That which is included is often wrong. For example, one popular fourth-grade textbook identifies people as natural resources. Many textbooks focus on categorizing needs and wants, rather than decision making, regarding limited resources and trade-offs. Others emphasize money as a factor of production instead of a medium of exchange. Some emphasize natural resources and neglect to discuss the other factors of production such as capital resources, human resources and entrepreneurial ability.
Textbooks frequently misstate information.
For example, one leading social studies series states that in Scandinavian countries, health care and education are free. Later, the same textbook mentions that citizens of Scandinavian countries pay high taxes. Today, publishers of elementary social studies textbook series provide teachers with a matrix indicating that economics is woven throughout the books. Upon closer inspection, a few economic terms are interspersed without adequate explanation or integration into the content of the chapters. 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.