Civics with Dean – Class 4 – Dred Scott Case

On October 13, my Civics class at Big Fish Learning participated in an exclusive Zoom call with Lynne M. Jackson, the great-great-granddaughter of Harriet and Dred Scott of the 1857 Supreme Court Dred Scott Decision. 

The focus of the class was a post-discussion of the Constitution and Black History, examining how the laws of the United States, starting with the Constitution itself, have impacted the history of black Americans. We covered important legal cases besides Dred Scott, like Plessy v. Ferguson, and Brown v. Board of Ed. We explored how we've moved toward a more inclusive nation that strives to live up to the words Thomas Jefferson penned in the Declaration of Independence, "…all men (people!) are created equal" and accord all equal protection of the law. Lynne shared some interesting insights and talked about the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation in today’s world. She reminded us that there were real people behind the famous case, and that history isn't quite as far away as we often think. (Her father was babysat by Dred and Harriet's daughter, Lizzie.) 

Special dignitaries joined us:  NH Department of Education Commissioner, Frank Edleblut. In addition, US Senator Jeanne Shaheen sent a letter to the class as she was unable to be there in person.

Dean Graziano is the Vice-President of izzit.org. He is a multi-state, award-winning educator and former Curriculum Specialist Teacher grades 6-12 Social Studies, with over 25 years in education. He served on the Massachusetts MCAS Standard Setting Panel, and also selected by the College Board to be an Advanced Placement Reader for U.S. History. He worked on the historical inquiry model and a national presenter for ABC-Clio, a Social Studies data base company. 

In 2007, in a surprise visit to his school, he was awarded the United States Department of Educations' American Star of Teaching Award. Dean was selected as the 2017 State of New Hampshire's Extended Learning Opportunity Coordinator- of -the Year. Dean’s pilot program in Rochester, NH was singled out by NH Governor, Chris Sununu as the model for the State of N.H. Career Academies. In 2019, he developed and implemented a proposal to purchase a Mobile Classroom ( a new & remodeled 36’ RV, aka M.A.P.s) utilizing Perkins V funding, to bring CTE/WBL programming - leveling the playing field/equity for ALL NH students and spoke nationally at several ACTE Conferences on this model.

econlife - The Great Lid Shortage of 2020 by Elaine Schwartz

Perhaps reflecting its necessity, wartime canning was most mentioned in books during 1942. But because this Google Ngram end date is 2019, we cannot see what surely would be an upswing for 2020:

Stuck at home because of the pandemic, people have been planting their own gardens and then pickling the peppers and preserving the peaches. They are canning tomatoes and making blackberry jam.

However, canning’s recent popularity has created a problem.

The Lid Shortage

Soaring seed orders were the first clue that a canning surge was imminent. Ball, the go-to company for canning supplies, says a lot of its items are on back order. A hardware firm in Kidron, Ohio reports a 600 percent pop in canning category sales.

Canners know that jars can be repeatedly refilled. But, since lids cannot be reused, in 1975 and now, there have been shortages.

Forty-five years ago, shoppers responded to rising food prices by doing more canning. In many parts of the country canning kits were available. However, in rural areas like Fayetteville, Arkansas and Whiteville, North Carolina, women wanted to reuse their old jars. That meant they only needed the lids that local stores had run out of. A 1975 NY Times article reports that the House Small Business Committee even scheduled hearings and concluded that there was no hoarding conspiracy.

Instead, the problem was and is supply inelasticity.

Our Bottom Line: Supply Elasticity

In 1975, even with 24/7 production churning out 6.2 million lids a day from 3 major suppliers, there was a lid shortage. I suspect we have the same phenomenon today.

Given short notice, supply cannot stretch. Called supply inelasticity, producers are constrained by their land, labor, and capital. For all three factors of production to increase within weeks is usually impossible. The quantity supplied responds minimally to more demand and even higher prices because in the short run, supply is inelastic. It takes time to add more land, labor, and capital.

I’ve copied this illustration of supply inelasticity from my textbook, Understanding Our Economy:

So, if someone you know needs a lid, just explain he will have to wait a bit for supply to become elastic.

