From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Mon Nov 7 15:43:08 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Boswell on Adam Smith as a lecturer Message-ID: <01HJ7BA9575U001H6N@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> The following excerpt from West, _Adam Smith: The Man and and his Works_ is James Boswell's account of his experience of having Adam Smith as a teacher in the year 1760: "My greatest inducement for coming hither, was to hear Mr. Smith's lectures which are truly excellent. His Sentiments are striking, profound and beautifull, the method in which they are arranged clear, accurate and orderly, his language correct perspicuous and elegantly phrased. His private character is realy [sic] amiable. He has nothing of that formal stiffness and Pedantry which is too often found in Professors. So far from that, he is a most polite well-bred man, is extreamly [sic] fond of having his Students with him and treats them with all the easiness and affability imaginable." David Mitch <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Mon Nov 7 16:00:54 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Should teachers give refunds ? Message-ID: <01HJ7BOE3KOO001H6N@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> The following account of the arrangements Adam Smith made when he left in the middle of the academic term to take up his travels with the Duke of Buccleugh are of possible interest both for what they say of Smith's relationship with his students and for their description of mid-18th C compensation systems for Scottish academics. It is taken from E.G. West, _Adam Smith: The Man and his Works_. "Characteristically Smith took the greatest pains to see to it that his departure from the Glasgow College in Mid-session would do as little injury as possible to the University. The Faculty records on the 8th of November, 1763, reported: "Dr. Smith represented that some interesting business would probably require his leaving the College sometime this winter, and made the following proposals and requests to the meeting: First, that if he should be obliged to leave the College without finishing his usual course of lectures, he should pay back to all his students the fees which he shall have received from them; and that if any of them should refuse to accept such fees, he should in that case pay them to the university." "Second, That whatever part of the usual course of lectures he should leave unfinished should be given gratis to the students, by a person to be appointed by the University, with such salary as they shall think proper, which salary is to be paid by Dr. Smith." West goes on to relate, " Smith's new salary... was to be double that of his normal college annual remuneration, so he would have been placed in a very good position to carry out the above proposals. A successor was duly found and the fees paid back to the students. But not with considerable difficulty. Alexander Tytler tells us in his Life of Lord Kames:" "After concluding his last lecture, and publically announcing from the chair that he was now taking a final leave of his auditors, acquainting them at the same time with the arrangements he had made, to the best of is power, to their benefit, he drew from his pocket the several fees of the students, wrapped up in separate paper parcels, and beginning to call up each man by his name, he delivered to the first who was called the money into his hands. The young man peremptorily refused to accept it, declaring that the instruction he had already received was much more than he either had repayed or ever could compensate, and a general cry was heard from every one in the room to the same effect. But Mr. Smith was not to be bent from his purpose. After warmly expressing his feelings of gratitude and the strongest sense he had of the regard shown to him by his young friends, he told them this was a matter betwixt him and his own mind, and that he could not rest satisfied unless he performed what he deemed right and proper. 'You must not refuse me this satisfaction; by heavens, gentlemen, you shall not'; and seizing by the coat the young man who stood next him, he thrust the money into his pocket and then pushed him away from him. The rest saw it was in vain to contest the matter, and were obliged to let him have his own way." >From West, _Adam Smith: the Man and his Works_, pp.150-152. David Mitch <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Tue Nov 8 19:07:54 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Teaching Nominations Message-ID: <01HJ8X3O62WY0022E9@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> Clearly, based on the evidence offered on the net, Adam Smith must be considere d for the next teaching award at EHA. Can the award be given posthumously? <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Tue Nov 8 19:28:45 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Debate on Standards Message-ID: <01HJ8XQVH2VI0022E9@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> Most of you probably have already seen the following announcement on econhist and by the time you see this the main event in question will probably have already transpired. Nevertheless, for those of our subscribers who do not also subscribe to econhist, it may at least be of interest to know that debates like that described below are taking place. David Mitch From: IN%"econhist@cs.muohio.edu" 8-NOV-1994 09:50:53.86 To: IN%"econhist@cs.muohio.edu" "Multiple recipients of list" CC: Subj: radio debate today on standards in world history Return-path: Received: from cs.muohio.edu by UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (PMDF V4.3-11 #1) id <01HJ8DN3L34W001ISW@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU>; Tue, 08 Nov 1994 09:50:42 -0500 (EST) Received: from localhost by cs.muohio.edu; (5.65/1.1.8.2/21Jul94-1245PM) id AA24221; Tue, 8 Nov 1994 09:47:44 -0500 Date: Tue, 08 Nov 1994 09:47:44 -0500 From: Sam Williamson Subject: radio debate today on standards in world history Sender: econhist@cs.muohio.edu To: Multiple recipients of list Errors-to: manager@cs.muohio.edu Reply-to: econhist@cs.muohio.edu Message-id: X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail/Mac (v2.1 pre-release) Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Originator: econhist@cs.muohio.edu Precedence: bulk X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Comment: Topics in economic history <-----------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <-----------------------------------------------> This is forwarded from the H-WORLD list. The public debate on the newly released U.S. national standards in world history is taking on a ferocious tone. According to Ross Dunn of San Diego State University, it will be aired on national public radio on Tuesday, November 8: Joyce Appleby (of the commission that drew up the standards) will go up against Lynne Cheney (former director of the National Endowment for the Humanities and a critic of the standards) on "Talk of the Nation," live between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. (probably 12-1). In addition, Newsweek may be doing a cover story in the next week or so. Pat Manning -- Samuel H. Williamson, Executive Director The Cliometric Society Miami University Oxford, OH 45056 USA (513) 529-2851 Office (513) 529-6992 FAX Try our server at cs.muohio.edu <-------------------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From whaples at wfu.edu Wed Nov 9 08:32:15 1994 From: whaples at wfu.edu (robert whaples) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Literature in Teaching Economic History Message-ID: <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> This semester for the first time, I assigned a literary piece to my students. The book was Richard Henry Dana's classic, _Two Years Before the Mast_. I asked them to decide whether or not sailors as a group or particular crew members were being exploited. It was a good follow up to our discussion of exploitation under slavery and Ransom and Sutch's model of exploitation and debt peonage in the postbellum South. My questions are: -What other pieces of literature have people assigned in their economic history classes? Could we get together an extensive list from all the members of the network? -Is it useful to assign fiction? (Dana's book is not fictional.) What are the pros and cons? I am skeptical of using fiction. One can still apply the tools of analysis to a fictional work, but of course the facts to be analyzed aren't historical ones. Some people contend that fiction is some how "more real" than fact. I find this hard to swallow. Thanks, Robert Whaples Department of Economics Wake Forest University Winston-Salem, NC 27109 910-759-4916 fax 910-759-4809 <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Wed Nov 9 10:28:31 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Using literature in economic history courses Message-ID: <01HJ9T8WKN02002619@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> Re Bob Whaples question about what books we have used. Following a suggestion from Claudia Goldin, I used _The Jungle_ by Upton Sinclair in a 3-student honors colloquium at UMass. (The setup is that students can take an additional 1-credit colloq which allows them to go beyond the in-class material). I also assigned _Babbitt_, _Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey_, and _The Octopus_. There might have been a fifth book; can't remember. I felt totally out of my field in teaching these books. In terms of teaching, I wanted to go find some colleagues in English or other humanities and ask them how the heck one teaches literature. I know they would do it differently than I would, as they are looking for different things, but I hadn't felt like such a first-time teacher in a long, long time. (I avoided humanities classes as much as possible when I was an undergrad, so had essentially no memories from those years to use as a rough pedagogical model.) The students liked all of these books. There were 2 women and 1 man in the course. The women very much liked reading _Women's Diaries of the Westwrad Journey_ (a collection of diaries of women who made the trek from St. Joseph, MO to the West Coast); the man thought it not-useful (he said something like "they just kept talking about all these people dying along the route; what's the point?" sigh.) _The Jungle_ is depressing as hell, and I'd totally forgotten that the concluding chapter(s) are essentially a political tract, but we discussed it as the author's attempts to point up the labor problems of the era. I think it made all the stuff we had done on late 19th century labor markets and immigrant workers much more real. I liked _Babbitt_ for its characterization of the 1920s, and there it was quite easy to talk about the 1920s/1980s comparisons. But it was a pretty dry read. _The Octopus_ was LONG . . . that was what we all decided. He needed a good editor, who could have deleted one-third of the text and still created an effective book. I decided that I would prefer something more succinct (my copy was 600 pages long) that made the same points. I also think _Octopus_ would have been a bit more effective for students in California than for students in Massachusetts. I'm glad I did include the books, but I don't know how I would do it in a group of 35, let alone in a class of 350. (Indeed, I don't think I could do it in 350.) Again, the issues for me became the pedagogical ones: how *does* one teach literature? M =--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--= Martha L. Olney Visiting Associate Professor of Economics University of California, Berkeley [510] 642-6083 MOlney@econ.berkeley.edu <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Wed Nov 9 12:37:30 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Using literature in Teaching economic history Message-ID: <01HJ9XQZOZK20027WT@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> In response to Marty's message: I have used novels in teaching women's history, but before I would use them in economic history I would first see if I could accomplish my goal through either good descriptive social history, or descriptive primary sources. Novels are usually better used as a type of primary source than an interpretive source (as you already found out with Sinclair) -- it is something of a truism that, in general, even a historical novel is about the period the author lives in rather than the supposed historical period (Martin Guerre being the rare exception, but then the author was an extremely well-respected historian and was really trying to find a different voice with which to write history; on the other hand, bien interesant to have chosen the topic of a couple having to live at a distance and then becoming re-acquainted, n'est-ce pas?). So The SCarlet Letter is not about Puritans but about mid-nineteenth century New England; Gone with the Wind is not about the Civil War but about the South in the 1930s. So I use "Little Women" to introduce the subject of the Cult of Domesticity -- the students intuitively "get" what that concept means from this book better than any other source I've ever used. It also contains both "takes" on the subject -- the restricted lives the women lead plus the affection they genuinely have for each other, the role of the women's network, and the girls' open fears of leaving home and becoming housewives. From the standpoint of women's economics, there's some interesting stuff hidden in there: you see how segregated the women are from the external market; how different the expectations for them and for Laurie (the next-door neighbor boy); it makes an interesting discussion why Jo had to sell her hair, and why that was improper; and it's fascinating how poorly trained the girls were for becoming housewives. Since Alcott's father was in the utopian socialist movement, there are also interesting subtle messages about class, income, and materialism at a time when these issues were beginning to creep into the cultural discourse. ON THE OTHER HAND, missing from the book is any mention of farmwomen (who outnumbered women like these "girls" dramatically), shopkeeper women, or the participation of New England women (with whom Alcott was well acquainted) in social reform movements. Alcott herself took a number of unpleasant odd jobs, mostly doing domestic servant work, when she was growing up; the family had a failed episode in farming (Dad spent too much time intellectualizing in the living room with his buddies while Mom and the girls had to bring in the harvest) -- so Alcott KNEW about these things, but chose not to write about them. So we also discuss why that's missing. This works in part because the book itself is a good read, and the students (mostly women) love it; my biggest problem is getting them to look at the issues with a little distance after having fallen in love with Jo. (The guys, in general, really struggle with a book where they have to identify with female characters.) So I can discuss economic history using this book, but it is in the context of a course where economic and social history are rolled into one, seamlessly. I'm not sure how I'd use it in a straight econ history course. The point is to balance what the author CHOSE to write about with what the author chose NOT to write about, and why, with the information about the world at the time that you pick up because the author was unself-consciously describing the world around him/her. If what you are after is good description -- a way of eliciting historical empathy from students, getting them out of their self- centered, self-aware shells -- I suspect you would have better luck with good social history, autobiography, and biography than most novels. The ONLY way I know to really teach the early American economy is through the work of social historians (and crossover social/economic historians such as Lois and Lorena). I know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou, is an education. Middletown is still fascinating, I think. There's a fantastic account of New York working girls, written in 1905, called The Long Day, by "Dorothy Richardson" (a pseudonym), but the copy I have