Why "hi, economics"? (1)

   As mentioned in the description of this blog, I teach economics at a university in Hong Kong and "hi, economics" assumes that its readers have knowledge of economics not beyond high-school level. But why should a university teacher be concerned with high-school level economics?
   The idea of creating this blog originated from my interactions with students, especially first-year students. Obviously, first-year students do not know any economics beyond what they have learned from high schools. But over time they will learn more economics through taking more courses. What they have learned from high school, right or wrong, may only have a transitional impact. Eventually, they will learn the (more correct) economics from university.
   My teaching experience these years, however, suggests that things do not happen as what has been described above.
   By contrast, high-school economics has a much bigger impact than expected: Students are often greatly (or even permanently) affected by their high-school education. They normally will not think what they have learned from university is more right and what they have learned from high schools is less right. In fact, many students evaluate the good or the bad of university economics by high-school standard.
   For example, most (though not all of them) still considers economics should be taught in a high school style - don't use more mathematics in economics. These students will not appreciate the rigor brought about by using (a little bit) more math, or that as a (social) science subject, using more math is very natural, and should be gradually added (as what university physics should differ from high-school physics).
   On the other hand, many students consider the variety of economics models introduced in university is a confusing factor. We (teachers) think that learning more models will enrich one's toolkit in analyzing different types of real-world events. Nonetheless, students often do not think so.
   In short, high-school economics does really matter for one's university education, or even for the whole life!