Predictably, the heart of the Summer School curriculum was its Economics program. Notably absent from this program was the higher-level theoretical discussions that were mainstays in most university classrooms. Instead, as we can see in syllabi from classes taught at the School, lessons focused on the lived experiences of students and the ways in which economic theory could be applied to their work in the labor movement and beyond. Rather than having students read long treatises on market theory, they instead were encouraged to participate in hands-on activities, collecting and charting statistical data, practicing negotiation techniques, debating current events, and learning about specific clashes between unions and factories as case studies. While lessons at the macro level of society helped to provide students with an understanding of the world they worked within—such as a yearly survey of students to find out a topic of interest such as unemployment—lessons also included skills that could be learned at the personal or household level, such as budgeting. The Economics curriculum evolved with every year as a means of keeping up with new developments or attending to various hot-button topics in current events. This was seen increasingly in the department’s work during the Depression, helping students to contextualize the struggles they faced in times of national distress.

    On-campus institutions formed for the Summer School such as a School co-op store and literary publication encouraged involvement in their community and chances to apply the skills they learned in the classroom. At the School store, students were able to make commissions during shifts and learn useful skills in inventory management and supply and demand. Students who bought from the store were given advice on the best budgeting practices by an instructor who oversaw the shop, and were given lessons in best consumer practices. The literary magazine, likewise, helped encourage lessons in teamwork and organization in assembling a publication to be sold to the student body at the summer’s end.

    Over the course of the Summer School’s tenure on Bryn Mawr’s Campus, history lessons were folded into the Economics curriculum, with students going on field trips to factories and historical monuments. Doing so, classes used the past as a teaching tool to learn more about the present. Field trips were halted after the summer of 1934, due to disputes of involvement in strike activity.