is out of print (I xerox it -- publishers take note). Any labor historian could direct you to good descriptive accounts of working class neighborhoods, or factory life, or urbanization and immigration -- I know a lot of economist/ economic historians who get put off by the economic analysis or lack thereof, but it's a good exercise for the students to take the evidence (if it is soundly presented) and see what they can do with it. And newspapers of varying sorts -- everything from labor papers to the African-American press to the various dailies -- are very good sources not only for un-self-conscious descriptions of economic life (rather than just looking for analysis), but ALSO as a way of looking at the variety of interpretations that onlookers can give a single economic event. (The Baltimore Sun recently did a really interesting article on the Louisville baseball strike a hundred years ago where the reporter compared the different versions given in the city's three different newspapers.) So the students get a chance to try their own hands at how they would approach the economic analysis, plus get a chance to see how observers with different views tend to emphasize different aspects of the evidence (useful for analyzing scholarship, too). So if you want different kinds of readings to get "at" economic history beyond the standard textbook or journal article approach, there are TONS of sources out there -- not just novels, but good social history, primary sources like newspapers, biography and autobiography -- look for works that are interesting to read (or they won't read it -- I recall HATING The Jungle; I would suggest So Big for farm life but I recall hating that, too), look at it as primary source evidence that must yet be contextualized and analyzed, and grant the author his/her limitations (don't read it with the purpose of pointing out the "wrong" interpretations; read it with the idea of gleaning what is useful that the author has to say). (As I mentioned last year, when you get up to the current times oral history is also a great way of offering the students a window into the economy in a different time period -- every spring I have from 35 to 70 students conducting interviews about the Great Depression with their grandparents or whoever they can find that's still living, which we then turn into our OWN social/economic history of the Great Depression -- we combine the interviews and xerox the results. The coursework involves bouncing back and forth between the larger view; evidence, interpretations, statistics; and what it looked like from an individual perspective. I've learned quite a bit from the interviews, actually.) On the other hand, Marty, being well aware that you won a university-wide teaching award at Mass. and you get astounding teaching evaluations in humongous classes -- I'm not sure how much you ought to change in your courses, anyway! But I, too, would welcome ideas for good descriptive readings to use in economic history -- particularly the twentieth century. -- Mary Schweitzer Dept. of History, Villanova (schweitz@ucis.vill.edu) (P.S. -- particularly since it seems that the further you get into teaching economic history in the twentieth century, the more bogged down you get into macro policy topics -- at least, that's what I feel happens to me -- and you lose the sense of connection between the individual and the economy, as the issues become more centered on the Big Picture. I'm not sure WHAT I could use -- novel, biography, social history -- from the post World War II era that would fit the usual topics for economic history in that period.) <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Wed Nov 9 13:03:33 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Using Literature and Works of Imagination in Teaching Message-ID: <01HJ9XUTJ6MW0027WT@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> I have never actually assigned any fiction or literary work more generally defined in my courses, but would like to try it some time. What I have done and I think is effective is to bring in snippets, either actually in class or passed out as a xerox, of some passage or example from some piece of fiction or creative work to illustrate and make concrete a point. I think this is useful as a means of introducing variety and holding attention as much as it is for offering concrete examples or as evidence in some more formal sense. For example, in the class I just did today on cottage industry in Belgium and the nailmaking part of it in particular, I made reference to the Anvil Chorus (as best I recall from Verdi's Turandot -- can anyone out there confirm this) as a concrete example of what nailmaking on a cottage hearth was like. As part of this, I hummed a snatch of it to the class, at least some students did recognize it as a very familiar tune. It is perhaps a bit hammy, but I think it is of some value to show how the concrete economic situation has been subsequently been depicted in what has become a common cultural artifact, in addition to adding variety to the style of the lecture. Some other examples of how I think literary selections could be effectively used, though I have never actually used them: 1) numerous passages from Dickens to illustrate Victorian urban life, what streets actually looked like, what meals were like etc. 2)numerous passages from the novels of Thomas Hardy providing: a)descriptions of specific farm tasks -- such as milking a cow b)hiring fairs c) labor market phenomena more generally -- for example there is one passage in Tess of the D'Ubervilles I think where Hardy says, "This was a region where a farm hand earned the same amount at age 20 as he would at age 40 and hence people married young." 3)George Orwell, if one can count _The Road to Wigan Pier_ here even though it is not fiction but a narrative account. In Wigan Pier one will find: a) detailed description of what is involved in going back and forth underground to the coal face. b)detailed descriptions of what miners actually ate. c)detailed descriptions of sleeping arrangements for lodgers, e.g. in one room Orwell stayed in he could only stretch out his legs at full length for a few hours a night because another lodger was in a bed so close the rest of the night that he would have hit him in the back otherwise. d)the concrete meaning of a sense of class differences. Orwell says after giving a more abstract explanation of what class differences were about that the real nub of the matter came down to four simple words that as a good socialist he always dreaded hearing from bourgois children: "The Working Classes Smell" -- he then gives a detailed account of the nature of working class smells, why they would smell and how this was an important foundation of class differences. As I noted in an earlier posting, many people in English departments these days are very interested in issues related to economic history. For example, Catharine Gallagher (I may not have name exactly right, but close I think) at Berkeley's English department wrote an influential book a few years back on "Industrial Fiction" in Victorian England in which the economic setting of the works she surveys plays a prominent role in her interpretation. These people might have useful ideas for teaching literature in economic history courses. David Mitch <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Wed Nov 9 13:43:59 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Using Works of Literature and Imagination Message-ID: <01HJA03C6JQQ0028TO@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> On a more contemporary note about using fiction in economics classes, Josehp Heller's _Catch-22_ contains two outstanding--and extremely funny--passages--one about Major Major Major Major's father being the largest "non-wheat" farmer in (I think) North Dakota, the other describing Milo Minderbinder's egg market manipulations. Use by themselves (in a micro principles class), they have causes at least some of my students to have an "Aha!" of discovery. Donald A. Coffin | Keynes, when admonished for Division of Business and Economics | being inconsistent, replied, Indiana University Northwest | "When someone convinces me that 3400 Broadway | I am wrong, I change my mind. Gary, IN 46408 | What do you do?" (As related 219-980-6867 (Office) | by Joan Robinson.) 219-980-6579 (FAX) | don@iunbus1.iun.indiana.edu | <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Wed Nov 9 16:20:07 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Using Literature in Teaching Message-ID: <01HJA5J3ND4800288C@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> Just a suggestion to follow up on Schweitzer's discussion of Little Women. If you are going to talk about what's not in the book as well as what's in it, it might be useful to look at the short stories (which have been published in at least two collections) she wrote which were originally published under a pseudonym, since she didn't think they were "appropriate." I read them a long time ago, but my recollection is that the lead characters are all women who break all the rules, are not very nice, and are victorious. ************************************************************* * Margaret Levenstein MaggieL@umich.edu * * Department of Economics * * 205 Lorch Hall (313)764-5274 * * University of Michigan * * Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1220 FAX (313)764-2769 * ************************************************************* <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Thu Nov 10 11:30:20 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Films Message-ID: <01HJB9P868XU002GMS@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> On the subject of alternative teaching methods, has anyone used popular films as a basis for discussion, essays, etc? A few films that I thought might be relevent include: 1. Roger and Me-Examines the effects of the closure of the General Motors plant on Flint, MI. There is a sequel called Pets and Fryers. 2. Matewan-Concerns class, racism, and unionization in a turn of the century West Virginia (?) coal town. 3. Black Robe-Centers around Eastern indian tribes coping with the spread of European civilization in the early seventeenth century. There are probably a number of other relevent films. I'm considering using this as a paper assignment in an upper level undergraduate course (about 45 students, mostly undergraduates and a few graduates) and would be interested to hear others' experiences. -Andrew Seltzer University of Melbourne <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Thu Nov 10 11:31:57 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Literature in the Syllabus Message-ID: <01HJB9R7HQJC002GMS@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> I may have missed the beginning of this disucssion, but I think we need to star t by saying why we want to bring these kind of readings into our teaching. I h ave for the most part avoided textbooks for years because they are remarkably d ull and don't "tell a story" which engage students. So I would like to think t hat the interest in using these readings to give more context to economic histo ry. Two Years Before the Mast is a wonderful book, full of insight into issues of organization, motivation, technology, the organization of commerce, etc., t hough is also fairly long. In the same vein, Tracy Kidder's Soul of a New Mach ine and House are two excellent books for revealing aspects of managing/generat ing technological change (Soul) and for the organizationof production and the " instinct of craftsmanship" (House); Richard Preston's American Steel is also a wonderfully engaging history of Nucor's Crawfordsville continuouus minicaster that is now the world's lowest cost producer of steel. Halberstam's The Fiftie s has some wonderful chapters on the emrgence of America's roaring consumerism, and his earlier Reckoning offers up a rather long revealing parallel history o f Nissan (Datsun) and Ford. Obviously, I tend of bring a fair amount of explic it busines history into my courses because the firm--as it actually behaviors-- is one of the central characters in the stories of economic history--and I have found students very responsive when i have used some of this material. <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From whaples at wfu.edu Thu Nov 10 14:31:34 1994 From: whaples at wfu.edu (robert whaples) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Films and Teaching In-Reply-To: <01HJB9P868XU002GMS@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> Message-ID: <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> I have used the film _Roger and Me_ in teaching. It doesn't fit into economic history class too well, but it goes well in my Current Economic Issues course. By raising issues in an exaggerated way, it provokes a useful discussion of alternative policies relating to industrial relocation. I have thought about having students write a critique of my favorite movie, _It's A Wonderful Life_. The presumption of the movie, that Bedford Falls would mutate into the distopic Pottersville, seems unrealistic. Somehow George Bailey is the only thing standing in the way of Mr. Potter becoming a monopolist? Robert Whaples Department of Economics Wake Forest University Winston-Salem, NC 27109 910-759-4916 fax 910-759-4809 <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Thu Nov 10 19:28:55 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Ethics in the Curriculum Message-ID: <01HJBQAQJBLK002MF7@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> I'm at an AACSB-accredited institution, and one of their "hot buttons" for schools going for re-accreditation is incorporating discussions of ethical issues into the curriculum (which is a good idea, even absent accreditation presures). My question is this: Has anyone out there actually done this in a principles of economics course? We generally approach consumer decision-making, for example, by excluding preferences from the discussion (de gustibus non est disputandum); further, we don't inquire into any ethical limitations to the pursuit of profit (although I do suggest that there are such limits). So who can give me the benefit of some experience actually trying to do this. Donald A. Coffin | Keynes, when admonished for Division of Business and Economics | being inconsistent, replied, Indiana University Northwest | "When someone convinces me that 3400 Broadway | I am wrong, I change my mind. Gary, IN 46408 | What do you do?" (As related 219-980-6867 (Office) | by Joan Robinson.) 219-980-6579 (FAX) | don@iunbus1.iun.indiana.edu | <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Thu Nov 10 19:47:55 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: It's a Wonderful Life Message-ID: <01HJBR34BLS4002MF7@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> Surely you jest. No one could possibly replace George Bailey. There are certain elements of the Western Canon that should not be subject to critical thought, and It's A Wonderful Life is one. ************************************************************* * Margaret Levenstein MaggieL@umich.edu * * Department of Economics * * 205 Lorch Hall (313)764-5274 * * University of Michigan * * Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1220 FAX (313)764-2769 * ************************************************************* <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Thu Nov 10 19:57:17 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Films in Class Message-ID: <01HJBRERTLNU002MF7@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> I, too, have used _Roger & Me_ in class (with some success) in my Business History class for which it is ideal as an alternative viewpoint. Certainly it prompted my Vanderbilt students into a ferocious debate on whether or not corporations have social responsibility and short v. long run profit maximization. The only troubling scene (certainly from the standpoint of the student) is where the rabbit is killed on camera & skinned by the "Pets or Meat" lady. Many will find the sequence offensive though it is not entirely inappropriate in the context of how some can be rapidly marginalized by economic adversity. Happily the courts seem to have freed us from responsibility for students encountering disturbing material or viewpoints in class. Beyond the commercial cinema, I have also had pretty good experiences (albeit many years ago) with a series sponsored by Phillips Petroleum starring William Shatner that Walton, North et al. consulted on (perhaps someone out there will know whether this is now available on video). The series was aimed at high school students but has some useful scenes and information for undergraduate classes as well. Not as good as commercial cinema but much better than your average educational film. Some of the PBS series (especially on the Great Depression) are to be commended. ******************************************************************************* Jeremy Atack Department of Economics Box 1819 Station B (for U.S. Mail) 211B Calhoun Hall (for Federal Express/UPS/etc.) Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN. 37235 Phone: 615-343-2467 (office) 615-322-2871 (secretary) FAX: 615-343-8495 ****************************************************************************** <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Thu Nov 10 19:58:18 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Literature in Teaching Message-ID: <01HJBRFX0J2O002MF7@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> I have used the novel GRAND OPENING by Jon Hassler in my principles course, and have thought about using it in my economic history course as well. It is the story of a family moving from Minneapolis to a small town in Minnesota in the late 1940s. They buy an existing grocery store and start the first "supermarket" in town. There's lots of good stuff about economics, especially a chapter where the funeral chapel owner tries to explain the difference between the elasticity of demand for his product as opposed to elasticity of demand for groceries. It's a paperback, so it's not too expensive either. ================================================================ Louis Johnston Department of Economics and Management Gustavus Adolphus College St. Peter, MN 56082 (507) 933-7436 ljohnsto@gac.edu <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Thu Nov 10 20:00:30 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Films and Teaching Message-ID: <01HJBRIPKDIE002MF7@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> I have never used films in an economic history course; I would be interested in whatever success others have in that direction. For what it's worth, my mother (who grew up in a coal-mining town) thought Matawan (W.Va. c. 1921, by the way) was a pretty accurate recreation. Roger and Me is interesting not only for alternative industrial policies, but also problem of transitions/transactions costs (no one wants to move; this is not an abstract problem for them), how decisions are made, the issue of managerial decision-making (precisely what DO managers optimize) -- lots of things. Warn the squeemish about the bunny rabbit, tho. I've always liked It's a Wonderful Life because the Depression DOESN'T start with the stock market crash, as in almost all other moves on the subject, but rather with a bank run (well, okay, a savings and loan run); there's even discussion of discounting, risk-taking. But it's not George vs. Potter and monopoly: George is supposed to stand for our value system -- the theme is that if we all relinquished our resonsibilities toward our community, many of the (nonpecuniary) community goods we enjoy would disappear. Potter isn't just rich -- he's a cheat. Remember the whole thing starts because he effectively steals the Building and Loan's deposit (accidentally dropped by the daft uncle in the bank lobby). There's also stuff in there about George taking chances with people that Potter doesn't have to bother with -- they ALL turn out to be good risks (it's pointed out several times that he's very good at running the B & L). Monopoly isn't exactly the issue -- rather, it's Potter's bottom-line -- AND IMMORAL (remember the theft) -- standard of running his bank, vs. George's broader approach to investment in an entire community and integrity -- the first approach LOOKS like the shrewd choice, but in the end the returns on George's investments are greater. AT least, that's what I think the message was. (By the way, another good description of a bank run -- plus an earlier description of a real estate bubble -- is in the first chapters of Thomas Wolfe You Can't Go Home Again -- it's also pretty accurate, because North Carolina is one of the places where the banking system went kaflooey.) <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Fri Nov 11 07:17:06 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Films Message-ID: <01HJCF5MYF60002MMG@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> I have used "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" in both intro macro and US ec hist. It is a re-release of a 1932 BBC documentary re the US great depression. Issued by Humanities Films Limited (or H.F. Institute. . . I forget). Don't confuse it with the trashy "Brother Can you Spare a Dime?" that you can find at video stores, which includes among other things women wearing pasties doing what women wearing pasties do. (I made the near-fatal error at UMass of buying this video, on the assumption it was the same thing, and showing it *without first viewing it on my own*! Imagine my surprise when the women with pasties started doing their thing! I don't know what the students remember, but it's the only part of the video that *I* remember!!) Anyway, back to the BBC version. It was put together in July or August of 1932, right after the riots in Washington with the WWI vets wanting their bonus pay. They talk about the campaign between FDR and Hoover (and it sounded eerily like the campaign between Clinton & Bush); the new theories of this Brit named Keeeynes (so much for convincing the students it is said Keynes as in Brains); the consumer durables revolution :); the shortening of skirts as a possible cause of the GD (I love that one!), and more. It includes discussion of how the depression is affecting black Americans as well as white Americans. All in all, I really like it. It make the GD much more real for the students. I have also used part of one of Bill Moyer's "Walk Through the Twentieth Century" series from PBS--the one on coal miners. "Out of the Depths." I don't show the whole thing, but cut it after about 20 minutes. I do this in the context of doing Fishback on miners, esp since Fishback's conclusions and the miners stories totally conflict. The miners in the film are in Colorado, so we can talk about the difference that geography and relative isolation might have made. M =--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--= Martha L. Olney Visiting Associate Professor of Economics University of California, Berkeley [510] 642-6083 MOlney@econ.berkeley.edu <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Fri Nov 11 07:18:00 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Ethics in the Curriculum Message-ID: <01HJCF6OJYZI002MMG@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> I don't know if this is what you're interested in, but in teaching Econ 1, I noted that we can derive utility from all sorts of things. The standard economic assumption has us deriving utility from consumption, but I suggested that some may also derive utility from, for instance, giving money to various charities. On the midterm then I had a question, the phrasing of which I do not exactly recall, that was a "true, false, uncertain; explain why" question. Something about students giving money to the homeless and this indicating that students are irrational when it comes to money. (uncertain; it may indicate that students derive utility from helping the homeless -- perhaps too Berkeley of an example -- and therefore giving a quarter to a homeless person becomes a very rational, utility maximizing thing to do). M =--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--= Martha L. Olney Visiting Associate Professor of Economics University of California, Berkeley [510] 642-6083 MOlney@econ.berkeley.edu <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Fri Nov 11 07:35:35 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Literature in Teaching Message-ID: <01HJCFSGV516002MMG@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> i have a colleague who uses Passport to Pimlico for a WW2/post-war Bristish course for the black market aspect plus entertainment value. The Harlan County film documents a coal strike and would be useful <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Fri Nov 11 12:47:21 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Ethics Message-ID: <01HJCQP4O59U002TMD@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> Etzioni's work has found, has you probably all know, that taking economics make s students meaner, dramatically less willing to give to charity and to voluntee r; perhaps economics typically teaches students not only a peculiar form of "ra tionality" but also makes everyone into a "price taker"--which means you as an individual have no capacity to change the world (relative prices) within which you function. My colleague Lanse Minkler is now teaching a course "Beyond Self Interest" which has gotten a very favorable response from students. If you wa nt to know about the course, write him at Dept. of Ecoomics, Room 332, 341 Mans field Road, Univ. of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-1063. <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Fri Nov 11 12:51:44 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Text on History of Regulation/Deregulation Message-ID: <01HJCQTUEBIW002TMD@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> Richard Vietor's relatively new book, CONTRIVED COMPETITION, is a very nicely c rafted study of regulation/deregulation, 1935-1990, which gives students a very good understanding that what drove creation of new regulatiory frameworks in t he 1930s was not merely profit-seeking (some call it rent-seeking, but money is fungible, isn't it, and surplus over cost is you get to take home, whatever te rm you apply) conduct, and the technological and structural changes that drove the re-writing of the rules of competition (all markets are "regulated" so the terms regulation and deregulation are misnomers and misleading). He uses four case studies and four industries--natural gas, banking, telephone, and airlines . I used it last spring and students really liked the book. <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Fri Nov 11 14:25:28 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Teaching Evaluation Message-ID: <01HJCU4PKBV6002TMD@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> I recently read an article in The Marketing Educator (November, 1994), "Lengthy end-of- course summary evaluations may have limited value," by Randall G. Chapman (now a consultant, but formerly at Boston University) This article reports on analysis he and colleagues did of the UB CTE form--a 34-question monster. He found that the form really only effectively probed two constructs and that virtually all the information could be extracted a nine-question form. The nine items were: INSTRUCTOR ITEMS: "The instructor overall" "Ability to present information in class" "Ability to lead class discussion" "Degree of instructor organization" "Degree of instructor's preparation for class session" COURSE VALUE ITEMS "The course overall" "Potential usefullness to professional career" "Overall educational value" "Amount of learning in this course" I don't actually know how the scales are described (but items 1, 3, and 4 in the COURSE VALUE ITEMS look virtually identical to me). The analysis also concludes that using additional, within-course evaluation instruments along with the end-of-course instrument provides greater information. It's worth a look, particularly in conjunction with the piece in the Fall, 1994, Journal of Economic Education, "The Status and Perception of University Outcomes Assessment in Economics," by James P. McCoy, Don Chamberlain, and Rob Seay. Donald A. Coffin | Keynes, when admonished for Division of Business and Economics | being inconsistent, replied, Indiana University Northwest | "When someone convinces me that 3400 Broadway | I am wrong, I change my mind. Gary, IN 46408 | What do you do?" (As related 219-980-6867 (Office) | by Joan Robinson.) 219-980-6579 (FAX) | don@iunbus1.iun.indiana.edu | <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Fri Nov 11 14:25:53 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Films in Teaching Message-ID: <01HJCU57IUD4002TMD@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> PBS's "The American Experience" series did two shows a coouple of years ago--one on the crash and the events leading up to it, the other on the depression itself. Both use a lot of contemporary newsreel footage and montages of contemporary stills. The narration is outstanding. In more detail is the multi-part (I think 7, but the tapes are at home and I'm in my office) series on "The Great Depression," with the companion book by T.H. Watkins. The book doesn't do a very good job, in my opinion, of dealing with the economics of the depression, but it does convey what life was like for people affected by the depression. (I might note that one aspect of the depression I have always felt was under-reported is how much better off some middle-class families became. For example, my father's family--solidly middle-class in Indianapolis--was able to hire permanent, full-time, live-in servants in the 1930s.) Donald A. Coffin | Keynes, when admonished for Division of Business and Economics | being inconsistent, replied, Indiana University Northwest | "When someone convinces me that 3400 Broadway | I am wrong, I change my mind. Gary, IN 46408 | What do you do?" (As related 219-980-6867 (Office) | by Joan Robinson.) 219-980-6579 (FAX) | don@iunbus1.iun.indiana.edu | <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Fri Nov 11 16:18:49 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Literature in the classroom Message-ID: <01HJCY37FMU0002U9M@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> I have used E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime to teach about the early 20th century. Real people show up (among them Henry Ford and J.P. Morgan) in the midst of the fiction which gives some opportunties to teach that are not there in most novels. I give a writing assignment in which I tell the students to pretend that they are the book review editor of the JEH who is mistakenly sent a review copy of the novel and decides after reading it to review it as an economic history book for the journal. We talk about what a book review should be, and I have them read 3 reviews from the JEH and three reviews of novels from the Sunday New York Times. The students like the novel, they like the assignment, and their knowledge of this very interesting period in U.S. history is enriched beyond what they get from the text and from the data I hand out. I always bring in some Scott Joplin to play in the background when we discuss the book. The movie they made of the book isn't bad, but does not substitute as a good evocation of the early 20th century. ---Elyce Rotella <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Sat Nov 12 19:14:08 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: World History Teaching Standards Message-ID: <01HJEHW6XSPQ0018DR@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> A while back, there was mention of a debate between Gary Nash and Lynne Cheney over a new set of standards about teaching world history. The following excerpt from the Fri. Nov. 11 Washington Post describes some of the points of contention. It is from a story entitled "World History Teaching Standards Draw Critics" by Guy Gigliotta. The same study group that ignited a debate last month over "political correctness" in the teaching of American history yesterday released a new set of standards for world history, garnering fresh criticism for ignoring tradition in favor of an ecl;ectic approach of questionable relevance to American students. Critics say the world standards shortchange the influence of Western civilization, focus on its sins and fill public school history curricula with material drawn from a mammoth grab-bag of world cultures past and present." "It's a welter of detail, an outpouring of information," said Lynne V. Cheney... "The 314 page "National Standards for World History:Exploring Paths to the Present " was developed at UCLA with participation by 35 national educaitonal organizations, among them the American Historical Association and the National Council for History Education. Cheney intiated attacks on the panel last month, charging that national standards for American history published at that time ignored 'great men' and events, paid too much attention to the nation's failures and overemphasized the role of women and minorities." "UCLA history Prof. Gary B. Nash who co-directed the 2 and a half year project dismissed Cheney's most recent objections as the opinions of someone who 'has a very frail background in history.'" "The early part of the guidelines draws heavily on archaelogical information documenting the development of mankind itself and the rise of ancient cultures. 