Economics program aims to empower via knowledge

Supply and demand, price elasticity and marketing strategy. Those are basic economic concepts that affect the decisions everyone makes. But not everyone understands what the concepts mean.

For the past nine years, the Maui Economic Development Board has been trying to fix that — with an Economic Literacy Program that trains teachers in basics of economics to use what they learn in classrooms around Maui County.

“I think it brought forth economical concepts that maybe the children might not be able to utilize,” said retired Waihee Elementary School Principal Larry Joyo, whose school was the first to introduce the program to its students. “But I think when they become adults, hopefully they’ll transfer.”

At Haiku Elementary, 5th-grade teacher Lisa Daly said she noticed that her students began enjoying economics when it was applied to them.

“Some get more into it than others,” she said. “They learn as they go. It’s a neat program.”

The MEDB Economic Literacy Program was recognized for its accomplishments last month by the Hawaii Council on Economic Education with the Stephen L. Jackstadt Award, recognizing achievements in promoting understanding of economics and named after a former executive director of the council.

“Students can be empowered when they understand basic economics,” said Kristine Castagnero, Council on Economic Education executive director. “We train teachers on how to teach economics and personal finance effectively.”

Supported by University of Hawaii departments in education and economics, the nonprofit council supports the Center for Economic Education in providing teacher training and other resources.

MEDB Executive Director Jeanne Skog said the Maui Economic Literacy Program was created as a way for all residents to really learn the basics of economics.

“Economic literacy really took off because for us we saw it as reaching out to adults and reaching out to youth,” she said.

The program teaches basic economic concepts to the volunteer teachers who take the training and are provided assistance in adapting the information in their classroom curricula. The training courses are offered online so that they fit into a teacher’s schedule. The teachers then transfer what they’ve learned to their students.

“We reach teachers primarily through workshops and professional development experiences,” Skog said. “We either create the workshop and the curriculum for the teachers or we import workshops and instructors to come to Maui and do the work we have.”

Skog said the program covers a variety of subjects such as economic concepts in literature but focuses mainly on how to transfer what the teachers have learned to their students.

“We focus on making teachers aware of how they can bring economics into the classroom through a variety of subject matters and at all age levels,” she said.

While the first economic literacy project was set up at Waihee Elementary, the program is available for students from kindergarten to 12th grade.

“That’s where the teacher training becomes important,” Skog said, “because if they can’t teach, we cannot deliver.”

As an incentive, teachers who take the class earn professional development credit that fulfill continuing education requirements.

“To earn those, you take a workshop,” she said. “And then you import it into the classroom and once you fulfill those requirements you earn credit and the credit helps you to advance in your wage scale.”

After the program was implemented at Waihee in 1999, Joyo said, it really helped give the students a better understanding of economics.

At Haiku Elementary, Daly is teaching about supply and demand as well as how the stock market functions, and adds a session on economics in literature. Her success in combining economic concepts in her classroom curriculum earned an Economic Teacher of the Year award from the Hawaii Council on Economic Education.

Skog said MEDB is also extending the literacy program to adults.

“It deals with people who are already decision makers,” she said. “And focuses on building an informed populace and an engaged populace in which we can apply economic literacy to the community.”

Once the program got under way, teachers were using their economic skills in decision making outside of the classroom, Skog said.

“When teachers saw the value of it, they were starting to use it outside of the classroom with students to help them look at things like, ‘Should I go play now or should I do homework now?’ ”

She said she also sees a greater interest in economics among students. She hopes that students will use what they’ve learned in their lives.

“It’s amazing seeing the light bulbs go off as they go through different lessons and start to say ‘opportunity costs’ and ‘trade-off,’ really using the concepts and talking about them in a proper way,” she said.

•Steven Tonthat can be reached at stonthat @mauinews.com.

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Economics program aims to empower via knowledge