Here's an idea: assign two students to debate whether going off the gold standard would be a good thing. Have them debate it as if it hadn't happened yet, and have them use the same arguments that people used when the problem was being considered. Grade them not on whether their arguments are right or wrong, but whether they are historically accurate--do they accurately depict what some people once believed?


"Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold."