The Place of Economics in a Classical Education

The world of K–12 education is currently experiencing a renaissance. School choice programs are spreading like wildfire, especially after parents were afforded an unusual glimpse into their children’s classrooms due to the growth of remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to many of these programs, the classical education movement is growing. From large franchise models like Chesterton Academy to established diocesan and private schools, the world of education—particularly religious education—has rightly reverted to a classical approach to learning.

But something important is missing.

Economics should be taught in every classical school. Of course, I would like for it to be included in every school, period, but I suspect that the good people in the world of classical education today are those most sympathetic to my arguments. The case for secular public schools to include economics in the curriculum is much more utilitarian and straightforward: students formed in the economic way of thinking generally earn more money and may potentially donate to the school (or simply raise tax revenues). 

But there are other compelling reasons to teach economics in a classical school setting, and they transcend the purely practical. The benefits of an economic education in a classical setting are threefold. First, the natural laws of economics are true and help us understand the broader context of human choice. Second, the study of economics forms good citizens. And finally, economics awakens our minds to the beauty of human flourishing. 

Economics Is True

The economic way of thinking helps us understand markets—a large part of everyday life for everyday people—in a way that no other discipline can. Learning a foundational economic concept like opportunity cost—that the cost of any choice is not merely the sticker price, but the alternative good that was given up in its place—is not only a helpful way to understand the world. It is true. For example, the true cost of going to college is not only the cost of tuition but also the forgone earnings that you sacrifice from the job you could have worked (plus experience gained) in those four years. It is only when we understand costs in this deeper way that human choices begin to make sense. For example, if you look at the monetary costs of raising children (food, shelter, etc.), nearly all of them have decreased over time as our society has become more productive. So then why are people having fewer children today? It turns out that the other costs of children—visible only using the concept of opportunity cost—have grown as women’s formal work opportunities expanded, leisure activities increased in quality, and the legal value of marriage decreased.

Moreover, understanding what is precisely meant by specialization and trade illuminates the world of exchange in a way that humanizes it and helps us see that our very existence depends on the God-given gifts of so many other people. For instance, the discovery of comparative advantage shows us that when people produce the good or service for which they have the lowest opportunity cost, the total value of social resources can increase drastically through specialization and trade. In other words, my husband and I may both be able to cook dinner in one hour. But if I could have cleaned the whole house in that hour while he could have cleaned only half the house in that same amount of time, then we’d be better off if he cooked and I cleaned. 

Finally, to take my favorite example, the economic model of homo economicus (which is often misunderstood as a Spock-like creature) makes human choices intelligible in a way that Thomas Aquinas would have recognized. According to Aquinas, another way to say that “humans choose rationally” is “every agent acts for an end under some aspect of good.” That is, even those who choose bad things might still aim at a perceived good. This powerful, simple framework has successfully allowed economists to make sense of human choices across time and place. For example, economists have applied this simple principle of rationality to make sense of things from pirate ships to papal infallibility.

The Study of Economics Forms Good Citizens

When thinking about the world, everyone necessarily relies on some idea about how prices emerge and change, how specialization and trade work, and what spurs economic growth. These implicit assumptions then shape our civic and political engagement. Without an understanding of economics, however, these background perceptions may be misguided and detached from the reality of how markets work. By helping us grasp the role of prices, property, and profit and loss, economics inoculates students against certain ideologies that can never lead to human flourishing because of their inherently mistaken assumptions about the way markets function. 

For instance, a grasp of economics can help a student understand the inherent flaws in socialism. Private property, prices, and profit and loss signals allow the market to allocate resources in a way that serves the needs of everyone—not just the ruling party as with a control-and-command economy. Even with the best of intentions, a political leader who does not personally and deeply know every family and firm within a country could never allocate resources as effectively as each family and firm could for themselves. Even an institution like the Catholic Church, which generally refrains from directly critiquing policies, has unequivocally condemned socialism as a “natural heresy.” Idealism divorced from economics may muddle our thinking.

Moreover, a deep understanding of economics can prepare students to confront the modern anti-humanism that seeks to pit human life against the environment. From an economic standpoint, humans are the ultimate resource. One context in which this becomes apparent is the ubiquitous “overpopulation” argument. Any “expert” who warns of “overpopulation” does not understand the beneficial effects of economic growth on human societies and the environment. Economic growth is ultimately the result of people having good ideas—that is why population growth is necessary for long-term economic flourishing. Summing up capital and labor levels alone cannot explain why some economies grow faster than others—it is the ability to experiment with ideas for doing more with less that matters. 

Students trained in economics also understand that economic growth is associated with drastically lower levels of poverty, much lower infant and maternal mortality, increased access to education, and better conservation of the environment. People, and consequently economic growth, are not the enemy. Chesterton was thinking like an economist when he wrote: “The answer to anyone who talks about the surplus population is to ask him whether he is the surplus population; or if he is not, how he knows he is not.” While students who are classically educated will know these things instinctually, it is important to equip them with the best economic research as they grow up to engage the broader public.

Economics Is Beautiful

Failing to educate students in economics robs them of appreciating the everyday miracles they could witness when stepping into their local grocery stores. Students today need a re-enchanted worldview. While literature makes this possible by creating fictional worlds in novels, economics makes this type of enchantment possible while we’re waiting in line at the DMV, changing a diaper, or commuting to work.

Economics requires us to remember that each person is utterly unique. Each contributes different talents to the marketplace and the human project; each person is dependent on the gifts of everyone else. Leonard Reed’s famous essay, “I, Pencil,” has opened generations of students’ eyes to this basic reality. Like growing in our understanding of the world through philosophy or history, a grasp of economics naturally leads to wonder. How helpful is it that when I run out of milk for my toddler, someone has already placed it right there in my grocery store for me? What a gift it is to realize that as you fulfill a drive-thru order you are part of a global cooperation effort that serves all kinds of people around the world. These are but a few examples.

Furthermore, economics reminds us that we are inheritors of great gifts from our forebears. The wealth of comforts and conveniences we enjoy today stems from the sacrifices and clever ideas of our ancestors. Students in classical schools around the world can appreciate the simple fact that they live in an abundance of wealth and knowledge that ancient kings and queens could only imagine. It also reminds us that if we care about our children, we must necessarily steward our resources with their futures in mind.

Practical Advice

The good people hard at work in the world of classical education have very little spare time. I’d like to conclude by suggesting two practical approaches to incorporating economics into a classical curriculum. 

The first is the Great Books approach—this would include assigning passages from the classical economists who date back to the sixteenth century. While these writers understood economics, they were also writing within an environment where economics was not yet a distinct field, which has the advantage of enmeshing their economic discoveries in discussions about history, philosophy, and even theology, all of which are comfortable realms for the classical student. 

To start, I would assign Juan de Mariana on money, Frederic Bastiat on economic fallacies, and passages by Adam Smith on trade and the division of labor. The next approach is quick and to the point—assign Thomas Sowell’s Basic Economics as summer reading. Advanced students could move on to his Knowledge and Decisions, still readable but full of deeper insights. 

Whatever approach is best for your students at your school, know that you are serving not just the mind but the whole person. To educate the whole person, we must not leave gaps where others may rush in to fill the void. Economics began with the late scholastics and ought to continue today as part of a full classical curriculum.