My sources and more: Thanks to NPR’s “Weekend Edition” for alerting me to the lid shortage. From there, I discovered more in The Washington Post and in this 1975 NY Times article.

Our featured image is from The Washington Post.

Ideal for the classroom, econlife.com reflects Elaine Schwartz’s work as a teacher and a writer. As a teacher at the Kent Place School in Summit, NJ, she’s been an Endowed Chair in Economics and chaired the history department. She’s developed curricula, was a featured teacher in the Annenberg/CPB video project “The Economics Classroom,” and has written several books including Econ 101 ½ (Avon Books/Harper Collins). You can get econlife on a daily basis! Head to econlife.

What We're Hearing from the Field

We received some feedback about our new weekly series with Dean Graziano, Vice President of Education at izzit.org, called Civics with Dean.

Have you had a chance to check out these new blogs? If not, read our latest blog here.

Group Work vs. Individual Work by Mike Siekkinen

When determining your classroom setup and how your students will be seated, there are a number of things to consider. Deciding how students are seated (singly, in pairs, groups-group size?) as well as if assignments will be done together or individually will yield different results. The following are some thoughts from a teacher in the trenches vs an educational “expert” who does not teach. I teach middle school, primarily 8th grade, so these thoughts are based on my experience.

Individual seating and assignments






Pros

• You can see precisely what a student can or can’t do.
• See what a student knows and doesn’t know.
• Usually “quiet" instruction/work environment (some like this/some don’t)
• Many students would rather work alone and provide an individual product.

Cons

• No student collaboration (no exchanging ideas).
• No social interaction (can be a positive or a negative).
• Some students like working with others vs individually.

Groups Work (pairs or small group)






Pros

• Get a more rounded project or assignment as more eyes on the assignment.
• Encourages cooperation among students.
• Students work toward common goal.

Cons

• Students tend to be social, so often can get off task.
• One student can dominate and provide all the answers.
• Don’t necessarily get to see what an individual student knows.

I use a combination of both seating arrangements, depending on what I have students doing. When working with groups, I make expectations very clear on conduct and enforce proper behavior working within a group. I explain that in a group or partner situation, talking should be related to the assignment and work they are doing, not a social time. Even with this explanation, consistent monitoring needs to be done (walking around the room, visiting with students, checking where they are in the assignment, etc.). Students can quickly get off track and forget why they are together and it can become a very social environment. You will get a feel of your students over time and decisions about group size and how often you have students collaborate will become easier.

Dr. Mike Siekkinen, a retired U.S. Navy submariner, became a teacher as a second career. He teaches history at St Marys Middle School as well as Adult and Career Education at Valdosta State in Georgia.

Teaching Using Movies by Mike Siekkinen

I love a good movie! Sometimes I even love a “not so good” movie. 

I've found that Hollywood has made some very good historical movies over the years and I use them in my classroom whenever I can. Now, many say that simply showing students a movie is a waste of time and if that were all I did, it would be. But by using good support materials, even using full length feature films in the classroom can be fun, educational and meaningful for students. 

An example would be what I did when studying the Civil Rights movement with my students. I showed students the movie The Ernest Green Story. This is an older Walt Disney owned title. I purchased this for about $10.00 so had my own copy.

I had students do vocabulary used in the movie first to understand the terms used. Then I had students research the Little Rock Nine and desegregation in general along with applicable court cases, Jim Crow Laws, etc. I then showed the video over two class periods. Students had to do a KWL chart at the beginning as well as completing questions throughout the movie. 

Following the video, students had a reflective writing piece to complete and we discussed what occurred, compared it to different versions found on the internet and in textbooks. It was an experience that students enjoyed, learned the required standards and when questioned, all told me it was an enjoyable learning experience. Using full length feature films in the classroom, if prepared and coupled with research and writing, can be a powerful tool.

Dr. Mike Siekkinen, a retired U.S. Navy submariner, became a teacher as a second career. He teaches history at St Marys Middle School as well as Adult and Career Education at Valdosta State in Georgia.

Spare Time Reading by Mike Siekkinen

Though summer has come and gone, I still get some reading time in for enjoyment. I thought I'd share some of my favorite authors and books I may revisit. I do tend toward the fantasy, science fiction and horror genres so if you do also, you may find some of these authors and stories worth a read.

