N.Y. / Region
Returning to College, Without the Beer
By ARIEL KAMINER
Published: April 29, 2010
One Day University offers people who got their bachelor’s degree years before e-mail a chance to go to university classes again, but without all that drinking and flirting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/nyregion/02critic.html
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I would be happy if we could infuse everyone with the information that most masters-level econ majors remember 5 years out. Not only would it make it easier for me to communicate with non-economists (and for them to communicate with me), I'm pretty sure it would raise the level of political discourse and speed the rate at which voters comprehend policy options after financial crises. The problem is IMHO is that most recent econ grads, regardless of level, have been taught a very limited version of economic thought and theory and very little history of thought and theory. This means that what they remember may not be very helpful during and after a crisis if it requires a response outside the mainstream they were trained in. I keep thinking that if the discipline returned to a better grounding in the history of econ thought and in moral philosophy, intro econ courses on the history of econ thought offered to undergrad econ and non-econ majors would go a long way toward producing an educated electorate. A one day learning experience aimed at filling in these gaps for those already beyond college should add real value, too. I wonder how we could entice economists to attend it? :-)
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