Consumer Education: It's a Basic.

Overview & Synopsis

The report discusses and defines consumer education for high school students, describes various consumer education school programs, annotates available sources and resources, and notes several issues needing attention. Consumer education is defined as an effort to prepare students for participation in the marketplace by imparting the understandings, attitudes, and skills which will enable them to make rational and intelligent decisions. The purpose is to help students deal effectively with their contemporary problems, and to prepare them to cope with the problems they will meet in the years ahead. Four broad content areas are included: consumer decision making, economics, personal finance, and rights and responsibilities. The report notes the increasingly important role of consumer education in the schools, and describes high school programs from various states. It also briefly lists teaching strategies and learning activities and describes teacher sources and resources. Consumer education issues still to be resolved include a need for cooperative curriculum planning, a need to identify basic competencies, a need to keep a balanced view of the consumer vs. the producer, and a need to reach beyond just buying and selling into more abstract aspects of consumer education. (CK)