The Kinder-Economy: A Case Study of Kindergarten Pupils' Acquisition of Economic Concepts

Abstract

University of California, Los Angeles Who is economically literate? Certainly not the young couple that took a second mortgage on their home at an annual interest rate of 18 percent. Nor the black consumers in a low-income neighborhood who unknowingly pay for each grocery item from two cents to twenty cents more than their counterparts in a more affluent area. Nor the three out of every four students in thirteen thousand junior high schools sampled throughout the USA who, in a recent survey by the Joint Council on Economic Education, were unable to differentiate between descriptions of a capitalistic economy and a socialistic economy. Surely not the average citizen of the USA who, in another survey by the same Council, thought that the typical business made a profit of 50 percent or more on its investment (1). At what point must educators take action to create an economically literate citizenry? Kindergarten is not too soon! A primary education program, developed by the author (2) and piloted throughout California, has taken this vital first step. The Kinder-Economy is a teacher-guided program that introduces basic economic concepts to children in the primary grades through a program of action, simulation, and participation based on three precepts: 1. An important goal of education is to increase the decision-making skills of children at the earliest possible age. 2. Children should be allowed to make