Effect of Demand

Among the most intensive courses of its type, Economics A casts a more than healthy load of graphs, charts, and general figuring onto the tender shoulders of the average non-economist who finds himself enrolled. With the General Education program sweetening the pill of Natural Sciences, this course still on the shelf as a dose all history and government concentrators must get down.

Little can be said against the value of technical tools in economic analysis. Nor can the social scientist neglect the importance of a sound grasp of the study's principles and problems. But the stubborn fact persists that government and history concentrators criticize Economics A as more a menace than a means toward providing an admittedly desirable background. The graph-conscious approach, while clear to the average science major, sears a little above the head of the future historian or politician.

Clearly it is unfair to condemn the course hastily as of little or no value, for students uniformly testify that some of the light seeps through. But they are also quite uniform in their wistful comments on what might have been. Fortunately the problem of the confused social scientist grappling with a technical subject is not new. The Report on General Education clearly recognized it, and brought about the highly satisfactory reforms of the three Natural Science courses.

While the comparison is not exact, few could deny that Economics A could be made more palatable. A less careful attitude toward technicalities and a broader study of problems would create the atmosphere which the government of history concentrator now misses, while his knowledge of the field would have perspective of not detail. Supposing the economics major needs the present burdensome facts and formulae he might well be satisfied by a future Economics B Which Will preserve for concentrators only the syllabus, the mathematical analysis and other bits of precision. The present course is poorly suited to a large group that is required to take it. General Education has realized that a student can be taught but he cannot be learned. If Economics A is to be of real value to those who have to take it, the department must recognize the simple fact that even the non-technical mind must be truly taught if it is ever to learn.