Are You Smarter Than a 4th Grader in Economics?

Did you know in some schools they're starting to teach economics in early grades? I don't think I knew what economics was until ECON 101 freshman year of college.

Yesterday, I spoke to 4th graders at Liberty Elementary, just outside of Louisville where my wife teaches and kids go to school, as part of their 4th grade economics unit they've been studying for most of the year.

I hope I didn't plant any seeds of competition 10 or 15 years from now. These 10 year-olds are more business-savvy than you could imagine. They grilled me on ump-attire.com's product selection, pricing strategies, inventory management, advertising and more. I couldn't have expected more difficult questions in a seminar of MBA students. I'm not joking.

2 side notes from my talk worth sharing:

• Kids think referee flags are way cool. And I think that is cool.
  
• When I pulled out a Referee Magazine, one boy proudly exclaimed "My Dad gets that magazine!" (Actually, his Dad is a football official with the Sun Belt conference.) Not only was it neat to have a parent among that group of 68 who is an official, but also how proud the boy was of his father for being one.