'Explain the development of tropical agriculture in Southeast Asia,' reads one standard for grades five and six. 'What role did bamboo play as a major tool in this area.' "Nash explained that the emphasis on heretofore little-known areas of the world 'is an amplification' of recent history teaching trends made possible by 'stunning archaeological digs that have revealed the history of the ancient past.' But Cheney said 'there is too much that is too old,' and questioned its relevance to American students. There's nothing wrong of course with studying the rest of the world, but not through this massive amount of detail.'" "When the standards do focus on Western civilization, Cheney added they often emphasize the negative. She cited the guidelines' suggestion that students study Michelangelo to learn about 'oppression and conflict in Europe' during the Renaissance. 'What about beauty?' she asked." "Well apparently she doesn't believe there is anything about oppression and conflict in the Renaissance,' responded Nash. That is interesting, because it was happening everywhere else." David Mitch <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Sun Nov 13 17:02:18 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: North on Challenges and Rewards of Teaching Message-ID: <01HJFRPBE2Q6002H5L@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> As many of you know by now, Douglass North has been named as winner of the first Jonathan Hughes Prize for Excellence in Teaching Economic History, a prize awarded by the Committee on Education and Teaching of the Economic History Association. The Education Committee asked Douglass North to provide a statement of a couple of paragraphs on the theme of "The Challenges and Rewards of Teaching Economic History." He has been good enough to provide the following response: "I think the challenge of teaching in economic history is to get the students to learn to think for themselves, but in a particular context of learning to think for themselves as a part of understanding the process of historical change. It is very difficult for students to learn how to make a good explanation and, indeed, what I do is usually make them write a term paper in which they state a hypothesis in economic history and then show how they could test the hypothesis. That forces them to understand how complex and difficult it is to make good explanations not just in economic history but in every day life." "The rewards of teaching economic history is to see if you have made a modest in roads towards accomplishing and meeting that challenge. I always begin my classes by telling the students that they should never believe a word that I, or, indeed, any other professor says. They should evaluate critically the assertions, statements, and hypotheses we make. I expect them to challenge me at every turn. The rewards come if by the end of the semester they have begun to think for themselves and to evaluate critically not only what I say, but what the text says, and, indeed, what the rest of the faculty say. If by the end of the semester you begin to to get some glimmering that they have begun to think for themselves then, indeed, one can feel satisfied that the class has been worthwhile to them and to you." Douglass North, winner of the first Jonathan Hughes Prize on "The Challenges and Rewards of Teaching Economic History." David Mitch <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Sun Nov 13 19:25:02 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Ethics in the Curriculum Message-ID: <01HJFX5RIG540034F6@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> > I don't know if this is what you're interested in, but in teaching Econ > 1, I noted that we can derive utility from all sorts of things. The > standard economic assumption has us deriving utility from consumption, > but I suggested that some may also derive utility from, for instance, > giving money to various charities. On the midterm then I had a question, > the phrasing of which I do not exactly recall, that was a "true, false, > uncertain; explain why" question. Something about students giving money > to the homeless and this indicating that students are irrational when it > comes to money. (uncertain; it may indicate that students derive utility > from helping the homeless -- perhaps too Berkeley of an example -- and > therefore giving a quarter to a homeless person becomes a very rational, > utility maximizing thing to do). > Martha L. Olney You can do more than this. Consumption is whatever we spend resources on. A good is anything we will make a sacrifice to obtain. Giving a beggar a quarter costs its alternative uses. Having children costs, implying that children are a good as well, because people are willing to make that sacrifice. So far, just definitions. The law of demand implies that when the sacrifice goes up, we do less of it. People with more valuable time have fewer children. There is a nifty piece by Feldstein and Clotfelter in the Journal of Public Economics back in I think 1976 (I don't have the reference handy) on the economics of charitable contributions. They pointed out that because charitable contributions are deductible, increases in the marginal tax rate lower the cost of charitable donations, and so set out to estimate the demand for charitable contributions, which I recall they found to be indeed downward sloping. Economic analysis doesn't tell us that Berkeley students won't give quarters to the homeless, only that they will give less when the price goes up. Unfortunately, off the top of my head, I can't think of a simple but plausible set of circumstances that would change the price of giving to the homeless, since the typical student doesn't itemize deductions. Perhaps location. Students farther from the homeless give less because of the transport costs. Bill Sjostrom University College Cork <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Mon Nov 14 07:18:09 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Ethics Message-ID: <01HJGM2Z2OB6003671@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> The problem with the Feldstein analysis is that, if I recall correctly, low and middle income people give a higher proportion of their disposable income to ch arity than the wealthy, and the level of giving is not linked to itemization. That is how I remember the empirical data, but someone may have more recent inf ormation. It is also the case, incidentally, that Americans give far, far more to charity than people in any other country; I recall that Canadians are secon d in giving, well behind the Americans, and then the Europeans are far behind t he Canadians. That is data from probably five years ago; have things changed? <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Mon Nov 14 10:11:41 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Literature Message-ID: <01HJGS5558DE0034BR@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> For the period 1938 to 1940, four books, The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck, Factories in the Field by Carey McWilliams, An American Exodus by Dorothea Lange and Paul Taylor Schuster, and The Land of the Free by Archibald MacLeish may be presented in conjunction with little difficulty (Steinbeck and McWilliams are lenthy, but Lange and MacLeish are pictures and running dialogue, poetry, snippets of converstation, newlines, and the like--the precursor to "multimedia"). These books are interesting if not for what they show about the economics of agriculture for the period, but also for a comparison of how public perception and response about an event (the decline of the family farm) does not always occur at that event's worst moment. Lange's pictures are wonderful (as are the other WPA photographers whose works are represented), the text (especially Steinbeck) is moving when not strident, and, throw in contemporary articles from Life, Woody Guthrie, and clips from John Ford's movie version of Grapes, alot of "literary" territory can be covered. Kurt Gerdenich <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Mon Nov 14 10:12:13 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Ethics Message-ID: <01HJGS5TB5W80034BR@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> Is it at all possible that Americans give more in charitable contributions beca use our society provides less than the countries cited to the very poor? After all, all those countries you mentioned at least had universal health coverage. <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Mon Nov 14 20:24:14 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Slave Narratives Message-ID: <01HJHDIHY4BM003DLE@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> An English dept colleague of mine (at Albion) who does research on 19thc slave narratives suggested two when I asked her. They are: 1. chapter XI of Frederick Douglass' autobiography, in which he castigates participants in the Underground RR for publicizing the RR's existence and thus making it more difficult for slaves to escape. He also describes how he bought his freedom and how he felt his first weeks in the North. 2. excerpts from "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavas Vassa, the African, Written by Himself" in which the author describes being captured in Africa, working for a ship captain, and witnessing a slave auction. Both can be found in _The Norton Anthology of American Literature_, vol. 1, 4th ed. W.W. Norton. I confess that I haven't done much with either of these pieces beyond distributing the former yet because the two times I've taught US econ hist have not been good times to do much investment, and this is clearly a subject which calls for much prior thought on an instructor's part. Students did find the Douglass piece interesting. It seems that we ought to talk about more than just the efficiency of plantations. One interesting aspect of both pieces is that they show the authors as active agents and not just passive victims or production functions, something my students noticed in the Douglass chapter. An unrelated request as long as I'm posting: Can people please sign their posts? In case you haven't noticed, the "from" part of the message header gives the server address, not the poster's. Some e-mail software packages make it difficult to find the poster's address, or won't transfer the address to a text file. Even knowing the e-mail address is often insufficient for figuring out the poster's identity, especially for grad students and younger members of the profession. While one advantage claimed for cyberspace is that people are judged by the content of their posts rather than their looks, I don't think we should go so far as to be a series of postings divorced from any identity. I realize most people on this list are signing their posts, but some are not. Akira Motomura amotomura@barnard.columbia.edu <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Mon Nov 14 20:52:51 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: How Close are we to the Virtual Classroom? Message-ID: <01HJHDJ9ZD9K003DLE@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> The article from which the following is excerpted is from today's (Mon., Nov. 14, 1994 ) Washington Post. It is entitled "Va. Universities Anticipate Electronic Revolution: Rising Enrollments, Shrinking Budget Force Overhaul of Undergraduate Experience." Perhaps econhist.teach subscribers might like to comment on how their assessment of current trends in U.S. higher ed jives with what the article describes and what in particular the implications could be for the teaching of economic history in the future. The article is By Michael Shear of the Washington Post. "Faced with a student population expected to grow by 80,000 during the next decade and the prospect that state funding will not keep pace, Virginia's 15 public colleges and universities are racing to invent a new kind of undergraduate experience. Soon students will take courses by home computer, viewing lectures recorded on videotape or CD-ROM disks instead of sitting in a classroom. They will learn at their own pace by attending school year-round and taking classes in the evenings and on weekends.... The menu of academic choices will shrink as colleges eliminate marginal classes and departments focus on what they do best. 'You are not going to see the 50-minute, three times a week, talking-head class with 150 students taking notes,' said George Johnson, president of George Mason University. 'That's a 19th century model. Within five years, we are going to see a radical transformation in the way universities offer instruction in Virginia.'...By using technology and eliminating the traditional freshman to senior schedule, institutions are hoping to accomodate larger numbers of students without sacrificing the quality of teaching or cramming students into large lecture halls." "The information superhighway will make possible long-distance learning that is much different from the old correspondence school. Students and professors will be linked by electronic mail over the Internet and will have debates and arguments in 'virtual discussion groups' from the the comfort of their dormitory rooms and offices. That already is happening at several universities and will become more common starting next year. Old Dominion University will increase the number of 'on-line degrees' it offeres through a program called Teletechnet. The College of William and Mary will spend $400,000 next year to build a high-speed data network and its first 'teleclassroom.' James Madison will complete a campuswide computer network linking professors' offices and dormitories next year." "Students in Buck Miller's public administration course at Christopher Newport University in Newport News already have begun taking online classes. Each Monday morning last spring, Miller posted a question relating to the weekend's reading assignment on an electronic bulletin board. Students were expected to use a modem to dial into the bulletin board and respond to the question." "An experimental government course at George Mason last year was a step in that direction. Professor Hugh Helco did away with most in-class time by videotaping 12 lectures and making them available at the library; they also were broadcast on a local cable TV station. Students were required to attend discussion groups and participate in a citizenship project....some students who evaluated the course were highly critical. 'When I pay to take a class some of the responsibility should be the teacher's' one student wrote. At U-Va. students said they were wary of technology's burgeoning effect on their education. 'There's something to be said for personal contact,' said Constance Hutchinson, a 20-year old junior from Winchester, Va...'Watching lectures on TV, I wouldn't get anything out of it.' "Owen Roberston, a 26-year-old student at George Mason, said the benefits of hanging out with friends will disappear if everybody takes classes on computer without ever coming together in person." "Peg Miller, an analyst at the Council of Higher Education, said some things in the plans already are happening. 