J. Farley Ordovensky Staniec
My primary goal in teaching my classes is that every student, even those for whom the course will be their first and last exposure to formal economics, will leave the course with a enhanced appreciation of how economics helps better understand so many facets of behavior, from why people smoke to why drive-up ATMs have keypads with Braille. I start every class with a discussion of "What's new in the world" and am constantly incorporating current issues to help students make the vital connection between what they're hearing in class and what they're observing outside of the classroom.
My second goal in all of my classes is to help students develop their analytical thinking abilities. Whether or not our graduates ever use the formal economic concepts they have learned, they will all be well-served in their career paths and as citizen leaders by their ability to approach any problem logically and to figure out how to apply the tools they have to best solve it. As the famous economist John Maynard Keynes once said, "Economics does not furnish a body of settled conclusions immediately applicable to policy. It is a method rather than a doctrine, an apparatus of the mind, a technique of thinking which helps its possessor draw correct conclusions." My mission is to help develop and strengthen that apparatus in all my students.
In addition to all that fabulous general training my courses provide, they also give students sound, rigorous preparation for further study in Economics, whether it be my Intro students going on to Intermediate Theory or my upper-level students moving on to graduate study. In general students find my classes challenging but, for those students who rise to the challenge, ultimately rewarding in all these different dimensions.
J. Farley Ordovensky Staniec
Associate Professor of Economics and Chair
Email: fstaniec@pacific.edu
