The first attempts to systematize economic education in Hawaii date from 1951, when over sixty teachers, businessmen, farmers, and other local citizens of the Hamakua-coast region of the island of Hawaii came together for a two-week workshop to develop classroom materials for economics teaching. This gathering appears to have been a spontaneous, grassroots response to a growing concern that citizens - and especially school children - did not have a clear understanding of their local and national economic issues. Following widespread publicity, early the following year this initiative sparked the creation of the Hawaii Economic Education Advisory Council serving Oahu and the Neighbor Islands, and was among the first such economic education councils in the United States. Today this organization is known as the Hawaii Council on Economic Education, and it continues to run youth programs and initiatives to raise awareness and understanding of economic issues in Hawaii. For more information on the history of economic education in Hawaii please refer to: "Economic Education in Hawaii: A Historical Survey" by Christiaan Grootaert and Stephen L. Jackstadt.