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30 sats \ 6 replies \ @Undisciplined OP 28 Dec 2024 \ parent \ on: There's a New Sheriff in Town econ
I'll keep that in mind. I love economic history, but haven't had the free time to do much reading in it lately.
Same. I'm trying to improve in my ability to sprinkle little economic history lessons into my lectures, because let's face it, 95% of my students (all undergraduates) are not going to go on to ever solve a model or run a regression. It's these stories that are likely to stay with them and influence their thinking 10 years down the road.
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Good point. Over time, I've wondered more and more what the point is of education being so focused on solving algebra puzzles, rather than understanding core principles.
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I still think there's some value in it. Especially for the students who are capable of doing it proficiently, practice in solving models will help them think more clearly down the road. For example, it'll help them pinpoint which mechanisms lead to which outcomes, and then how multiple mechanisms balance out against one another.
That being said, I'm convinced that less than 10% of my students will ever get to that point. For the vast majority of them, learning some basic principles illustrated through stories will probably be more useful.
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There's definitely value to it, but most of undergrad STEM is just applied algebra.
I think that's a disservice to the various disciplines and it's not the most valuable skill or knowledge to take from any of them.
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I'd liken it to scales practice for musical instruments. It's not necessarily worth much in and of itself, but without that foundation you won't be able to advance to the highest levels of proficiency. But by that same token, scales practice may not be the best use of time for most instrument learners.
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Good analogy
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