Other books address economics by devoting a single chapter to economic content, thereby teaching it in isolation with no connections made to the rest of the social studies curriculum. Finally, elementary teachers feel that economics is a subject best taught when the children are older and in high school. Unfortunately, not all students will take a high school economics course and those that do may not gain an understanding of the necessity to make careful choices. With so much content to cover in a semester economics course, high school teachers spend little time teaching unlimited economic wants and limited resources, choices and trade-offs involved. If these concepts are covered, it is done so through theory.
Teachers fail to apply the theory to practical everyday examples relevant to teenagers.
For example, they may teach production possibilities, but never show students how this model has application to choices they make as teenagers or in the future as adults. Young children learn early that they cannot have everything they want. Unfortunately, they do not always understand why this is the case or why each choice involves a cost. When asked about the dilemma of making choices, they respond that it is the fault of someone else, that this individual is just prohibiting them from getting their desired choice or that when they become adults, choices will no longer be a problem. Children live in an economic world and bring economic knowledge into the classroom.