Course Syllabus for:
Justice, Money & Virtue: An Introduction to Economics and Political Economy
Place: Colonial Baptist Church, Cary (North Raleigh site TBA)
Day & Time: Tuesdays, 11:00 am to 12:30 (North Raleigh time TBA)
Dates: September 4 through December 11, 2011 with Thanksgiving week off January 15 through April 23, 2012 with Easter week off
Cost: Cost: $350 and an additional $30 book and materials fee
Discounts: Extra family sibling or parent, $270 plus $30 book and materials fee
Full Payment due by first class, $325.00 ($25.00 discount)
Two payments due by first class of each semester, $175.00 each
Check or cash.
Send $50.00 non-refundable deposit (to order text) by August 20, 2012
Payable to: “Bob Stevens” Mail to: Bob Stevens, 809 Spring Forest Rd. Ste. 1000, Raleigh, NC 27609
Include: Name / Address / Email / Phone / Grade Level
Contact Info: BobStevens6@gmail.com, cell phone 919-219-4665
Description of High School Course: Justice, Money and Virtue: An Introduction to Economics and Political Economy (Two Semester) High School 10th thru 12th grade, and parents are welcome and encouraged to take the class
This course will help put together the puzzle pieces of economics through a multi-disciplinary perspective of history, political economy, philosophy and sociology undergirded by a Judaic and Christian worldview.
The first semester of the course builds a foundational understanding of the function of economics and basic concepts such as: Thinking like an economist, Robinson Crusoe Economics, Origin of Money, Division of Labor, Entrepreneurship, Supply and Demand, Interest, Credit, Debt Capitalism, Socialism, and Interventionism, Price Controls, Tariffs & Quotas, Inflation, Government Debt, The Business Cycle
The second semester covers topics such as the Judaic, Christian and Islamic foundations of economics, History of free markets, The European Miracle, Rise of Classical Liberalism, Critique of Marxism, Fascism and Communism, Keynesianism, Chicago school, Progressive movement and Austrian Economics, Impact of Catholic thought, American History from a Political Economy Perspective, the current Sovereign Debt Crisis, What is Justice?, Justice and Law, and Foreign Aid and Development. We will look at the influence of Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Frederic Bastiat, Adam Smith, John Mills, John Maynard Keynes, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich von Hayek, Murray Rothbard, Thomas E. Woods, Milton Friedman, Thomas Jefferson, and many others.
Course Objectives for the student (adult or teenager) to:
- Introduce students to the soft science of economics and importance of multidisciplinary study
- Learn foundational economic principles and working vocabulary
- Be able to think like an economist in personal, public and professional life
- Gain a basic integrated framework to critically think about any college liberal arts course
- Differentiate strengths, weaknesses and dangers of various schools of thought
- Understand the roots and causes of our current “recession/depression”.
- Look at US history from a liberty and economic perspective
- Be able to trace the line of freedom and liberty thinking through world history
- Debunk many myths about history and economics and government
- Understand the social, political and cultural impact on economic thought and policy
- Evaluate ideas from Christian, Humanism, Islam, New Age, Postmodern and Marxist worldview
- Provide tools and resources for further study
Instructor: Bob Stevens
Bob has completed nine courses in Economics, History and Philosophy, and read over 14,000 pages and over 450 hours of online reading on this subject material. He has taught the core content of this material in Sunday school and to small groups.
Bob spent 23 years with the U.S. Center for World Mission as the Southeast Regional Director multiplying the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course to over 12,000 students with over 1000 going to the mission field. Bob taught hundreds of lessons for this undergraduate and undergraduate class. He has a gift for bringing to life complex history and ideas to the average student.
He is an ordained minister.
He has edited two books: African American Experience in World Mission: A Call Beyond Community and Profiles of African American Missionaries
Bob served with Campus Crusade for Christ in Texas in campus ministry and earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering in 1977 from N.C. State University.
Bob and his wife Ellen have four children ages 12 to 22 and are members of Christ Baptist Church in Raleigh.
Endorsements:
“Bob challenged me spiritually and intellectually like no other class I have taken before. Every citizen needs to take this class!” -Greg Mitchell, Mechanical Engineer
“As a former university professor (twenty years), Headmaster of a private school (ten years), and since 1992 an Executive Consultant to schools and higher education for Paideia, Inc., I have worked with high school and university students and with their curricula throughout my career. High among observations over those years has been one very strategic to the education of youth and to our nation—that a gaping hole exists in most high school studies, extending through the list of core courses (often called “gen-ed” or the like) usually required of students in their undergraduate years. Students can gain a degree with minimal-to-no exposure to or study of the philosophies and principles of various schools of economic theory, leaving them at risk as citizen-voters as well as in their personal daily decision-making.
Avoiding isolating economics from a Judeo-Christian worldview, as his working title, Justice, Money, and Virtue: An Introduction to Economics and Political Economy, illustrates, Bob’s materials provide a broadly multidisciplinary context for an integrated study of economics. I greatly encourage you to take this opportunity of studying with Bob.” -Dr. Ron Grosh
