Courses Taught, University of Tennessee Knoxville—
Fall 2023:
ECON213, Introductory Macroeconomics
ECON305, Markets, Ethics, and Capitalism

Courses Taught, University of Delaware—
Fall 2020–Spring 2023:
ECON100, Economic Issues and Policies

Teaching Philosophy— 
I love teaching. I love economics. I love teaching economics. To borrow a religious metaphor, I view teaching as a sort of evangelism. I know that is not a view shared by all economists. But I believe I am in possession of knowledge that can transform a person’s life. I can attest to this transformative power. And I love helping students to see some of the revelation of the economic way of thinking that I have seen.  

Early in my career I thought that if I was just Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society, if I was passionate about my subject and cared about my students, that would be enough to win them over. My first years in the profession were spent in a tough urban high school and quickly disabused me of this romantic notion. I learned that evangelism requires a variety of strategies. So, I construct my teaching as a system of methods: lecture, robust back and forth, simulations, games, and general opportunities to move. As a former English teacher, I’m also a firm believer in the power of informal writing, even and especially for students who have little skill in that practice. I also make use of the Socrative in-class engagement platform, which spurs participation and gives me data on the state of the flock in real time.

My early years also taught me that as helpful as a variety of strategies is, teaching can still fall short without a sense of connection. You have to speak the language of your audience. To that end, I pepper the class content with references to news, sports, music, movies, their high school English curriculum, memes, Tweets, and so on. I have taken examples from sources as varied as CBS Sunday morning, SportsCenter, Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, and Disney’s Big Hero 6. I ask my students how their weekends were. I use economic examples from my own life. I treat students like human beings with inherent human dignity and show them my humanity in return.

Perhaps paradoxically, effective evangelism also requires leaving room for students to develop their own beliefs. I used to think it was my job to reshape my students in my image. Now I consider comments like “I can’t figure out where you land politically” the highest praise. Rather than preaching adherence to a particular ideology, I show students the ways economics often doesn’t neatly map onto any tribe or faction. I espouse the virtues of intellectual honesty and good-faith inquiry, and model those virtues where I can. I teach them the economic way of thinking, instead of telling them what to think. When it comes to their interactions with each other, I encourage students to purge the phrase “So basically you’re saying…” from their vocabularies; to cultivate a healthy curiosity; to ask questions that are questions, not indictments. 

Finally, effective evangelism should be grounded in reliable pedagogy. In the same way a doctor must stay knowledgeable of progress in the field, so too should a teacher. However, good teaching can take a myriad of forms. One must find one’s particular style. This is mine. I remember once hearing Aaron Rodgers say something to the effect of “I know I’m good at this. I expect greatness from myself every time I walk on that field.” I know Rodgers rubs some people the wrong way, but I find his confidence oddly inspiring. Yes, sometimes I’ll get it wrong. And sometimes the marginal benefit of perfecting an activity or finding just the right pop cultural reference won’t be worth the marginal cost. Some days I will have to be ok with good enough. But my baseline will never be settling for mediocre instruction. Both this subject and my students deserve better.