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In 1890, the United States government had no agency empowered to control the overall supply of money. Fifty years later, it had a full set of monetary institutions, including a central bank whose structure is much the same today. Further, it had enough experience to know both the promise and the pitfalls of monetary control. How did the nation's monetary institutions change so much? History books make the progression from the 1890s debates and early twentieth century crises look inevitable. Yet because there is little economic content, the textbooks do not explain monetary history within a contextual framework that includes choices, costs, and incentives. As in other areas, textbooks underplay the economic way of thinking. This article outlines the macroeconomic understandings required to help students navigate the complexities of a key period in American monetary history. We show how economic reasoning illuminates three episodes from that period--the hard currency debate of the 1890s, the panic of 1907, and the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Data and primary source documents are important for understanding past and current events. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis has committed itself to the collection and illumination of economic data and historical information for classroom teachers and researchers. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis provides a number of services--including FRED, GeoFRED, and FRASER--to increase that understanding. In the early 1990s, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis began offering its small collection of economic data to the public through a dial-up service. Now, Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) is a website that includes over 24,000 data series. Students will increase their understanding of past and current events through the FRED website, where they can view and download original maps, charts, tables, graphs, and raw data. Most economists and many educators are comfortable with data in table and graph form, but often students are not. An excellent option in such cases is GeoFRED[TM]. GeoFRED, another part of the St. Louis Fed's data service, can be accessed from the top menu on the FRED home page (or at http://geofred.stlouisfed.org/). GeoFRED is a datamapping tool that allows students to create thematic maps based on a particular set of data. Another service that St. Louis Fed provides is FRASER or the Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research (http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/). FRASER includes source material from the eighteenth century to the present on economics, finance, and banking. (Contains 2 figures and 1 note.)

Today's young students, when they grow to be adults, will have to make decisions the consequences of which will impact their lives and the lives of others. As consumers, they will need to understand that they can't have everything they want. They will have to make spending, savings, and investing decisions that benefit their own families over the long term. Citizens must grapple with understanding the economic policy decisions of Congress, the President, and the Federal Reserve, and how these policies impact the lives of consumers, producers, and investors--and the health of the economy itself. Research in economic education shows that elementary students can and do learn economics when their teachers are knowledgeable and have high-quality economic education materials on hand. The Federal Reserve, commonly referred to as the "Fed," has expertise through its economists and its economic educators to provide content programs, publications, and curricular materials for teachers to use to help elementary students develop economic literacy. This article presents economics and children's literature lessons as well as teaching resources from the Federal Reserve Banks that can be used to help students better understand their economic world. (Contains 10 notes.)

Explains that authentic teaching and assessment enable students to utilize their prior knowledge, recent learning, and critical thinking and problem-solving skills in real-world contexts. Describes examples of authentic teaching and assessment that use the "Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics" as a framework for economics education in the elementary grades. (CMK)