'The Pressures of money, of discipline realignment, of competition won't let up,' she said. 'I am sure that there are chunks of this that are fiction. But I do see enough evidence of things that are happening that a big chunk of this is real.'" >From "Va. Universities Anticipate Electronic Revolution" in Washington Post for Mon., November 14, 1994. David Mitch <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Tue Nov 15 11:48:38 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Ethics Message-ID: <01HJI9SPKI14003J1Z@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> > Is it at all possible that Americans give more in charitable contributions beca > use our society provides less than the countries cited to the very poor? After > all, all those countries you mentioned at least had universal health coverage. Curious notion, that. If the money doesn't come from the government, it hasn't come from society. It may be interesting to ask whether contributors to private charities free ride on the government, or vice versa. However, I suspect this discussion belongs on a list such as Pol-Econ, so I will leave it at that. Bill Sjostrom University College Cork <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Wed Nov 16 07:18:55 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Literature in Econonomic History courses Message-ID: <01HJJEOF52GO003R1U@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> <--------------------------------------------------> This is a posting to ECONHIST.TEACH, a list operated by The Cliometric Society (csociety@cs.muohio.edu). <--------------------------------------------------> One book you might consider using along with Ransom and Sutch or others on sharecropping is All God's Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw by Theodore Rosengarten. My copy is paper copyright 1974; I don't know if it's still in print. Rosengarten met Shaw, a former sharecropper, in the late 1960s when Shaw in his 80s. He was a former sharecropper and the book is his life story. I've used parts of it as recommended reading, not required, when I've taught sharecropping. Art Woolf Univ of Vermont awoolf@moose.uvm.edu <----------------------------------------------------------> To post a message, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. For more information, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Thu Nov 17 19:14:12 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Economic history in economics courses Message-ID: <01HJLHXKSY2C00476T@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> ================= ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ================= So far discussion on this list has concentrated mainly on issues arising in the context of courses devoted specifically to economic history. I have found these topics quite interesting but would also be interested in more discussion concerning teaching economic history in other economics courses. Most of us (in economics departments) teach subjects other than economic history. I teach for example micro and macro theory for undergraduates and labor economics. I would like to incorporate more historical material into these courses, and would like to know what other people have done along these lines, and how well it has worked. Joshua Rosenbloom University of Kansas =================================================== To post a message to this list, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. To get all the messages posted to this list only once a day, send the message "set ECONHIST.TEACH mail digest" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. To view past posting to this list, look in the directory "List Archive" in the Cliometric Society Server. The address is cs.muohio.edu. For more information and instructions, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. ==================================================== From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Thu Nov 17 19:34:50 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Virtual Online University Message-ID: <01HJLI6QEKE200476T@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> ================= ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ================= I saw in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education an article on Virtual Online University, some excerpts from which follow. What about teaching economic history courses in this sort of format? Or at least trying on online adhoc not for credit seminar on some current area of economic history? "Scholars Plan a Virtual University Offering Courses Exclusively on the Internet" by Robert L. Jacobson in Chronicle of Higher Education for Nov. 16, 1994. "A group of young scholars, frustarted by the tough academci job market and dissatisfied with much of what goes on in college classrooms is trying to establish a non-traditional university entirely on the internet. All enrolled students with access to at least a simple computer and a modem for making connections to the worldwide electronic network would be able to take part in the university's on-line classes. Although financial support for the new Virtual on-line university remained uncertain last week, its organizers hope to start offering liberal-arts courses next March with a core of about 15 full-time instructors." "the system which the university;s organizers have been testing for several months uses a conferencing software known as M))- for multi-user dimension, object oriented ." Moos are a variation of multi-user dungeons electronci environemnts for a kind of game playing that has captivated computre enthusiasts for years." "In a MOO environment like the one planned by Virtual Online University studnets would find the electronic equivalents of an actual campus. By activating varous computerized objects, studntes in teachers would meet in class-rooms, break into small-groiup seminars, visit various campus buildings, and use devices like tape-rcorders to retain all discussions. "..... "Precisely how a non-traditional institution like Virtual Online University might satisfy standards for accreditation is not clear. Steven D. Crow, deputy director of the higher-education commission of the North Central ASsociation of Colleges and Schools says accreditating bodies like his have yet to develop good tools fro evaluating such institutions." "At Penn State, a national leader in networking and remote learning activities, Gary E. Miller, assistant Vice President for distance education syas he is skeptical that a program such as Virtual online Univeristy's would prove viable simply because of its technology, and that the key to its success would be the content and goals of its curriculum." David Mitch =================================================== To post a message to this list, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. To get all the messages posted to this list only once a day, send the message "set ECONHIST.TEACH mail digest" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. To view past posting to this list, look in the directory "List Archive" in the Cliometric Society Server. The address is cs.muohio.edu. For more information and instructions, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. ==================================================== From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Thu Nov 17 20:04:22 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Combatting Boredom in the Classroom Message-ID: <01HJLIPQCAIO00476T@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> ================= ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ================= So far, not much has been said on econhist.teach about the term I think it fair to say most teachers dread hearing above all others in describing their teaching and classes -- boring. A recent article in the Washington post might prompt some comments on how subscribers have coped with or failed to cope with the problem of boredom among students. With the term more than half over for many of us and courses in the pre-thanksgiving doldrums, this may be an opportune moment to take up the issue. "Bored Student Bluezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz: Teachers Fail to Capture the Attention of the Super- Nintendo Generation." by Michael Shear The Washington Post, Tues, Nov. 8, 1994. "They doodle. They stare out the window. Their minds wander as they look forward to working on their cars or taking a trip to the mall. They are teenages in classrooms all over the Washington area and their minds are on anything but the lesson at hand." "One day last week, Chris Bell [a high school senior] tuned out psychology teacher Peggy Brennan's voice during a 30-minute lecture on the definition of various psychological terms." "The 17-year old perked up briefly when she barked during a lesson on how a dog might exhibit a conditioned response. But he zoned out again when Brennan went back to the blackboard to define four kinds of reinforcement." "I think it is better to do something other than just putting it on the board and saying Blah, Blah, Blah, blah he explained later. 'This class is usuall pretty good because she will do other things than just talk. But today was pretty boring." Brennan, Yorktown's school psychologist who is teaching forthe first time this year said she tries to engage her students by varying the way she presents the information. 'You make jokes. You give examples. You let them know you are not a machine up there who is supposed to force something down their throats.' she said. 'You can't be rigid at all. You have to be willing to go with the flow sometimes. Listening to the same person day in and day out probably gets pretty old. While nobody denies that any adult standing in front of a group of youngsters has the potential to be boring, educators say the situation in classrooms is serious. 'It is not a trivial problem. Kids never learn unless they are interested and motivated, ' said Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi a U. of Chicago professor who has studied teenage boredom for more than 20 years." "In one study of a Chicago public high school, the majority of students said the only time they weren't bored were between classes and at lunch with their friends." "No matter what their age and sex, students blame teachers for lecturing endlessly. And many say their interest in a particular subject can vary greatly from year to year, depending on who the teacher is. In interviews in Virginia, MAryland, and D.C. students said they wished teachers would tell more jokes, use more real life examples that youths can understand, allow students to work together in groups and engage the class in more discussions."..."A lot of times teachers just teach right from the text book [said one student] 'When they are just spitting back at you what you had read the night before, it gets old real fast." "Brennan said students need to face the fact that classes are going to be boring sometimes. 'I think we've done a real disservice to give them the impression that learning is always going to be fun.' she said. 'Let's face it, work isn't always fun.' "Specialists say many students use the word 'boredom' loosely, when they really mean they are aggravated or frustrated. A student who is struggling with material that is over her head, for example, may rationalize that the lesson isn't relevant to her life. Once that decision has been made she feels bored. 'The hae to feel that their abilities and skills are matched by what the teacher demands,' Csikszentmihalyi said. ' The problem everybody is coming from a different background.' "Others say students are bored in class because today's society doesn't train them to sit still and listen for long periods of time." [According to the chair of Prince George's county board of education] 'When you ask someone to sit and think about something for 50 minutes, they can't do it' he said. 'Their mind has not been trained to do it.' David Mitch =================================================== To post a message to this list, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. To get all the messages posted to this list only once a day, send the message "set ECONHIST.TEACH mail digest" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. To view past posting to this list, look in the directory "List Archive" in the Cliometric Society Server. The address is cs.muohio.edu. For more information and instructions, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. ==================================================== From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Thu Nov 17 20:21:40 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Combatting boredom (2) Message-ID: <01HJLJPWX11200476T@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> ================= ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ================= In the following passage from his _Vocation of a Teacher_ (U. of Chicago Press, 1988) Wayne Booth challenges the idea one must go to extremes to combat boredome an be an effective teacher: "Good teaching is dramatic, colorful, lively, entertaining. Right? A dean at Earlham College thought so once, and and when bad reports came in on the teaching of Mike Bossett, assistant professor of American history, he called the poor man in and told him to jazz things up a little. Bossett thought about it and appeared before his class in History of the American Frontier next day sporting a Davy Crockett costume, shooting off a cap pistol and shouting 'Yippee-ee-ee!' The result, almost needles to say was disastrous [personal comment here from David Mitch -- this example hits home for me, in one of my early years of teaching I tried to liven up a discussion of one of Winifred Rothenberg's articles on the MAss. farmer by showing up for class in in overalls, straw hat, and a pitchfork -- however, it was also Oct. 31 so most of the class went along with it. Also a former student of Larry Herbst at Vassar gave rave reviews of Larry's technique of at just the right moment in his class on the railroad, doffing an engineer's hat -- obviously an important consideration is whether this sort of stunt fits your personality and teaching style] "Last year, a professor of physics at Harvard taught his unit on jet propulsion by putt-putting himself into the classroom in a jet-propelled wheelchair, repeating the act as he later as he left the hall. I can't help wondering whether his students were as contemptuous deep down as Mike Bossett's." "At the opposite extreme from such shenanigans is my memory of one of the teachers who taught me most in graduate school. George Williamson violated every technique of good teaching that anyone has ever thought of. He would come into the classroom and shuffle, shifty-eyed, to a little platform open an attache case in from of him in such a way as to preclude all eye contact, focus his eyes alternately on the text and a far high corner of the room, and proceed to explicate T.S. Eliot's poems. It took me several weeks to realize that I was learning a lot, far more than I had learned in many a more engaging class." >From Wayne Booth, _The Vocation of a Teacher_, pp.210-211. David Mitch =================================================== To post a message to this list, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. To get all the messages posted to this list only once a day, send the message "set ECONHIST.TEACH mail digest" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. To view past posting to this list, look in the directory "List Archive" in the Cliometric Society Server. The address is cs.muohio.edu. For more information and instructions, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. ==================================================== From whaples at wfu.edu Fri Nov 18 08:28:31 1994 From: whaples at wfu.edu (robert whaples) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Combatting boredom (2) Message-ID: ================= ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ================= On boredom and its