Stephen King  Hands down scariest author for me. Great story telling and he rarely has let me down with his novels. I normally do not want to put a King novel down! Some favorites have been The Stand, The Gunslinger Series and It.

J.R.R. Tolkien  Best fantasy series to date. Established the rules all others use. Compelling and complete. A master story teller with his epic. I know many have read it but if not, give it a try. It has something for everyone.

Dean Koontz  I love the Odd Thomas series but he has many other great books. Another master horror/supernatural story teller. I have enjoyed his series as well as his stand alone books.

Michael Moorcock  From my youth, the Elric of Melnibone series is an epic tale unlike others. His catalogue of novels is extensive and his theme of the eternal hero has a number of series worth reading. Give him a try.

Ursula K. Leguin The Earthsea trilogy is a great read as well as many of her standalone stories. She has fantasy, fiction and science fiction in her writings.

Fritz Leiber His fantasy novels are fun and his Fhaferd and the Grey Mouser series is a blast to read. He has an extensive collection of science fiction and fantasy novels.

Patrick Rothfuss  I just finished his Name the Wind novel and can’t wait to get into the next book. Great storytelling. Another fantasy series I am enjoying.

What are you reading in your spare time?

Dr. Mike Siekkinen, a retired U.S. Navy submariner, became a teacher as a second career. He teaches history at St Marys Middle School as well as Adult and Career Education at Valdosta State in Georgia.

econlife - The Innovations That a Pandemic Inspires by Elaine Schwartz

As xkcd suggests, our 2019 selves would have been mystified by a surging interest in flour during 2020:

But you can see that online interest in bread machines has also increased:

Pandemic Innovations

Affordability

Expecting consumers to cut back on spending, companies are simultaneously targeting luxury and economy. For the U.S., Europe, and emerging market economies, the goal is a menu of similar products that cater to different budgets. PepsiCo tried the same approach during the Great Recession (Dec. 2007-June 2009) when they based marketing on paycheck cycles. Convinced that we are more loyal to a brand if we have cash, they publicized pricier packages when we were paid and smaller packs later in the month. Somewhat similarly, Proctor & Gamble has a version of Tide that is 20 percent cheaper and Nestlé is producing smaller seasoning packets as well as the normal sizes.

Hands-free

In Thailand, a mall is experimenting with elevators that have foot controls. Instead of selecting a button to indicate your destination, you use your foot on a pedal:

For doorknob safety, a British firm developed a “hygienehook.” The idea here is to open a door without touching it:

There also is a Hygiene Hand that touches the elevator button, the ATM, and the phone screen for you:

Sanitizing

The Hong Kong International airport is testing a disinfectant enclosure. From what I could surmise, travelers step inside for a 40-second spritz. Inside you get your temperature checked and your clothing cleaned of viruses and bacteria:

Our Bottom Line: Structural Change

I suspect that our economy will experience some structural change during the next several years. Defined as the replacement of old industries by new ones, structural change requires new skills from workers, new capital, and new products. Our best example is the replacement of typewriters by computers, and of horse and buggy apparatus by autos. Also though, I can remember pre-9/11 airport design when there was no security perimeter to prevent gate and shops access.

Because of the coronavirus, some of the places and devices that brought us closer together will be replaced by a socially distanced and sanitized array of goods and services. They will range from everyday sanitation to traditional offices that could become obsolete.

Returning to where we began, more interest in flour seems minor but it could be the tip of a massively restructured “remote” economy.

My sources and more: Seeing the xkcd cartoon, I knew there had to be other examples beyond this WSJ article on smaller packages. So, from there, you might enjoy (as did I) tales of innovations from Aljazeera, and FastCompany, and the Standard.

Our featured image is from Pixabay.

Ideal for the classroom, econlife.com reflects Elaine Schwartz’s work as a teacher and a writer. As a teacher at the Kent Place School in Summit, NJ, she’s been an Endowed Chair in Economics and chaired the history department. She’s developed curricula, was a featured teacher in the Annenberg/CPB video project “The Economics Classroom,” and has written several books including Econ 101 ½ (Avon Books/Harper Collins). You can get econlife on a daily basis! Head to econlife.

