Founding Leaders and Founding Documents

Founding Leaders and Founding Documents Laura Ewing President/CEO Texas Council on Economic Education www.economicstexas.org www.smartertexas.org Laura@economicstexas.org 713-655-1650

TCEE Teaches teachers who teach students who are the future of Texas Provides interesting hands-on lessons that develop critical thinking skills for students in Economics, Social Studies, Math, and Career/Technical Education classes.

This workshop and the accompanying materials are made available to teachers through the generous support of State Farm and the Council for Economic Education.

Economics Challenge • Fall and Spring Online Testing In Micro, Macro and International Economics • Adam Smith Division 2nd place national champs Bellaire HS 2010/3rd 2012 • David Ricardo Division 3rd place national champs Plano HS 2010/4th place 2012 • State competition in Austin

Personal Financial Literacy Challenge • Middle and High School • Fall and spring online challenges will determine state finalist candidates • “State Play-Offs” in Austin with cash awards for two top teams • HS national finals at Fed in St. Louis • Bellaire HS Houston 2nd in nation 2012

Stock Market Game ™InvestWrite Teams of 2 to 5 students Grades 4 to 12 Cost: Fidelity sponsors Legislative Challenge 10 week Student Session

www/economicstexas/org How Do You Get These Materials? www.economicstexas.org

What Role Does Geography Play In… 1. how Texans make a living 2. where people settle

What are the factors of production? 1. Land 2. Labor 3. Capital 4. Entrepreneurship

What do you know about the economy of the 13 colonies? • Write at least three things about the economy of the 13 colonies. • Share your answers with a partner. • Listen as three students share their answers with the class.

Visual 4.2: % of Distribution of Total Colonial Trade (1768 to 1772)

Role of property rights • Use these concepts to explain the free enterprise system in colonial America: • Property rights • Incentives • Productive • Specialization • Trade • Global economy • Investments • profits

Goods and Services What is the difference? Good: Service: Which of the items on the list are goods and which are services? Rank order: which do you think most important to least important.

What do you know about the US Articles of Confederation and U.S. Constitution? • Years? • Purpose? • Who wrote? • Why?

U. S. Constitution • First Continental Congress met September 5, 1774 in Philadelphia in response to the Coercive Acts (Intolerable Acts) passed by Parliament which had punished Boston for the Boston Tea party • Agreed to petition King George for redress of grievances • 12/13 colonies attended with 56 people (only Georgia, the convict state not included) • First CC agreed to meet again next year • Shot heard ‘round the world in Lexington 1775

Second Continental Congress • Began meeting in Philadelphia May 1775 • Organized the war effort • Commissioned writing of Declaration of Independence When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of God’s Nature entitled them…should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Declaration of Independence • We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness-that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government because destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…Right to revolt…after a long train of abuses… • List of grievances • John Hancock’s signature • Written by Thomas Jefferson

Economic Problems During the Articles of Confederation • Debt • Taxation • Tariff Battles • Military Weakness

A New Nation in 1781: One Nation or Thirteen? • Guidelines for the activity: • 1. Individually read the problem and the predicting consequences. • 2. Succinctly state the problem in one sentence. • 3. What do you think the consequences will be? • 4. Work in a small group and compare your problem sentences. As a group restate the problem statement. • 5. As a group, restate what you predict the consequences will be. • 6. Share your answers with the class.

Processing Activity on Articles of Confederation • How did the Articles reflect the wishes of a people vying for less centralized power? • What were issues with the Articles? • What will happen as a result of the issues?

The U. S. Constitution: The Rules of the Game • What is the role of the government in the U.S. market economy? • Constitutional Convention • May to September 1787 • September 17, 1787 is Constitution Day

The U. S. Constitution: The Rules of the Game • The new nation was in financial crisis. • The new states sent 55 leaders to amend the Articles of Confederation. • They met from May until September 1787. • They quickly learned that they needed to make substantial changes. They wrote a new Constitution based on Adam Smith’s concepts of economic freedom. • What were the new rules of the game?

The Constitution: Rules for the Economy • As you participate in the activity, notice the new rules of the game, why they were established, and the expected outcomes. • Read Economic Freedom and the Founders

Rules of the Game and YOU • What are three ways that the rules of the game affect you: • Economically? • Personally?

Founding Leaders and Founding Documents