Fifteen theses on classroom teaching

The Southern Economic Association initiated a lecture series on teaching to be presented at its annual meeting. This paper, given on November 24, 2000 , was the first such lecture. The editor invited the author to publish the lecture in Southern Economic Journal. Portions of the paper arc the fruits of the author's more than 30 years of experience teaching economics. Parts of the paper are based on writings regarding pedagogy outside the disciplin e of economics. The paper puts forward 15 theses about teaching economics i n the classroom. The theses range from propositions about why economics is a particularly difficult subject to teach to suggestions about how the clas sroom teaching of economics can be improved.