Studying Money and Inflation at AIER’s Teach-the-Teachers Workshops
AIER’s 2017 Teach-the-Teachers Initiative is underway. Thus far, our groups in St. Louis and Miami responded well to the rigor of the workshop, where they had to complete a 16-hour pre-work online component in addition to the three-day face-to-face portion. All this effort pays off in the end, as teachers substantially improve their knowledge, which is shown by the difference between the pre- and post-work assessment scores.
The biggest improvement usually occurs in the Money and Inflation module. In this module, we cover both the functions of money, and the concept of inflation and its measures, such as the Consumer Price Index and the Everyday Price Index, AIER’s proprietary alternative to the CPI. In this module, we also cover the structure, functions, and monetary-policy tools of the Federal Reserve.
The chart above shows that even after completing the online portion, participants still only achieve a B level of knowledge. We therefore have an opportunity to further improve their knowledge by using the time at the workshop to ponder and critically examine presentations about money, inflation, and the Federal Reserve.
At the Miami workshop, participants intensely scrutinized, deliberated in depth on, and constructively criticized the Federal Reserve’s functions, tools, and monetary-policy successes and failures. Participating teachers were not shy to share their opinions and beliefs, as well as their frustrations about various mandates governing their teaching and about the diminishing time available for them to engage in creative projects in the classroom.
As an educator and one of the presenters at the workshop, I welcome the opportunity to involve participating teachers in substantial discussion of economic matters. Carrying forward the legacy of E.C. Harwood, who encouraged exchange of ideas among economists and educators, I was glad to see that our Teach-the-Teachers curriculum generated such heated and intense debate. The deliberations proved to me that AIER is achieving its mission of educating Americans on the value of personal freedom and limited government.
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