ABSTRACT
Economics is the social science that investigates the choices people make about how to use their scarce resources in order to satisfy their unlimited wants, and has been described as the science of decision-making. The College, Career, and Civic Live (C3) Framework for the Social Studies was developed to provide states with "voluntary guidance for upgrading existing social studies standards" and is only suggestive and designed to "support states in creating standards". Rather than defining precise content knowledge, the C3 focuses on the pedagogical content knowledge–drawn from the four major disciplines that undergird the social studies in US schools—that future citizens will require. The focus of C3 on process and not explicit content may also be a weakness in terms of advocacy. The focus on process may leave open to political winds the question about what content—indeed, what disciplines—to include in standards.