Spring Trips by Mike Siekkinen

All teachers and students look forward to spring break. Typically it's a week off to unwind, relax, sleep in and have fun. Over the last 8 years, I've chosen another route to take regarding spring break. I have organized and led a spring trip for students at my school. Believe me, if I wasn’t enjoying this I wouldn’t do it! 

Last spring break, I led 25 students on a trip to the Florida Keys where we snorkeled the coral reefs, swam with dolphins, visited recovering sea turtles and then toured the Everglades, both during the day and at night. We had a blast! There was still some time for relaxing as the trip was a Monday through Friday excursion, so we had a weekend before and a weekend after to recover. 

I use a tour company for organization and then advertise during the school year. The company I use has been Worldstrides and my experience with them has been excellent. I will say they are not the cheapest company out there, but the support given during all aspects of a trip has been outstanding. For example, on my first trip with them, I had a student get very ill as we were about to depart for the bus ride home from Washington DC. I called their tour central office at 6 PM (it is available and manned 24 hours a day) and they had a doctor come to our bus while we were eating dinner. The doctor diagnosed the student, sent his nurse for medicine and called the parents with an update. This was done free of charge for the student. That kind of insurance and support is unprecedented and is worth the few extra dollars when away from home with someone else’s children!

Students and parents sign up and pay the tour company (I touch no money) and I take care of paperwork, advertising and then supervising the trip. A tour guide is provided and all events, meals, attractions and travel are handled by the tour company. 

I've enjoyed doing this and will continue to give up part of my spring break every year I am able to provide this opportunity to students. Next year will be Washington DC! I alternate between different locations year to year so students can come multiple years, not going to the same location twice. Give it a try, you may find like I do that half a spring break is enough!

Dr. Mike Siekkinen, a retired U.S. Navy submariner, became a teacher as a second career. He teaches history at St Marys Middle School as well as Adult and Career Education at Valdosta State in Georgia.

From the Homeschool Front … Online learning aids by Colleen Hroncich

Home educators today are incredibly lucky. Homeschooling is increasingly embraced by society; there are numerous homeschool clubs, co-ops, sports leagues, and more; and many colleges have adopted flexible admissions guidelines that allow them to evaluate homeschoolers individually. However, the thing that I am most frequently thankful for as a home educator is the internet. 

It never ceases to amaze me how many online learning options there are today, many of which are free or very low cost. The most well-known of these is probably Khan Academy, which includes thousands of videos covering math, science, history, civics, and more. These videos are great supplements to other curricula and are particularly helpful to students who are struggling in specific areas. Skill checks are built into the courses so students can focus on areas where they need extra work.  In recent years, Khan Academy has partnered with the College Board to produce prep courses for the SAT and AP exams.

There are also online options to help you learn or improve at a foreign language. Duolingo’s website and app allow you to learn a language for free. Many libraries subscribe to language-learning sites like Mango Languages – you just need to enter your library card number to create an account. Rosetta Stone, Babbel, and Rocket Language are some of the fee-based sites. While these online learning options won’t have the same structure as a language course in school, they can help you become conversational, improve your pronunciation, and build your vocabulary.

For students who are interested in computer programming, online options abound. Codecademy has free and fee-based courses in multiple computer languages. We haven’t tried code.org, which is free, but I’ve heard good things about it. Scratch and Scratch Jr. are geared toward younger kids to get them used to the language and structure of coding. Khan Academy also includes computer programming courses.  

If your older students are interested in history and civics, Hillsdale College has tremendous online courses at no charge. Offerings include U.S. History, the Constitution, Literature, and Economics. Liberty Classroom is a fee-based option that covers Economics, History (U.S. and Western Civilization), and logic. Many other sites, including banks and financial service firms, offer free or low cost financial and stock market courses.

Whether you’re a homeschooler or a teacher in a public or private school, these tools can open new horizons for your students … and for you. I’ve taken advantage of several online classes with my kids and on my own. These days the biggest problem is choosing which ones to take given the numerous options and limited time.

I’ve barely scratched the surface when it comes to online learning options. If you have other suggestions of courses you’ve used, please share them in the comment section.