elimination. I think the key is whether or not we lecture all the time. I have found that even in big classes, I can engage the students in active (vs passive) learning. Passive learning is boring; active learning is not. (Why do we -- or at least I -- prefer Clio to EHA? B/c I am actively participating in Clio by thinking even when I'm not talking, but when I'm at EHA, it is easier to try to take in the info without also processing it, thinking about it, responding to it, jumping in, etc etc) Active learning can include: [1] Rather than presenting the material, asking leading questions. Easily done in theory classes. Do I say "When the exchange rate rises, net exports fall" or do I say "When the exchange rate rises, what happens to net exports? Do they rise or fall?" The second question invites a bit of active learning, an antidote for boredom. (Also lets me know if they are keeping up with me & the material) [2] Put them in pairs or groups of 3 and have them discuss something. I do this even in large lectures. I'm very pleased with the results. In a couple weeks, in intermediate macro, I am going to give them the 2-page table from the Ec Rpt of the Pres that breaks down federal spending & receipts. We are going to make an assumption about the size of the tax cut, and calculate a new TA total. We'll make another assumption about the size of the military spending increase, and calculate that total. We'll make a third assumption about the effect of rising interest rates on net interest expense, and calculate that total. Then we'll calculate the gap between revised (lowered) TA and revised (raised) G+TR. Then I'll set them lose to find enough spending cuts so that we have a balanced budget. Then I'll give them Newt's address & fax line. :) Anyway, they won't be bored! Go Bears!!! (Big Game is Saturday!) Marty =--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--= Martha L. Olney Visiting Associate Professor of Economics University of California, Berkeley [510] 642-6083 MOlney@econ.berkeley.edu =================================================== To post a message to this list, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. To get all the messages posted to this list only once a day, send the message "set ECONHIST.TEACH mail digest" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. To view past posting to this list, look in the directory "List Archive" in the Cliometric Society Server. The address is cs.muohio.edu. For more information and instructions, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. ==================================================== From whaples at wfu.edu Fri Nov 18 10:41:06 1994 From: whaples at wfu.edu (robert whaples) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: boring lectures Message-ID: ================= ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ================= With respect to boring lectures, a friend of mine who was a writing consultant once suggested to me that I could better engage my students in large lectures by giving them opportunities to write things in the middle of my lectures. I tested this out and found that it was very effective. Now when I teach things like supply and demand, where we want students to understand the logic. I show them a couple of examples and then I start the next example by asking them to draw the initial graph and then I tell them "income increased for a normal good" and have them try the analysis on paper for a minute or two before I say anything more. It turns out that this works pretty well for many types of logical endeavors. Usually about 60 percent to 75 percent of the class actually attempts to do the analysis. They often flip back through their notes to see how I did the previous example and then try to work it out. Then when I ask them to do another example, they typically work it out more quickly. Another nice feature is that the students feel free to make mistakes when writing something only for themselves and thus it reduces the fears of answering a question aloud. Also, the students often talk among themselves and show each other how to do the work. Of course, this technique is not foolproof. The remainder of the class tunes out further during the silence and some just wait to see how I am going to do it. I did find, however, that the results on my tests improved. Sincerely, Price Fishback, University of Arizona, pfishback@bpa.arizona.edu =================================================== To post a message to this list, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. To get all the messages posted to this list only once a day, send the message "set ECONHIST.TEACH mail digest" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. To view past posting to this list, look in the directory "List Archive" in the Cliometric Society Server. The address is cs.muohio.edu. For more information and instructions, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. ==================================================== From whaples at wfu.edu Fri Nov 18 11:08:18 1994 From: whaples at wfu.edu (robert whaples) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Teaching economic history in economics courses In-Reply-To: <01HJLHXKSY2C00476T@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> Message-ID: ================= ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ================= Josh Rosenbloom asks about introducing economic history into micro, macro, labor econ etc.: I have tried to systematically do this in my courses. In teaching Intro (which includes both macro and micro) this is accomplished in a number of ways: -Reducing the focus on macroeconomic theories of business cycles and focusing more on the causes of long run growth or stagnation. -Providing and discussing handouts which extend historical time series (unemployment, savings, female lfp rates, retirement rates, male-female wage gaps, black-white income differentials) much farther back than the text book does. Usually, I just recycle handouts from my American Economic History class. -The last couple of years I've been using Don McCloskey, editor, _Second Thoughts: Myths and Morals of U.S. Economic History_ in Intro. It illustrates the theoretical concepts we are learning in Intro with short, easy-to-read chapters by a number of our leading economic historians. Most of the chapters are written so that the history has meaning for current public policy debates. In Labor Econ I supplement the text with a series of readings about historical labor markets. An abbreviated copy of the syllabus is below. I especially recommend the chapter by Gavin Wright, and am always inspired when I read it. Syllabus: Econ 235 Labor Economics Professor Robert Whaples 759-4916 Office Hours: MWF 1-2 PM. Textbook: Modern Labor Economics by Ronald Ehrenberg and Robert Smith. Topic 1: Introduction and Overview of the Labor Market Gavin Wright, "Labor History and Labor Economics," in Alex Field, editor, The Future of Economic History. Topic 2: Demand for Labor Price Fishback, "Did Coal Miners "Owe Their Souls to the Company Store"? Theory and Evidence from the Early 1900s," Journal of Economic History, December, 1986. Topic 3: Labor Demand Elasticities, Technological Change, and Foreign Trade Topic 4: Quasi-Fixed Costs and Their Effects on Demand Michael Huberman, "Invisible Handshakes in Lancashire: Cotton Spinning in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century," Journal of Economic History, December, 1986. Exam 1: Labor Demand Topic 5: Supply of Labor: The Decision to Work Claudia Goldin, "The Changing Economic Role of Women: A Quantitative Approach," Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Spring, 1983. Topic 6: Labor Supply: Household Production, The Family and the Life Cycle Donald Parsons, "The Decline of Male Labor Force Participation," Journal of Political Economy, February, 1980. Topic 7: Compensating Wage Differential and Labor Markets Clark Nardinelli, "Corporal Punishment and Children's Wages in Nineteenth Century Britain," Explorations in Economic History, April, 1984. Topic 8: Human Capital: Education and Training Claudia Goldin, "The Historical Evolution of Female Earnings Functions and Occupations," Explorations in Economic History, 1984. Topic 9: Worker Mobility: Turnover and Migration Exam 2: Labor Supply Topic 10: Structure of Compensation Topic 11: Unions and Collective Bargaining Topic 12: Discrimination Robert Whaples and David Buffum, "Fear and Lathing in the Michigan Furniture Industry: Employee-Based Discrimination, 1889," forthcoming, Economic Inquiry. Exam 3: Labor Market Institutions Topic 14: Unemployment Paper Due Topic 15: Inflation and Unemployment Final Exam =================================================== To post a message to this list, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. To get all the messages posted to this list only once a day, send the message "set ECONHIST.TEACH mail digest" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. To view past posting to this list, look in the directory "List Archive" in the Cliometric Society Server. The address is cs.muohio.edu. For more information and instructions, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. ==================================================== From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Fri Nov 18 19:54:42 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Combatting Boredom (Continued) Message-ID: <01HJMX8KM2X4004B66@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> ================= ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ================= I found both Marty Olney's and Price Fishback's comments quite interesting and useful. I am in total agreement with them about the importance of active learning. I hope to try out their techniques. Does anyone have any suggestions for how the sort of thing Price does [i.e. posing a question and then having students answer it in their notes] could be used in an economic history course? As I may have mentioned in a posting on writing assignments, a few months back, I am having my European Econ. History students give in class reports which largely just summarize some required or recommended reading for the course. I am finding it a useful way to get more active involvement of students. What about historical role playing? Such as asking two students to take the part of FDR and Herbert Hoover and defend their policies etc. What about posing an issue which is important and which is grabbing but doesn't lend itself to a simple yes or no answer. In principle, at least, we should be developing our students abilities to at least begin to address important large historical issues. How can one do this in a way that promotes active learning and combats boredom? David Mitch =================================================== To post a message to this list, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. To get all the messages posted to this list only once a day, send the message "set ECONHIST.TEACH mail digest" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. To view past posting to this list, look in the directory "List Archive" in the Cliometric Society Server. The address is cs.muohio.edu. For more information and instructions, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. ==================================================== From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Fri Nov 18 20:05:51 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Warmups Message-ID: <01HJMXNV6MNY004B66@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> ================= ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ================= The following excerpt from _College Teaching_ (Summer, 1994) Vol. 42 no. 3 could be one approach to encouraging active learning and combatting boredom, perhaps even in large lecture classes. It is from a piece by Kim Corrigan of Washington State U. entitled "Warming Up to Learning." "I've found that asking students to bring their whole selves into the class room and learning more about who they are outside the classroom enlivens the learning environment. One method is to start each class session with one student or a small group to warm up the class. The warm-up lasts only a few minutes but sets a tone for enthusiasm and involvement. This strategy has been fairly easy to use in classes under fifty studnets, but the larger sections also hold promise. Warm-ups might be categorized in two ways, those related to course content and those unrelated. The former may require more time for discussion, direction, and integration into the class. A student may facilitate the warm-up and involve the entire class, or it may be a solo effort; for example, the student might pose a question - and start some discussion. Last semester one student asked each person to pretend they were running for president. 'How would lead this country?' she asked, 'and what would be your main priority for your first 100 days?' She had the students write their responses, and she collecteed them. The following week she briefly reported on students' common themes and creative responses. 'Government needs to be more in touch with real people.' one student wrote, ' and I'd make my whole cabinet wear Reeboks.' "Model for your students that learning happens everywhere, and it's not always connected to a book. Find ways to discover your students' talents and dreams, and make a place for them in your classroom." from Kim Corrigan, "Warming Up to Learning" in College Teaching Summer, 1994. Has anyone tried having students do warmups? David Mitch =================================================== To post a message to this list, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. To get all the messages posted to this list only once a day, send the message "set ECONHIST.TEACH mail digest" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. To view past posting to this list, look in the directory "List Archive" in the Cliometric Society Server. The address is cs.muohio.edu. For more information and instructions, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. ==================================================== From whaples at wfu.edu Mon Nov 21 14:02:25 1994 From: whaples at wfu.edu (robert whaples) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Literature in Teaching Economic History (fwd) Message-ID: ================= ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ================= I'm not at all opposed to using literature in the classroom, but I guess I would worry about using a book like Ragtime. I think students could end up permanently confused about what the historical actors portrayed in the book actually did. Naomi Lamoreaux ============ FOOTER TO ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ============ * To post a message to this list, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. * To get all the messages posted to this list only once a day, send the message "set ECONHIST.TEACH mail digest" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. * To view past posting to this list, look in the directory "List Archive" in the Cliometric Society Server. The address is: cs.muohio.edu. * For more information and instructions, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. ==================================================== From whaples at wfu.edu Mon Nov 21 14:09:31 1994 From: whaples at wfu.edu (robert whaples) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Teaching economic history in economics courses (fwd) Message-ID: ================= ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ================= I try to include economic history in all of my courses, and make it a central feature in introductory micro. I use the mechanization of reaping as an example when explaining long-run costs; the development of the railroads and the interstate highways when discussing cost-benefit analysis; and the economics of slavery in discussing how labor markets and capital markets differ not because of purely economic considerations but because of moral and ethical considerations. Louis Johnston ============ FOOTER TO ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ============ * To post a