Debt: national, personal, and spiritual

Debt is such a relevant subject. There's a temporal and a spiritual component to it. And since it's our children who are saddled with most of the burden of the national debt, it seems only fair to teach them about it!

Here's a good video about the debt limit.

And this is a good one on the national debt and the deficit.

This video introduces the Laffer Curve and how lower taxes leads to higher revenue.

Related: social security.

Very interesting question: is consumption actually good for the economy?

I love this video about the broken window fallacy.

(I posted this on the Inflation post too.) It seems like everyone asks this question at some point or other: "why can't we just print more money?" And it's surprisingly hard (for me) to explain! This video does it pretty well.

On the more spiritual side, there's this good article on getting out of debt and its spiritual implications

Here is President Hinckley's great talk about putting our houses in order. I think everyone should read this before getting married!

I also love Joseph B. Wirthlin's talk about earthly and heavenly debts.

And here's another good video illustrating the great debt we owe to Jesus Christ.

Economic Systems, the Free Market, and Trade

I don't expect anyone to follow my garbled lecture notes here! There is quite a lot left out. But I was pleased with the way this discussion went. It is interesting to consider the idea of a Utopia or a Zion society. It's been the goal of so many, and yet most of those people have been lacking the ONLY thing that makes such a society possible: a change in human nature. And that, of course, only comes through Jesus Christ, and through our own agency. It is literally impossible to compel this change in others! And it's impossible to purely self-will it. Only the combination of our own desire and Christ's mercy allows the mighty change of heart that makes Zion possible. Which is why any secular Utopia must ultimately fail.

Anyway, on to more political things. Economic Systems and Trade!

My first introduction to Karl Marx came through Monte Python, I'm pleased to say. And I've never forgotten it. All through AP European History and other classes, I would repeat to myself, "The struggle of class against class is a what struggle? A what struggle?" "A…political struggle." It helped me through many an exam. Here's the video.

This talk, about the difference between the United Order (a sort of communal society attempted in early Latter-day Saint history) and Socialism, is interesting. Anyone who says these two systems are basically the same is missing some vital information!

Here's an old, but good, video about how the stock market works. I love this old style of movies.

When you talk about investment, it's also a good time to read the Parable of the Talents from the Bible and discuss how we can invest and enlarge ourselves spiritually! This is a good discussion of the parable, as is this. And this. And this. I like pondering all the different applications one parable can have.

Milton Friedman's "Free to Choose" series was really influential a couple decades ago, I think (and is still very applicable). I love the guy. This video, about how the free market helps people around the world, is great.

Here's Thomas Sowell on income inequality, and here's another one on the same topic.

I, Pencil. This video is a classic about trade and how it enriches all of our lives.

And here's another take on the same subject: How to make a $1500 sandwich in only 6 months

The Morality of Capitalism. And another (the children really liked this one). Ooh! And this one too. (Nice shout-out to our man Adam Smith, too.)

I posted this on another page, but it fits here too: This article is fascinating. It relates to the free market, but also gives a good perspective on how grateful we should be for what we have. We are so abundantly rich compared to any other people on earth before!

And it's always great to hear Milton Friedman in his own words. Here he talks about a glaring problem with socialism: where are "the angels" who will carry it out?

Another look at some of the problems with socialism.

What is the best Minimum wage?

Another of these sort of old-fashioned movies that seems a bit funny now, but the principles in it are sound. Why socialism doesn't work.

What's all this talk about the "trade deficit"?

And yes, I do get into all these subjects with my children, and they love it! I don't know how normal that is; perhaps it's strange, but maybe because they're subjects I find fascinating, the children love to talk about economics and politics. "Tell us something else about whiny college students," they will say, hopefully, at the breakfast table. :)

Election Night party

Whoa, this picture is bright.

This peanut butter cup pie was really good.

Speeches and Ribbon Flag

We talked about how public speaking is an important part of running for office (and other parts of life, really), and we talked about the kind of speeches that political candidates give. Then I found this online teleprompter, which is SO FUN. So we wrote speeches and took turns giving them to each other, with the assistance of the prompter. (The most coveted position was that of Teleprompter Controller.)

