Grade 3: The choices I make now will affect my future.

The concept of an economy, alluded to in the second grade, is introduced. In the third grade, resources, international markets, choices, trade-offs, and human capital are combined. From this point on, the human experience can be viewed as a series of choices and benefit/cost analyses made by decision-makers. Students should be able to use benefit/cost analysis in their personal decisions. In addition, they should be able to see themselves as workers, whose job it is to develop their human capital to provide them with the skills necessary for successful participation in the economy of the future.

3.2 Students describe the American Indian nations in their local region long ago and in the recent past:

• Section 3. Describe the economy and systems of government, particularly those with tribal constitutions, and their relationship to federal and state governments.

3.3 Students draw from historical and community resources to organize the sequence of local historical events and describe how each period of settlement left its mark on the land:

• Section 2. Describe the economies established by settlers and their influence on the present-day economy, with emphasis on the importance of private property and entrepreneurship.

3.5 Students demonstrate basic economic reasoning skills and an understanding of the economy of the local region:

• Section 1. Describe the ways in which local producers have used and are using natural resources, human resources, and capital resources to produce goods and services in the past and the present.

• Section 2. Understand that some goods are made locally, some elsewhere in the United States, and some abroad.

• Section 3. Understand that individual economic choices involve trade-offs and the evaluation of benefits and costs.

• Section 4. Discuss the relationship of students’ “work” in school and their personal human capital.