A Third-Grade Economics Quiz

We have blogged a few times about financial and economic illiteracy in the U.S., particularly among young people.
So it’s nice to see a counterexample.
A blog reader named Christopher Galen has sent us his daughter Grace‘s third-grade economics quiz. Yes, that’s right: a third-grade economics quiz. She goes to a public school in Fairfax County, Virginia.
“She actually did better than I thought she might,” her father writes, “especially the essay question. This is not the gifted-and-talented program; this is standard operating procedure for 8-year-olds in her school. When I saw the study guide that provided the basis for the subsequent test, I have to say I was stunned by what to me (and I’ve had econ in college, plus having read Freakonomics!) seemed like fairly advanced concepts to absorb, e.g. opportunity costs, the differences between goods and services, buyers and consumers, and capital resources vs. natural resources.”
It is interesting that Grace missed the multiple-choice question about opportunity cost (No. 5), but nailed it in the essay. Good work, Grace.