During a particularly bad week when a lot of stuff was hitting the fan in economic news a while back, one person walked up to me at church on Sunday and said "I remember the economics workshop you did a few years ago..... wow did you hit the nail on the head back then." Another came by that same day and asked "How could you have known exactly what was going to happen?" That same week, I got an email from a CitiGroup executive, lambasting me for material our company had created in partnership with United for A Fair Economy on the teachingeconomics.org web site. I won't go into the name-calling this executive used, but it made me feel pretty good to know that the material that we had used a few years ago in workshops was making a CitiGroup executive so mad today.
If we are to learn from the past, and help plot a course to a new economic future, we all need to become better educated about economics AND we need to educate our friends, family, and co-workers. To help us all get started, Reach And Teach is proud to offer:
A new 30-minute Podcast from our friends at the National Radio Project with three incredible experts who will tell you how we got where we are today (Why is it so hot and why am I riding in a handbasket??)
A new workshop from (UFE) United for A Fair Economy (which Reach And Teach will happily bring to your school, organization, church, or club OR you can download for yourself and present to anyone you can drag into a room)
A link to our Teaching Economics As If People Mattered curriculum, created in partnership with UFE (with five animated lessons online for free and the ability to buy an entire High School curriculum that can help the next generation get right what we got soooo wrong)
The Podcast - from the National Radio Project
Reach And Teach is proud to provide technology advice to the National Radio Project and even more proud to be able to promote some of their incredible content. In this episode of Making Contact, the award-winning internationally syndicated radio program, you can learn about how we arrived at this moment in our economic history.
Program Description from Making Contact:
It's a time of economic transition, and systems that may have seemed stable over the past few decades are proving to be far from it. But how did we get here? And how can we learn from the past, to build a more fair and just system in the future? While many politicians and pundits claim that no one saw the current economic collapse coming, in fact, we had plenty of warning, depending on who we listened to. This week, we hear from three people who've been sounding the alarm about capitalism's house of cards for years, and in some cases, decades.
Featuring:
Steve Williams, POWER: People Organized to Win Employment Rights co-director and co-founder; Rick Wolff, University of Massachusetts at Amherst Economics Professor and author; Stanley Aronowitz, City University of NY Graduate Center Sociology & Urban Education Professor and author.
This program was co-produced by Megan Martenyi as part of Making Contact's internship program.
Click here to listen (or right-click to save to your computer and load on your iPod or other MP3 player).
For more information:
City University of NY Graduate Center (CUNY) Department of Sociology & Urban Education Stanley Aronowitz www.stanleyaronowitz.org
If you found Richard Wolff absolutely fascinating, check out this YouTube preview of "Capitalism Hits the Fan" a film you can purchase from http://www.capitalismhitsthefan.com/
A New Workshop from UFE
In his campaign, President Obama promised to rebuild the economy from the ground up, but how are we going to make sure the recovery results in an equitable economy?
The first step is to understand the policies and practices that led to the current financial meltdown. That's why UFE has designed a workshop to help people explore what's gone wrong and what they need to demand to reduce the huge economic divide.
"Bankers, Brokers, Bubbles & Bailouts" uses participatory activities to illustrate and demystify the underlying economic structures and the recent trends that contributed to the current financial crisis. It identifies the steps leading to the housing bubble and its collapse, reviews the impact of the crisis on jobs, families and communities, and explores strategies for building power through a broad-based, democratic, multi-race, multi-class, social movement for economic justice. This workshop is aimed at activists, students, workers - anyone interested in helping our towns, states, and nation construct an economy that is more equitable for everyone.
Workshop Goals:
Explore the roots of the economic crisis.
Review the trends & events that created the housing bubble and its collapse.
See who wins and who loses as a result of the bailouts.
Identify strategies to build a social movement for economic fairness.
Name specific policy & rule changes that will reduce inequality.
Created in partnership with United for A Fair Economy, this web site offers a comprehensive set of lessons plans, all using "popular education" (group activity) technigues that are guaranteed to engage any group, from high school students (for whom the curriculum was written) to adults. Check out a few of the animated introductions to lessons available for free from Reach And Teach and United for A Fair Economy.
Defining Economics How do you define economics? What's it all about? How does the economy relate to our lives and what's the difference between democracy as a political system and capitalism as an economic system?
The Ten Chairs Musical chairs in High School? Absolutely! Students act out the distribution of wealth in the United States. What is wealth and who owns how much of it? What are assets and debts? What changes have families seen in their economic condition between 1976 and today?
Saving Accounts & Stocks How do savings accounts function? What is interest? How do stocks function? What are dividends?
Born on Third Base How do Americans acquire their fortunes? Is there really a level playing field or do some people start on third base? What impact does your level of wealth have on the types of assets you can acquire?
Signs of the Times What are the signs we are told to look for to gauge economic success? Does a rising GDP or GNP mean prosperity for all? What would a pro-family economic agenda look like?
During a particularly bad week when a lot of stuff was hitting the fan in economic news a while back, one person walked up to me at church on Sunday and said "I remember the economics workshop you did a few years ago..... wow did you hit the nail on the head back then." Another came by that same day and asked "How could you have known exactly what was going to happen?" That same week, I got an email from a CitiGroup executive, lambasting me for material our company had created in partnership with United for A Fair Economy on the teachingeconomics.org web site. I won't go into the name-calling this executive used, but it made me feel pretty good to know that the material that we had used a few years ago in workshops was making a CitiGroup executive so mad today. 
Program Description from Making Contact: 
faireconomy.org
