Concepts of Consumer Education

Abstract

The following report summarizes one section of a study being made by Dr. Fred T. Wilhelms to clarify the concepts of consumer education for the three-year study that the National Association of Secondary-School Principals has undertaken. In this report he has limited himself almost entirely to the concepts described in statements before professional associations and in special publications of key organizations, including also a few highly significant statements by individuals writing in professional Journals. In other phases of the study, the concepts expressed or implied in consumer education textbooks and courses of study are likewise being analyzed, and the views of workers in the field are being gathered. This report indicates, as might have been ex pected, that there is as yet no general agreement as to what consumer ed ucation should be. However, it furnishes a preliminary statement that will aid us, with the co-operation of many workers in the field, to come to some agreement as a basis for our study.—THOMAS H. BRIGGS, DIRECTOR OF THE CONSUMER EDUCATION STUDY