In my first blog, I told you that one of the goals of my Blog was to promote what’s going on at MHS. Our teachers are always on the lookout for ways to help reinforce the principles taught in the regular classroom.
Last week Barry Coleman, senior high history and economics teacher at Magnolia Heights, was invited to attend the International Economics Summit hosted by Mississippi College in Clinton. The two day workshop focused on an upcoming state-wide economics competition involving public and private schools across the state. According to Coach Coleman there will be more than 50 teams participating in this event.
To prepare for the summit, the teams will be learning about fundamentals of free enterprise, global resources, trade barriers, tariffs, geography, and many other topics as they relate to international economics. Each school will have three teams which in turn will represent three countries – one wealthy, one poor, and one developing. The students will formulate economic policy for each country and then compete on a global stage with other schools across the state. The heart of the summit is trading among nations. Each nation will seek trade partners, form alliances, work through trade barriers, and help poor and developing nations as they develop their economies.
The project began as a university project at Boise State University (http://www.econsummit.org) and is currently in many states nationwide.
In addition, Coach Coleman is currently working on developing a curriculum on principles of personal finance that may be incorporated into the MHS curriculum in the very near future. There continues to be a great need for education in this area particularly as it relates to developing a budget, living within your means, giving and saving. We are preparing our students for the rigors of college life and beyond, but curricula in all schools seems to be lacking with regard to personal finance. In this day and time it’s almost a matter of national security that we get our personal finances in order so that we can get our nation’s finances back on track as well.
Our students will soon be adult citizens of a global economy. It is our hope that programs such as the International Summit and studying principles of personal finance will give them an advantage as they take the mantle of leadership in our community, state and nation.
Congratulations and thank you, Coach Coleman, on a job well done!