Colleen Hroncich loves that homeschooling allows her to learn right alongside her children. A published author and former policy analyst, Colleen’s favorite subjects are economics/public policy and history. She has been active in several homeschool co-ops and is a speech and debate coach.

econlife - What We Did Right During the 1918-1919 Pandemic by Elaine Schwartz

Approximately 550,000 individuals in the U.S., and 40 million, worldwide, died because of the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic. At the time there were no antivirals nor any effective vaccines. But they did have non-pharmaceutical interventions.

Where are we going? To the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions during the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic.

Pandemic Policy

In 2007, several researchers looked at the impact of the non-pharmaceutical interventions used by 43 cities in the U.S. Their goal was to see which pandemic policy was most effective.

They cited three main interventions:

• Closing schools.
• Isolating individuals who were infected. Quarantining people who had contact with those victims.
• Banning public gatherings that included saloons and entertainment venues. (Parades were okay. )

Cities also had to decide when to start the intervention and how long to sustain it. For the 43 cities that were studied, all selected at least one intervention:

You can see the decisions that were made:

To evaluate the results, the researchers compared response times and duration of the interventions to death rates. Essentially they found that the longer the response time, the higher the death rate. The red arrow was added to the graph by Marginal Revolution’s Alex Tabarrok:

Among the 43 cities that were studied, Pittsburgh fared most poorly. It imposed a public gathering ban initially but waited 20 days after that to close its schools. Then they rescinded the public gathering ban. New York City, by contrast, had an early and a sustained use of its interventions. The city rigidly enforced isolation and quarantine rules. They also implemented staggered business hours. In the researchers’ ranking, New York was #15 of 43 cities.

Below, you can compare St. Louis, New York City, Denver, and Pittsburgh. The black bars indicate the interventions:

Discussing their conclusions, researchers emphasize that the impact of the interventions varied among the 43 cities. Still they believed that earlier, sustained, and layered interventions resulted in a reduced death rate, a delay in its peak, and lower peak mortality. They suggested that non-pharmaceutical solutions do work.

Our Bottom Line: Tradeoffs

As economists, we can look at pandemic policy tradeoffs.

An opportunity cost chart is a handy way to focus on the tradeoffs required by a decision. It names the opportunity cost–the sacrificed alternative–and the benefits of each alternative. It reminds us that looking back, we cannot name the consequences of the choices. To make a wise decision, we can only identify the current tradeoffs.

The following framework for a college decision can also be used to understand pandemic policy tradeoffs. Below, you can see that first you identify the alternatives. Then, you name the benefits from each one. The key to remember is that when you choose one alternative, you sacrifice the other alternative and its benefits.

Below, the decision is to attend college. Getting a job is sacrificed as are its benefits:

Similarly, at each stage of preparation for a pandemic, we have to select our tradeoffs based on what we know. Assume for example that we have to choose between closing schools and not closing them. One benefit of closing is optimizing health when and if the pandemic hits. At the same time, a benefit of keeping schools open is minimizing current disruption.

For the 1918-1919 pandemic, the cities that selected the most disruption at the earliest possible time could not have known then that they would be minimizing the number of deaths. Still, they wound up making the wisest tradeoff.


My sources and more: Thanks to Marginal Revolution for alerting me to the 1918-1919 pandemic paper (the source of all pandemic graphs and tables in today’s post).

Ideal for the classroom, econlife.com reflects Elaine Schwartz’s work as a teacher and a writer. As a teacher at the Kent Place School in Summit, NJ, she’s been an Endowed Chair in Economics and chaired the history department. She’s developed curricula, was a featured teacher in the Annenberg/CPB video project “The Economics Classroom,” and has written several books including Econ 101 ½ (Avon Books/Harper Collins). You can get econlife on a daily basis! Head to econlife.

Google Classroom by Mike Siekkinen

Are you and your students using Google Classroom? If you are in a school with one-to-one technology (all students have access to computers, chrome books, tablets, etc.) I highly recommend this application. Google Classroom is an easy-to-use virtual space where a teacher can post messages, assignments, links, etc. Virtually anything can be posted for your students. It's also an easy way to assign students work and they have the ability to turn things into the classroom. You can also grade assignments and post grades and give individual feedback to students. Very powerful and easy to use application at a great price- FREE! Google updates the platform frequently and there are lots of tutorials on the web to teach you how to use google classroom. 

