Dr. Steve Cobb, the center director, proposes that students need more than just “reading, writing and arithmetic” to be responsible citizens in our modern society.  This summer alone Cobb and center instructor David Pruitt have trained more than 800 K-12 teachers to incorporate economics and personal finance concepts into their lesson plans. 

“One of the things that we have found is that the population has very little background in basic economics and personal finance,” said Cobb.  “The earlier that we start teaching economics, the earlier students begin to understand these concepts and the better the chance that they will be good consumers.”  

As the importance of economic education is realized, standardized tests, such as TAKS, are putting a greater emphasis on key economic concepts, such as competition, supply and demand and productivity.  The Center for Economic Education is helping teachers tailor their lessons to the standards and develop confidence in a subject area in which they may have little or no background. 

“Our approach at the workshops is two-fold.  First, we provide materials that are teacher developed and teacher tested that can go straight into the classroom, then we also try to bring the teachers’ backgrounds up to the point where they have a level of confidence that allows them to answer student questions.”  

Cobb and the center are also faced with the difficult task of overcoming the negative perception that many students and teachers have toward economics.  Cobb says that signing up for economics is like going to dentist for many students, but he hopes that earlier exposure will make students more comfortable with the field. 

“If people come in with a very negative attitude, then maybe I can bring them to neutrality, but to get them excited about it is going to difficult,” said Cobb.  “If they have some experience and see real world applications, then maybe we can get them to come to the university level neutral, then it will be easier to get them excited.”  

UNT became the first Texas institution to open a Center for Economic Education, when it opened the doors in 1968.  Forty years later the center remains the largest in the state, reaching as many, if not more, teachers than the other seven state centers combined.  Cobb predicts that the center has reached more than 15,000 Texas teachers and another 1,000 international teachers and instructors since he took the helm in 1990. 

The National Council on Economic Education and the Texas Council for Economic Education provide the bulk of the center’s funding and also develop most of the materials.  The majority of the training sessions that Cobb and Pruitt conduct teach the National Council’s Mini-Society, Making-a-job and Stock Market Game programs.  Cobb also develops programs for individual school districts when necessary. 

The training sessions can have as few as 10 teachers or as many as 100.  The sessions typically last a day and include background information about the field, as well as demos of specific lessons that teachers can use to incorporate economic concepts into their curriculum.  This summer’s workshops were held in Dallas, Lewisville, Plano, Richardson, Lubbock, Nacogdoches, Houston, Midland, Brownsville, San Angelo, Rockwall and San Antonio. 

For more information about UNT’s Center for Economic Education or its programs, contact Cobb at scobb@unt.edu  or 940-565-2184.  

The University of North Texas is a student-centered public research university and the flagship of the UNT System. One of Texas' largest universities, UNT offers 99 bachelor's, 104 master's and 49 doctoral degree programs, many nationally and internationally recognized. UNT's more than 34,000 students Discover the power of ideas.