ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book grows out of considerable involvement in consumer education, partly in producing materials for children and information for teachers, partly in dealing with many of the problems people have in adult life when they find themselves ill-equipped to cope with our rapidly changing society. The material on the way schools and countries approach consumer education, and on the resources available in the United Kingdom is based on work undertaken over a period of years on consumer education projects, which included co-founding and co-editing a consumer information newspaper for schools. Some sources are produced by industrial organizations and project their particular viewpoint, which readers will readily recognize, and others by pressure groups or committed individuals, whose perspective is different but equally recognizable. Other sources still are textbooks, government publications.