Setup is easy. Sign in for the first time
1. Go to classroom.google.com and click Go to Classroom.
2. Enter your username and click Next.
3. Enter your password and click Next.
4. If there is a welcome message, read it and click Accept.
5. If you're using a G Suite for Education account, click I'm A Student or I'm A Teacher. ...
6. Click Get Started.

Google Classroom also allows you to personalize each classroom with a picture so as you are teaching a certain topic, you can add a background to your classroom related to your subject area. You also have the ability to post assignments ahead of time and have them become available for students on the date you select. Very handy when you may be away from the classroom and are leaving student work.

At the end of each year, I archive my classes and then start new classrooms for the new school year. The process is easy and allows you to keep student work from previous years to be able to show students good and bad examples of assignments. Also if there is ever a question about grades, you have the actual work done by the student. I find teaching 8th grade that my students now come to me familiar with how it works and I have to do virtually no “teaching” students how to operate within the application. In fact, many students show me new things that you can do! 

If you haven't tried it, give it a go!

Dr. Mike Siekkinen, a retired U.S. Navy submariner, became a teacher as a second career. He teaches history at St Marys Middle School as well as Adult and Career Education at Valdosta State in Georgia.

econlife - A Global Look at the Rule of Law by Elaine Schwartz

During the 1790s. Alexander Hamilton told us that our economy needed to recognize the sanctity of a contract. At the time, Revolutionary War bonds had been sold to speculators by the investors who had supported the War. When the bonds appreciated in value, those speculators benefited–not the patriots who initially purchased them. Hamilton told us that legal transfer of ownership had to be respected. Our economic future depended on contractual rights being preserved.

He was right.

Still today, a rule of law that includes contractual rights exists as the foundation of a viable economy. Let’s see where.

The Rule of Law

The World Bank says that its rule of law (ROL) indicator includes property rights and contract enforcement. It also extends to the police, the courts, and the likelihood of crime and violence. It involves the extent to which “agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society.”

The brighter green countries are the most committed to a rule of law. They include New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Greenland, the Scandinavian countries, Denmark:

Again, for the control of corruption, using the above color scale, you see similar shading:

According to the World Bank, the United States ROL rank has sunk during the past several years:

Our Bottom Line: Incentives

In Why Nations Fail, economists Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson explain why the rule of law matters. Early in the book, they set the scene by comparing Nogales, Sonora and Nogales, Arizona. They tell us why the rule of law made Nogales, Sonora so much less affluent than its Arizona namesake. In Mexico, you can ascend economically by untangling red tape, paying for expensive licenses, and bribing politicians. In Mexico you have an amparo–the right to appeal that a law does not apply to you. On the World Bank map, you can see Mexico is a bright pink, placing it high on the corruption scale.

Somewhat similarly, we can think of China’s lack of intellectual property protection. We also can look at Poland and Hungary where independent judiciaries are in question. With a weaker rule of law, political influence rather than the market can dominate decision-making.

Returning to where we began, Alexander Hamilton’s sanctity of contracts takes us to economic development in the U.S., Mexico, China, and Eastern Europe. But here we have to add one word: incentive. When we have the rule of law, the incentives encourage financial investment, entrepreneurship, and business formation. They form a foundation of legal guarantees that we need for economic development.

My sources and more: Although it is a bit complex to navigate, the World Bank is a superb source of governance data. I also recommend the insight offered by a Harvard scholar in this Marketplace podcast and a BBC lecture from Niall Ferguson. But, if you have lots of time, do read Why Nations Fail and The Narrow Corridor by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson.

Ideal for the classroom, econlife.com reflects Elaine Schwartz’s work as a teacher and a writer. As a teacher at the Kent Place School in Summit, NJ, she’s been an Endowed Chair in Economics and chaired the history department. She’s developed curricula, was a featured teacher in the Annenberg/CPB video project “The Economics Classroom,” and has written several books including Econ 101 ½ (Avon Books/Harper Collins). You can get econlife on a daily basis! Head to econlife.