In the conference of "International Symposium for Consumer
Education in Kyoto", American presentators pointed out that
consumer economics was a main stream of American consumer
education and that Joint Council on Economic Education (JCEE)
was a leader of the consumer economic education movement.
This paper aimes to research the meanings and concepts of con-
sumer economic education planned by JCEE.
JCEE and the Office of Consumers' Education (OCE), U.S.
Department of Education held the national seminor on Consumer
Education and Economic Education in the Public Schools in 1980.
After the seminar, the books "Integrating Consumer and Economic
Education into the School Curriculum" and "Consumer Education
and Economic Education in the Public Schools" were published by
JCEE. In these books, the following was pointed out:
1. "Economists should use the economic principles of self-
interest in order to attain their goal of increased economic literacy.
When economic concepts are applied to consumer decisionmaking,
students can more readily understand their usefulness." (by John
S. Morton)
2. "The needs for a broad perspective or context underscores
why economics should be a part of the consumer education cur-
riculum. Economic concepts assist in the analysis of alternative
choices and their consequences, thereby allowing individuals to
make more informed judgements about how to use their resources."
(by Judith Staley Brenneke)
3. The concepts of resources, scarcity, choices opportunity
costs and trade~offs are important for the consumer decision~mak-
ing. Microeconomic concepts like competition and market structure
and macroeconomic concepts like inflation and price level changes
are also important for understanding the consumers, economic
environment.
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