Charles Murry and Teaching Economics

In the WSJ, Charles Murry wrote:

"It is possible for someone with an IQ of 100 to sit in the lectures of Economics 1, read the textbook, and write answers in an examination book. But students who cannot follow complex arguments accurately are not really learning economics. They are taking away a mishmash of half-understood information and outright misunderstandings that probably leave them under the illusion that they know something they do not."

If this is true, it is the fault of economists not our students. We should be able to make economics understandable and interesting to someone of average intelligence.

Unfortunately, economists are trained to think in terms of mathematics not verbal intuition. As a result, our teaching of undergraduates often suffers.