I guess I don't have any pictures of Malachi speaking, but he was great. Here is his speech: 

"Hello, my name is President Malachi. I am going to give a great speech about all the things I'm going to do. I am going to make a law that nobody can go in the White House without permission. I will make a very tall White House with 100 floors and a big point and a tram that goes to the roof. And I will make an escalator that goes all the way up, and there will be a huge rocket that I could ride in. Bye-bye now; thank you for listening to my great tall speech."

We also made this American flag for our door, out of ribbons. I think it's quite cute (if slightly uneven). We followed the instructions here . . . sort of. Our ribbons were a different width and that made everything more complicated. But we had fun anyway!

Elections Unit

This unit was on Elections. We did a government unit earlier and learned about different political systems, but this was focused on mostly just our American election process, including the electoral college etc. 

As you can see, we had a lovely time experimenting with "hanging chads," "dimpled chads" and so forth :)  [A few weeks later, Malachi came running in excitedly after he'd been trying to use the three-hole punch to put a piece of paper in his binder. "Mommy! Look! I got three hanging chads!" So cute.]

We went on a field trip to a campaign office and learned what goes on there (quite interesting---but would have been more interesting in another state, perhaps) :)

One of the best parts of the unit was when my cousin Heidi came to speak to us. She's a city council member in American Fork, so she told us about running for office, what her duties include, her favorite parts of the job, and so forth. It was fascinating. She's our favorite politician!

More resources:

http://pbskids.org/democracy/be-president/ My kids liked this "President for a Day" game

http://www.c-spanclassroom.org/Special-Offers.aspx Electoral map, with historical electoral totals included

http://magazines.scholastic.com/election-2012 Another fun game (you \have to click on "electoral challenge game" on the right)

http://bensguide.gpo.gov/files/Ben_Activity_webversion.pdf A coloring book of American symbols

There's also an interactive White House tour at the White House website. My kids thought it was pretty cool.

Capitol, capitol!

I went to the State Capitol several times when I was younger, but I don't remember it being so interesting! We went on a Friday afternoon, which was perfect because the place was almost deserted. Our tour guide was really nice, but the best part was that we'd printed out these Bingo cards beforehand, so all the boys were just riveted to the architectural details. They found everything on their cards, too. It was really fun.

I love the dome

It was a really hot day; poor patient thirsty baby!

Seb drew this when we got home (those are volcanoes in the foreground, just to spice things up a little)

Governor's Mansion

We wished we could have seen more of this place (you only get to see the first floor), but it was still interesting. Lots of beautiful period details. The yard is being torn up to replace the sprinklers right now, so it wasn't at its best. We liked the murals in the dining room, and the huge marble-covered kitchen.

Political Portraits

Abe is a benevolent dictator

For our Art class, Sam taught us about political portraits. We talked about propaganda and realism/accuracy/flattery in portrait painting. Sam also showed us lots of examples of symbolism in various portraits of rulers and presidents through history. The kids had to put symbolism in their portraits too (I like the fleur-de-lis in Seb's picture; symbolizing, he says, "Royal Bananas.")

Democracy, Republics, Voting, The Constitutional Convention

Everyone loved Voting Day and they were VERY secretive about their ballots. We voted on a bunch of things like what activity to do Saturday ("Have a campfire" won by a landslide), the menu for our picnic, what job to work on for clean-up night, etc. Even the little ones had very decided opinions, and were pleased to be able to express them. :) (Our voting booth is made of our laundry drying rack covered with a blanket, and a box on top.)

Another thing on our ballot was what flavor of cake to bake the next day. I was going to pick the top two flavors and make a marble cake out of them to illustrate compromise.  It ended up being a tie between chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry, so luckily I found a recipe for this Neapolitan cake. We called it "Compromise Cake."  Everyone was really happy about being able to make all of the flavors at once!  This activity was a good companion to our discussion about "The Great Compromise" at the U.S. Constitutional Convention.

Government unit, Monarchy, Crowns

Lesson plan

"Types of Government" wall chart (we filled this in throughout the week)

On the Monarchy day, we made crowns. This was a great chance to get out every scrap of ribbon and spare button I've been saving for "some project." The kids loved making their crowns symbolic and representative of themselves.

We wore these again later when we talked about sovereignty, and to make the point that in our country, the PEOPLE are (supposed to be) sovereign.