I once knew a man who never asked his children a straight question such as \"Would you like an apple?\" \u00a0He'd always say something like: \"Would you like an apple or an orange?\" \u00a0That is, he'd always make it clear that there were choices to be made, and that\u00a0choosing one thing usually\u00a0means not having\u00a0the other. \u00a0He did this because he knew that daily life was all about making such choices, and thought his children ought to start early. \u00a0That is, he wanted the notion of opportunity cost to be something they understood. \u00a0He was, of course, an economist by trade. \u00a0My (non-economist) mother had a refinement on this process, but that's quite another story.<\/p>\n
Steve Gough's new book<\/a> has an informative\u00a0passage on\u00a0opportunity cost on pages 50\/51 which deals with Scotland's incommensurate policies on [the value of] wind energy and wilderness. \u00a0His take on opportunity cost\u00a0is that:<\/p>\n \"the true cost of anything is the best alternative that could have been obtained instead.\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n See also this<\/a> from the library of economics.<\/p>\n Here's the quote:<\/p>\n \"... WWF Scotland is a strident supporter of the development of wind power. ... \u00a0However, others with an interest in environmental matters take a different view. \u00a0The Mountaineering Council of Scotland opposes wind farms on the grounds that they despoil wild land. \u00a0The interests of each organization form part of the opportunity cost of the policies promoted ... by the other, and these are in turn informed by value judgements in a climate of \u00a0uncertainty.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is a sound basis for\u00a0ESD2, and so it's unsurprising that Steve goes on to ask: \"What should children learn? \u00a0Who should decide?\" \u00a0His own response is this:<\/p>\n \"What we can say is that they should not learn simply that renewable energy is good, unspoilt wild land is good too and they should expect always to have both. \u00a0They need to be equipped to choose where such choices are unavoidable. and to understand the consequences of choice.\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Just so. \u00a0Such a pity, then, that current policy in England eschews such an informed approach. \u00a0Senior DfE representatives\u00a0wrote<\/a> this recently:<\/p>\n \"Schools\u00a0may incorporate sustainable development in their teaching within the\u00a0broad framework of the citizenship curriculum.\u00a0 Additionally, the new programmes of study for geography and science cover this issue from key stage 3 and focus on the key concepts in science and geography, rather than political, economic or social debates on this topic. \u00a0In order for children to develop a firm understanding of climate change, it is essential that it is taught as a carefully sequenced progression, starting with the fundamental concepts and relevant background knowledge which underpin this topic.\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Only someone who's refused to think about the significance of any of this could write such tosh. \u00a0It would make me wish for change at the next election, if I\u00a0thought things would get any\u00a0better. \u00a0Hard\u00a0Times<\/a>, indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I once knew a man who never asked his children a straight question such as \"Would you like an apple?\" \u00a0He'd always say something like: \"Would you like an apple or an orange?\" \u00a0That is, he'd always make it clear...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-new-publications"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6240\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}