message to this list, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. * To get all the messages posted to this list only once a day, send the message "set ECONHIST.TEACH mail digest" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. * To view past posting to this list, look in the directory "List Archive" in the Cliometric Society Server. The address is: cs.muohio.edu. * For more information and instructions, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. ==================================================== From whaples at wfu.edu Tue Nov 22 08:17:28 1994 From: whaples at wfu.edu (robert whaples) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Literature in Teaching Economic History Message-ID: ================= ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ================= I'm not at all opposed to using literature in the classroom, but I guess I would worry about using a book like Ragtime. I think students could end up permanently confused about what the historical actors portrayed in the book actually did. Naomi Lamoreaux ============ FOOTER TO ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ============ * To post a message to this list, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. * To get all the messages posted to this list only once a day, send the message "set ECONHIST.TEACH mail digest" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. * To view past posting to this list, look in the directory "List Archive" in the Cliometric Society Server. The address is: cs.muohio.edu. * For more information and instructions, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. ==================================================== From whaples at wfu.edu Tue Nov 22 08:18:04 1994 From: whaples at wfu.edu (robert whaples) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Teaching economic history in economics courses Message-ID: ================= ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ================= I try to include economic history in all of my courses, and make it a central feature in introductory micro. I use the mechanization of reaping as an example when explaining long-run costs; the development of the railroads and the interstate highways when discussing cost-benefit analysis; and the economics of slavery in discussing how labor markets and capital markets differ not because of purely economic considerations but because of moral and ethical considerations. Louis Johnston ============ FOOTER TO ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ============ * To post a message to this list, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. * To get all the messages posted to this list only once a day, send the message "set ECONHIST.TEACH mail digest" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. * To view past posting to this list, look in the directory "List Archive" in the Cliometric Society Server. The address is: cs.muohio.edu. * For more information and instructions, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. ==================================================== From whaples at wfu.edu Tue Nov 22 13:58:55 1994 From: whaples at wfu.edu (robert whaples) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:35 2006 Subject: Warmups Message-ID: ================= ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ================= I have not used warm-ups for my normal lecture periods. I assign "cold-calls" which usually force students to be ready for class. I do use warm-ups for exams. I tell students that taking an exam is no different from running a race, playing a sport like baseball or volleyball, or playing a musical instrument. If you do not warm up, you'll sprain something (in the case of an exam, your brain.) So, I usually spend the class period before an exam reviewing material and working with the students to come up with warm up exercises for the exam. Louis ================================================================ Louis Johnston Department of Economics and Management Gustavus Adolphus College St. Peter, MN 56082 (507) 933-7436 ljohnsto@gac.edu ============ FOOTER TO ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ============ * To post a message to this list, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. * To get all the messages posted to this list only once a day, send the message "set ECONHIST.TEACH mail digest" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. * To view past posting to this list, look in the directory "List Archive" in the Cliometric Society Server. The address is: cs.muohio.edu. * For more information and instructions, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. ==================================================== From whaples at wfu.edu Fri Nov 25 08:49:22 1994 From: whaples at wfu.edu (robert whaples) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:36 2006 Subject: Combatting boredom (2); also writing & warmups Message-ID: ================= ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ================= Warning: this is long (85 lines), but I hope it's worthwhile. I'm a bit slow in posting this in response to recent postings on combatting boredom via active learning, but I've been busy with job applications. Anyway, last week I attended a workshop on teaching writing across the curriculum conducted by Toby Fulwiler of the U of Vermont English dept. He's into the idea that students can use writing as a learning experience, especially if classes are structured better. I'll pass on some of the ideas that seemed most intriguing to me, both as possible suggestions and in search of reactions/reports on experiences by people who may have tried any of these. I think this also ties into the threads on warmups and on teaching writing that we had several weeks ago. 1. Have students spend 5 minutes at the start of class writing about some question or topic you give them, then discuss with neighbors. While students should start with your topic, if their mind takes them somewhere else, that's ok. This then may or may not be extended to sharing ideas unearthed with the whole class. Students need not share the actual text they write with anyone if they don't want. This might be considered a variant on Marty Olney's small group idea and on the warmup concept. 2. Students should read each other paper drafts in class - in small groups unless you have a very small class - and give each other comments and suggestions for revisions. Then each student should write down her plans for revisions at the end of the session. The draft with revision notes should be turned in with the final version. Fulwiler recommends doing this at least 3 times; students tend to be too soft on each other at first, but then get the hang of it. Students have often never read anything they've written, or thought about their writing as having an audience. 3. Concentrate writing on a few projects (even one) with multiple intermediate deadlines. Focus your comments at the intermediate stages to a few substantive points; don't edit or grade at the early stages. Fulwiler claims you can do this without increasing total grading time; it's a reallocation. If students want/need editing help, put them in pairs to help each other or encourage them to use writing centers and the like. a. A revision might consist of a draft not meant to produce a better final paper directly - what he calls "provocative revision." An example on a research paper might be to take the opposite position from that expressed in the first draft or to take one paragraph and expand greatly on it. The idea is that the student will see possibilities to improve later versions of the actual paper. 4. Writing portfolios in which the student is responsible for writing regularly (and gets feedback), but then submits a whole portfolio at midterm and final (perhaps the only times you assign grades). She might tell you then what pieces she wants to be judged on (presumably you'd set some parameters on this). 5. This isn't always writing related, but a question box, especially for large lectures. You collect anonymous questions at the end of class, then address them at the beginning of the next one. 6. Showing models of papers and of revision processes, perhaps even from our own work. The underlying philosophy behind these ideas is that students learn by writing and should get practice in doing this before being judged on their ideas and ability to communicate them; in effect, the idea is to expand our coaching role to make the judging easier. Also, students learn most in revising a first draft, often more than in writing that first draft (I imagine many of us know this from going thru the revise & resubmit process). This is all in line with the active learning ideas. Any reactions, experiences, or comments? Akira Motomura Barnard Economics amotomura@barnard.columbia.edu PS Happy Thanksgiving to all ============ FOOTER TO ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ============ * To post a message to this list, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. * To get all the messages posted to this list only once a day, send the message "set ECONHIST.TEACH mail digest" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. * To view past posting to this list, look in the directory "List Archive" in the Cliometric Society Server. The address is: cs.muohio.edu. * For more information and instructions, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. ==================================================== From whaples at wfu.edu Fri Nov 25 08:51:01 1994 From: whaples at wfu.edu (robert whaples) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:36 2006 Subject: Race & Gender in Intro Econ Workshop Message-ID: ================= ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ================= I encourage economic historians who teach intro econ to consider applying to attend the workshop on "Improving Introductory Economics Education by Integrating the Latest Scholarship on Women and Minorities." It'll be held next June 15-20 at Wellesley College. The workshop discusses issues of content and pedagogy where race and gender issues can be brought into intro courses. When I attended the workshop in 1993, we also discussed the underlying problems of intro courses that essentially transmit an axiomatic system of knowledge without much connection to reality that is familiar or important to students. I think economic historians can contribute a lot to this kind of discussion as well as getting something for our own courses. Info and application forms were sent out several weeks ago to many departments. If there isn't one kicking around your department, contact workshop co-director Robin Bartlett at: Dept of Economics Denison University Granville, OH 43023 phone: 614-587-6574; e-mail bartlett@cc.denison.edu Applications should be accompanied by some form of institutional support promise: curriculum resources, release time, or some other sign of departmental interest. They are due Jan 6. Other economic historians whom I know to have attended the workshop are Pamela Nickless (in '93) and Joan Hannon (in '94). The conference is NSF-funded so room & board are provided; registration is $100. Participants from the '93 and '94 workshops will hold a cocktail hour at ASSA on Fri Jan 6 (don't know if they'll be accepting applications there) at 5:30 in the Marshall Room of the Sheraton Washington. All economists are welcome to find out more about the project there. Earlier that afternoon from 1:00 to 4:30 there will be followup sessions at which workshop participants will discuss what they've done with their courses. Those will be held in the Idaho room of the Sheraton. Last year's followup session was open and I assume the same will be true this time around - we're not planning the transport of unsecured nuclear weapons (maybe Pamela will want to plot how to shut up Jesse Helms :)). Akira Motomura Barnard Economics amotomura@barnard.columbia.edu ============ FOOTER TO ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ============ * To post a message to this list, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. * To get all the messages posted to this list only once a day, send the message "set ECONHIST.TEACH mail digest" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. * To view past posting to this list, look in the directory "List Archive" in the Cliometric Society Server. The address is: cs.muohio.edu. * For more information and instructions, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. ==================================================== From whaples at wfu.edu Tue Nov 29 09:12:48 1994 From: whaples at wfu.edu (robert whaples) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:36 2006 Subject: Declining number of majors Message-ID: ================= ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ================= Recently the Econhist list has had an active discussion of the declining number of undergraduate economics majors. In case you don't subscribe to this list, here are the comments. Robert Whaples Department of Economics Wake Forest University Winston-Salem, NC 27109 910-759-4916 fax 910-759-4809 ================= ECONHIST POSTING ================= I had a conversation the other day with a German professor who holds a chair in economic history. He reported that economic history as a field is under pressure from university administrations, and may either shrink or be eliminated, and that enrollments (student interest) is in serious decline. Not being an economic historian, I wondered if this observation was true for other nations, including the United States. Are enrollments in economic history courses declining, stable, or rising? At Ohio State our enrollments in business history have had a precipitous decline, but that has more to do with university politics than any other factor. K. Austin Kerr e-mail kerr.6@osu.edu Professor of History office (614)292-2613 Ohio State University department 292-2674 Columbus, Ohio 43210 USA fax (614)292-2282 ================= ECONHIST POSTING ================= Enrollments in economic history in Departments of Economics are expanding relatively (there were 15 jobs in economic history advertised in the October issue of Job Opportunities for Economists), but enrollments in Economics are falling nationwide, so I expect the total might be sagging a little. Economics departments around the country are wondering what's going on. History Departments in the U.S. and Canada don't offer a vast amount of economic history. I think History enrollments are rising. The foreign situation is quite different. Students choose their concentration before entering university and then do 100% of their work in that subject. I know the British situation best: it is that there were quite a number of professors of economic history, and departments of economics and social history, after the War. For reasons I do not understand--perhaps something connected with the fact that most of my students at the University of York (with economic history in Economics) wanted to be chartered accountants--enrollments in such programs has been going down. The Economic History Society has done yeoman work trying to make the field more attractive to secondary-schoolers (it is taught also in the schools and 6th forms), and we are all puzzled. Economic history as a department has a lot of merits in Britain--since it's 100% of the students' work, they can get a pretty good foundation in economics and then get socialized in history, too. It's hard to think of a better combination as a preparation for business or the civil service. Anyway, the main reply is this: the European as against US/Canadian situations have quite different causes, because the courses of study are so different. Personally I expect the recent Nobel prizes to North and Fogel to cause an uptick worldwide. Don McCloskey Departments of Economics and of History University of Iowa ================= ECONHIST POSTING ================= I recently heard an interesting hypothesis, stating that the decline in enrollment in economics and business stems largely from decreases in female majors. Nursing and other more traditional "female" occupations have