting supply and demand in high school classes often leaves students with an impression that markets are simple and function effortlessly. In reality, the effectiveness of markets depends on the quality of complex institutions such as private property and property-rights enforcement. Students often do not realize that…

Introduces a journal issue devoted to the New York Stock Exchange. Describes the formation and development of the stock exchange and Wall Street. Discusses the connection between politics and finance and the economic changes in formerly socialist nations. Suggests that the New York Stock Exchange may have to convert to a computer trading system.…

Describes an elementary school project in which children learned about the terms, issues, and concepts involved in U.S. economic system and the stock market. Emphasizes the importance of reinforcing delayed gratification to break the cycle of poverty for inner-city families. Discusses project goals, special activities, support, and instructional…

Explores teacher attitudes regarding economics and the environment through telephone interviews with 157 Wisconsin science and social studies high school teachers. Questions attitudes toward market approaches, facts about environmental improvements, and doomsday orientation. Suggests that teachers generally approve of nonmarket solutions and…

Explains free-market environmentalism, demonstrating how it is integral to environmental economics. Discusses issues such as market and government failures; the "tragedy of the commons"; and how to avoid said tragedy, focusing on the role of private property rights. Provides suggestions for history, social studies, and economics teachers on…

Maintains that the United States and its allies are helping former Communist nations make the transition to market economies. Describes the development and dissemination of the Junior Achievement International program in the Czech Republic and the Ukraine. Also describes features and instructional strategies of the program and includes a sample…

Describes a classroom exercise designed to illustrate the economic aspects of common ownership, individual ownership, government regulation and to examine how these relate to conservation. The exercise involves the incremental distribution (via a turkey baster) of water between buckets marked "now" and "future." Different rules replicate different…

Presents commentaries concerning German reunification made by prominent German intellectuals. Focuses on social and economic adjustments necessary for successful reunification. Lists topics for classroom discussion and suggests how to examine the implications of reunification from a global perspective. (NL)

Presents a paper delivered in Poland in 1989 and in five additional Eastern European cities in 1990. Defines democracy and suggests ways to teach about democratic government. Explores education's role in a democracy. Encourages student participation in student government, classroom discussion, community service, and research projects to give them…