This posting continues this blog’s reporting of a real-time
development of a unit of study suitable for an American government course. The course is aimed at high school seniors. They usually take this course as a
requirement for graduation and the course is a semester course, sharing its
time allotment with economics, the other semester course. This blog, to date, has posted three lessons –
the first three lessons of the unit. The
unit is designed to be the last unit of the course.
This posting’s lesson is designed to
complete the historical portion of the unit.
After World War II, the US was the super power in all aspects of global
economics and politics. The other advanced
nations of the world experienced extensive damage due to the war. Not so for the US. It was left to the US to get the nations of
the world to become viable again. There
were altruistic and selfish reasons to play that role. After all, widespread poverty is disruptive
and poor people can’t buy what one sells.
On both fronts, it was in the interest of the US to get the rest of the
world back on its feet.
Consequently,
through various steps – e.g., Brent Woods accords, the Trade Expansion Act,
international agreements such as NAFTA, generous foreign aid, and highly
valuated currency – the US did much to enhance the fortunes of its allies and
former adversaries. As already pointed
out, not all aided countries acted in ways the US anticipated. These historical developments provide the
context of this next lesson.
To remind the
reader, here is a restatement of the insights upon which this next lesson is
based:
·
According to Peterson [of the Nixon
Administration] memo, US policy in foreign trade was highly deficient and that
the US dominance in world trade was by then, 1971, over. The reasons were many, but underlying these
reasons was an arrogance by the US that determined all the US had to do to
maintain its vaulted position was to form the rules and regulations of
international trade.[1]
·
The Peterson memo was judged by the
State Department as being too dismissive of the need to establish better
relations with other nations, too nationalistic, and an encouragement to
Congress to pass higher tariffs and restrictive regulations on foreign trade.[2]
LESSON ON THE PETERSON MEMO (initially sixth and twelfth
insights)
Objectives:
* Given the prompt, describe and explain the historical
significance of the “Peterson memo” during the Nixon Administration, the
student will identify the general thrust of the memo as being a call for a
change in foreign trade policy to one that recognizes the diminished status of
the US in global markets. It further
suggests extensive changes in that policy to support education initiatives to
prepare Americans to be able to compete in the newer economy; to adjust
currency valuations of the US and other countries to improve America’s balance
of trade/payments with other countries; to encourage improvements in American
products; and for the US to become generally more competitively fit to meet the
demands of the global markets.
* Given the critique of the Peterson memo – it is hostile to
American relations with other countries – the student will take a defensible
position as to the viability of the Peterson memo, stating his/her reasons for
his/her support or opposition of the memo.
Lesson steps:
Pre-lesson. See
previous posting, “Setting the Problem,” October, 17, 2017, for this element’s
description. In this fourth lesson, the
following factoids are distributed:
·
A 2016 Pew Research Center report
stated that 203 of the 229 major U.S. metropolitan areas it surveyed between
2000 and 2014 showed a decline in the number of middle-class families. This
results from families either moving up the socioeconomic ladder due to securing
work in more specialized jobs paying higher income or them falling into a
lower-income bracket often due to losing middle-class income jobs such as in
manufacturing.[3]
·
Middle-class households’ income has
nominally risen modestly, but in inflation-adjusted basis are stagnant during
the years from 2000 to 2014. This
reflects what has been going on for decades stretching back to the 1960s. That is, when factoring in the effects of
inflation over 50 years (1964-2014), real wages grew by less than 8% – this is
a yearly rate of 0.16% and is considered stagnant growth.[4]
·
Certain costs, that are relatively
important to the quality of life, have been facing inflationary growth. Specifically, college costs and medical care
costs outpaced Consumer Price Index (CPI) between 2005 and 2015 except for one
of those years. For example, between
1978 and 2008, college tuition rose 1,120%.
Of course, a college education is even more important when manufacturing
jobs are going abroad. Medical care is
essential for good health and, in turn, to allow for a person to be competitive
in a job market.[5]
·
The debt levels of the average
middle-class household are significantly high.
For example, in 2013 it is nearly twice as high as it was in 1989 at a
rate of 122% of annual household income.
High debt levels make it more difficult to save for retirement. Also, a loss of a job and/or a downturn in
the economy would be more detrimental with a high debt level to satisfy.[6]
Also,
the teacher identifies two teams of “debaters” to argue the measures contained
in the Peterson memo. Each team has
three or four students. For those
students, they are assigned to become familiar with the Peterson memo. They can have the planning insights
concerning the Peterson memo given to them.
Perhaps, copies of Edward Alden’s book, Failure to Adjust, can be handed to each team with the parts of the
book describing and explaining the Peterson memo pointed out.
Same day steps:
1. Teacher hands out the newsletter for the day. Students are given time to read the
newsletter while attendance is taken and other administrative items are
handled. (seven minutes)
2. Teacher asks students if they have any clarifying questions
regarding the newsletter. Beginning with
this lesson, there will be no follow up activity regarding the newsletter; its content
provides further information relevant to the topic of the unit and subsequent
activities. (five minutes)
3. Teacher asks students to complete the previous day’s concept
exercise. He/she solicits, from students,
acceptable idea chains. An example could
be: trade deficit – balance of trade –
import/exports – foreign trade. Teacher
determines who won the previous day’s competition if it wasn’t done at the end
of that day’s class period. (ten minutes)
4. Teacher gives a brief overview of the Peterson memo. The purpose of this step is to convey to
students two general dispositions to foreign trade. One is represented by the Peterson memo which
calls for a more competitive position in terms of foreign trade. The other is conveyed by the State
Department’s reaction to the Peterson memo.
State thought the memo, if heeded, would undermine the efforts of the US
to have productive relations with other countries; hurt the development of
poorer nations; and stand in the way for a more global perspective. Each of these objectives were advancing peace
and that thought was the product of the experiences of two world wars and what was
becoming regional conflicts, e.g., Vietnam.
The teacher’s overview summarizes these points. (five minutes)
5. Teacher organizes an informal debate over the content of the
Peterson memo. He/she identifies
(predetermined) three or four students per side to argue for and against the
content of the memo. The State
Department position can be the basis of the anti-memo argument. Those students assume pre-arranged seating at
the front of the class and debate the proposition: should the US government
heed the policy proposals of the Peterson memo?
The debate is limited to each side making an initial argument statement.
(twenty minutes or till the end of class period)
6. Teacher briefly summarizes the arguments. (three minutes)
Assignment: Given the summary the
teacher provides, students take one of the conclusions the “debate” proclaimed
and fill-in a Toulmin outline for an argument.
That is, the student provides datum statements, warrant statement(s), if
possible, backing for the warrant statement(s), and any qualifiers or
reservations the argument should include.
These work products will be collected at the beginning of the next class
period (a graded activity).[7]
That completes the
fourth lesson in this unit of study.
[1] Edward Alden, Failure to Adjust: How Americans Got Left Behind in the Global
Economy (Lanham, MD: Rowman and
Littlefield Publishers, 2016).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Sean Williams,
“7 Reasons the Middle-Class Is in Serious Trouble,” The Motley Fool, September
22, 2016, accessed September 28, 2016, http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/09/17/7-reasons-the-middle-class-is-in-serious-trouble.aspx .
[4] Ibid. In nominal (unadjusted for inflation) terms,
wages rose over 700% during the years between 1964 and 2014. This finding is based on statistics offered
by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Again, this type of exercise, it can be assumed, has
been assigned earlier in the course.
Therefore, students should know what they are being asked to do.
No comments:
Post a Comment