supposedly been enjoying an increase in enrollment, and the explanation I have heard offered for this is one of labor-leisure tradeoff. The argument is that the jobs one usually gets with an economics or business degree, while lucrative, are extremely demanding of both time and effort. Perhaps this general trend reveals that these women value their leisure more relative to the stuff they could buy with all of that money . . . ? BTW, this discussion arose in my economic history class when we were discussing the Horrell and Humphries JEH 1992 paper using family budgets to shed some light on the standard of living debate. H&H observe that even during periods when real male wages were increasing in industrializing Britain, family incomes were falling in some places. One of my students offered the argument that the increases in real male wages may have enabled women and children to stop working, again a labor-leisure tradeoff argument, so the family might actually have been better off even though their measurable income had fallen. Who says economic history has no modern relevance :-) ?? Lynne Kiesling College of William and Mary ================= ECONHIST POSTING ================= I think Austin Kerr's query about enrollment trends in economic history is an important one or at least should be important to those of us who are economic historians. But I would also venture to say that the data are probably not available to address this in even a remotely satisfactory way for the U.S. as a whole. We can each of course relate our own experiences and of those we know. Economic history enrollments in my own department have declined much less than those in many other specialty areas offered in recent years (I teach in an undergrad only econ. department). And my own bias is towards thinking that when taught with due care, economic history can more than hold its own in appealing to economics and business undergrads compared with other subfields of economics. My own experience has been that for a variety of reasons undergrad students tend to find economic history more interesting and engaging (or at least as interesting and engaging) as other areas of economics. I am prepared to accept Don McCloskey's characterization of long-term trends about departments of economic and social history in England. However, my impression on a recent visit to LSE was that its economic history enrollments were holding their own (and this is just impressionistic, I can not report on trends) due in good measure to students who wanted to work on various current policy issues but were leary of the formalism they might encounter in an economics department whether at LSE or elsewhere. However, to return to aggregate U.S. trends I am not sure enrollments in economic history courses whether offered in Economics or in History Departments have been compiled and separated out from overall enrollments in these departments in such a way that one could meaningfully address what the aggregate trend. If I am wrong, I would be very interested in seeing actual enrollment estimates for economic history courses for the U.S. as a whole or even intelligent guestimates or even controlled conjectures as to trends. As someone involved with EHA's committee on education and teaching it has occurred to that perhaps the committee should look into collecting better information on this topic and have suggested it to a few others. Perhaps we should survey at least something that could purport to be a representative sample of economics and history departments in the U.S. and ask how many of them currently offer economic history courses of one sort or another on a regular basis and what trends have been in course offerings and enrollments. The spread of email may make this an increasingly more feasible task to undertake. In that way perhaps we could arrive at more informed answers to the important issue that Austen Kerr has posed. Reactions? David Mitch University of Maryland Baltimore County Mitch@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU ================= ECONHIST POSTING ================= One low cost method of deducing enrollment trends in economic history, may be to ask the authors of the leading textbooks to confidentially report their annual sales figures (currently and in the past) to someone they all trust. He or she could then aggregate the data, without spilling the beans about market share. What do you textbook authors think of this suggestion? Robert Whaples Department of Economics Wake Forest University Winston-Salem, NC 27109 910-759-4916 fax 910-759-4809 ================= ECONHIST POSTING ================= The terminology "labor-leisure" to characterize the decision to work at home with income taken through in-kind goods reminds us of how misleading our [male?] terms can be--perhaps only men would have thought of a pairing in which working for pay was the only form of "real" work, which explains perhaps why males as typically such lugs at home. There is a big shift in enrollments at many institutions to the biological sciences, but I don't know if it is a national trend. I do suspect that economics, which does seem to be suffering a broad enrollment decline, has suffered perhaps from the complacency of large enrollments and the absence of a need to offer courses treating new topics and emphasizing contemporary policy relevance. Our experimental courses (we are trying to stem the enrollment fall) seem to be doing reasonably well, and we are planning on introducing a freshman course that is not a course for majors--like the science courses for non-majors--trying to show people what the field tries to do, followed by an intensive one-semester principles course for those who decide after seeing what the field is about to give it a more serious look. How are others responding to the enrollment fall? ================= ECONHIST POSTING ================= I like Robert Whaples suggestion for compiling total textbook sales, although I have not discussed it with Gary Walton or our publisher. In recent years, however, the efficiency of the used textbook market has increased -- a trend that, hopefully, has come to an end -- so we would want to check the figures against actual enrollments. We might also be selling ourselves short in comparison with other fields that rely more heavily on textbooks. Total enrollment in economics has declined at Rutgers. My impression from talking with students is that the word has gotten out that majoring in economics does not give a student an edge with corporate recruiters, MBA programs, or law schools. Or at least the edge now appears to be smaller and unable to compensate for the lower grades in economics compared with political science, history, etc. Within our department, economic history enrollments have held up well. Hugh Rockoff ============ FOOTER TO ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ============ * To post a message to this list, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. * To get all the messages posted to this list only once a day, send the message "set ECONHIST.TEACH mail digest" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. * To view past posting to this list, look in the directory "List Archive" in the Cliometric Society Server. The address is: cs.muohio.edu. * For more information and instructions, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. ==================================================== From whaples at wfu.edu Wed Nov 30 08:13:32 1994 From: whaples at wfu.edu (robert whaples) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:36 2006 Subject: Declining number of majors Message-ID: ================= ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ================= The story Down Under is much the same as in Europe. Students specialize earlier and more thoroughly than in the United States. A number of economic history departments have been amalgomated into economics departments in recent years. A number of others (including here at Melbourne) are under various degrees of threat because student/staff ratios compare unfavourably to other commerce subjects. This trend does not necessarily reflect decreasing student interest, rather there are a number of other factors at work, such as 1) In recent years Australian education has been increasingly "commodified". I suspect student/staff ratios in economic history have always been fairly low, but until recently nobody cared. 2) Increasing requirements in other majors, particularly accounting. Economic history has largely played a service role within the faculty of commerce. Students with a spare course often see economic history as an entertaining option. When an additional business computing course is made mandatory, students have less time to take economic history. When this is done at the first year level this adversely affects the number of majors as well as the size of individual subjects. However, here at Melbourne student enrollment in economic history has remained relatively high because we are the only department in the commerce faculty to seriously incorporate Asia into our program. Given that the nation is in the process of Asianization, this is seen to be critical. The number of majors has remained fairly constant (and relatively high) over the years. Writing an honours thesis in economic history is seen to be a more attractive option than writing in economics because 1) economic history is more multidisciplinary, less constrained by modelling and therefore seen as more relevent and 2) unlike the economics department, we actually put considerable amounts of time into the supervision of theses. Andrew Seltzer ============ FOOTER TO ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ============ * To post a message to this list, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. * To get all the messages posted to this list only once a day, send the message "set ECONHIST.TEACH mail digest" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. * To view past posting to this list, look in the directory "List Archive" in the Cliometric Society Server. The address is: cs.muohio.edu. * For more information and instructions, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. ==================================================== From whaples at wfu.edu Wed Nov 30 13:59:02 1994 From: whaples at wfu.edu (robert whaples) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:36 2006 Subject: warmups, writing, and whatnot Message-ID: ================= ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ================= One problem students have is listening effectively; many students do not know how to listen carefully and take good notes. So one thing I have done is to ask specific students (at least two) to take notes which I then copy and share with the rest of the class--with some discussion of whether they are notes which are really useable--do they identify the main ideas, etc. I also have started classes by asking two or three students to summarize what we covered in the previous calss--or where the discussion ended. As we typically have at least a vague continuity between classes, it is important for students to start the calss by thinkng about what the class is all about. I have also asked students to be prepared to answer specific questions about readings, typically dividing the class into several groups, each of which has only one question to wrestle with. As I use things like the Constitution as part of assigned reading, I can ask students to find particular kinds of economic rights or "market-facilitating" components--e.g. standardized weights and measures, the post office. If you are lucky enough to be at an institution that has "writing across the curriculum" you could embed many of these approaches in that framework. Keeping them engaged. F.C. ============ FOOTER TO ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ============ * To post a message to this list, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. * To get all the messages posted to this list only once a day, send the message "set ECONHIST.TEACH mail digest" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. * To view past posting to this list, look in the directory "List Archive" in the Cliometric Society Server. The address is: cs.muohio.edu. * For more information and instructions, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. ==================================================== From MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU Wed Nov 30 15:01:47 1994 From: MITCH at UMBC2.UMBC.EDU (MITCH@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:36 2006 Subject: Call For Nominations for 1995 Hughes Prize Message-ID: <01HK3ETW8XM00023M0@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> ================= ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ================= Call for Nominations for the 1995 Award of the Jonathan Hughes Prize for Excellence in Teaching Economic History The Committee on Education and Teaching of the Economic History Association is now inviting nominations for the 1995 awarding of the Jonathan Hughes Prize for Excellence in Teaching Economic History. The Prize was established by the Economic History Association in 1993 in memory of Jonathan Hughes. Jonathan Hughes was an outstanding scholar and a committed and influential teacher of economic history. The prize includes a $1,000 cash award. The winner is selected by the Committee on Education and Teaching of EHA. For 1994-5, the Committee is composed of Mary Schweitzer, Villanova U. (chair); Hugh Rockoff, Rutgers U.; and David Mitch, U. of Maryland Baltimore County. Anyone may submit a nomination. Teachers of Economic History at any level of instruction is eligible for nomination. The baisc requirement for nomination is a statement on how the nominee has exemplified excellence in the teaching of economic history. The Committee will select a list of finalists from the nomination statements submitted based on their cogency. The list of finalists for 1995 may also include candidates nominated for the 1994 award. Deadline for nominations is March 20, 1995. Nominating statements (3 copies) and inquires about the Hughes Prize should be directed to: Prof. Mary Schweitzer, Department of History, Villanova University, Villanova, PA 19085. Email: Schweitz@UCIS.Vill.EDU. ============ FOOTER TO ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ============ * To post a message to this list, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. * To get all the messages posted to this list only once a day, send the message "set ECONHIST.TEACH mail digest" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. * To view past posting to this list, look in the directory "List Archive" in the Cliometric Society Server. The address is: cs.muohio.edu. * For more information and instructions, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. ==================================================== From whaples at wfu.edu Wed Nov 30 17:12:59 1994 From: whaples at wfu.edu (robert whaples) Date: Tue Jul 25 21:32:36 2006 Subject: warmups, writing, and whatnot Message-ID: ================= ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ================= Helping students take notes is important. One thing I do is put a general outline of the lecture on the board. I think that if they know the structure to begin with, it's easier to know what to do with the pieces. Naomi Naomi Lamoreaux phone: (401) 863-2828 Department of History fax: (401) 863-1040 Brown University email: Naomi_Lamoreaux@Brown.edu Providence, RI 02912 ============ FOOTER TO ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ============ * To post a message to this list, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. * To get all the messages posted to this list only once a day, send the message "set ECONHIST.TEACH mail digest" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. * To view past posting to this list, look in the directory "List Archive" in the Cliometric Society Server. The address is: cs.muohio.edu. * For more information and instructions, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. ====================================================