Occupy the lecture theaters as well: An Open Letter to Greg Mankiw

[malaise]

Enough with the corporate agenda
<snip>
http://hpronline.org/campus/an-open-letter-to-greg-mankiw/
Dear Professor Mankiw—

Today, we are walking out of your class, Economics 10, in order to express our discontent with the bias inherent in this introductory economics course. We are deeply concerned about the way that this bias affects students, the University, and our greater society.

As Harvard undergraduates, we enrolled in Economics 10 hoping to gain a broad and introductory foundation of economic theory that would assist us in our various intellectual pursuits and diverse disciplines, which range from Economics, to Government, to Environmental Sciences and Public Policy, and beyond. Instead, we found a course that espouses a specific—and limited—view of economics that we believe perpetuates problematic and inefficient systems of economic inequality in our society today.

A legitimate academic study of economics must include a critical discussion of both the benefits and flaws of different economic simplifying models. As your class does not include primary sources and rarely features articles from academic journals, we have very little access to alternative approaches to economics. There is no justification for presenting Adam Smith’s economic theories as more fundamental or basic than, for example, Keynesian theory.

Care in presenting an unbiased perspective on economics is particularly important for an introductory course of 700 students that nominally provides a sound foundation for further study in economics. Many Harvard students do not have the ability to opt out of Economics 10. This class is required for Economics and Environmental Science and Public Policy concentrators, while Social Studies concentrators must take an introductory economics course—and the only other eligible class, Professor Steven Margolin’s class Critical Perspectives on Economics, is only offered every other year (and not this year). Many other students simply desire an analytic understanding of economics as part of a quality liberal arts education. Furthermore, Economics 10 makes it difficult for subsequent economics courses to teach effectively as it offers only one heavily skewed perspective rather than a solid grounding on which other courses can expand. Students should not be expected to avoid this class—or the whole discipline of economics—as a method of expressing discontent.

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The comments are priceless
sp.

[Bluenorthwest]

1. Seems like a good spot to promote Russ Feingold's lecture

on Monday, "Corporate Power in Politics and the Economy: What the Citizens United Decision Means for Our Democracy".
This lecture will be live online from University of Oregon on Monday, Russ starts at 4 pm Pacific Time at this link:
http://media.uoregon.edu/channel/2011/10/27/corporate-power-in-politics-and-the-economy-what-the-citizens-united-decision-means-for-our-democracy/

Senator Feingold's lecture is presented by The Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics is a living memorial to Oregon's former U.S. senator. Housed at the School of Law at the University of Oregon, the Center brings scholars and activists to Oregon to discuss critical topics in law and politics, in the tradition of Senator Morse.
Here is a wiki on Wayne Morse, just for the heck of it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Morse

[rurallib]

2. mark to come back to tomorrow night.

thanks for the tip.

[malaise]

3. Thanks

must watch

[Bluenorthwest]

4. Russ is always interesting and does not mince words....

nt