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I'm not concerned with children learning which jobs pay the most. I think children should learn to follow their vocation in life. What I'm concerned about is their lack of understanding of basic economics.

They ought to know the big picture in order to make informed decisions. Such as a student with student loans totaling over $50K for a major in communications finding out after graduating that she/he can only make about $23,000 a year. And will likely never be able to pay off those loans. That's where your 'basic economics' comes in. You can't know 'basic economics' if you don't have all the data or don't even know what you need to know.

And it's not at all about picking the major that pays the most. It's about students seeing that their hard work is rewarded. And motivating them to continue to work hard when they see their friends taking easy classes and having all sorts of free time. The payoff is at the end - and without students getting this information, many probably quit.

This is again where your 'basic ecnomics' comes in to play. Without scientists and engineers, our economy will be grinding to a halt. We are graduating less and less engineers every year (but have plenty of Women's Studies majors!). With less patents and inventions and innovations in our technological sectors, Japan and China will be taking over our business. Japan, with half our population, has graduated double the number of engineers in recent years than we have.

So all students need to get the big picture view of their choices, not just to blindly follow their hearts, as in some liberal theory. How many students can "follow their vocation in life", as you say? What is their vocation? How many know exactly what it is they want to do when they're in high school? Life in the U.S. is full of choices and opportunities. I think you have tunnel vision and expect students to have it as well. And most do - because of school counselors and teachers having it as well. Their time in the real world and knowledge of our economy and how the various majors and resulting jobs interplay in it is been limited.