I think most bloggers know there are many schools of politics. These we like to place on "the political spectrum." (recent writings on my reguard for the utility of that here)

Most everybody knows there are different schools of theology, from Buddhism to Christianity to Wicca. Many people know there are different schools of dance, different schools of psychology, of philosophy, of music, of physics. But did you know there were different schools of economics? It is so.

As a matter of interest, there are or have been different schools in most every subject. However, as a science or an art becomes better traveled the alternative schools tend to be cast asside. I don't know myself if there are different schools of mathematics anymore. But in the early days people used to get thrown overboard for suggesting the possibility of irrational numbers (this is what comes of arguing in boats).

^^^ This little tree is my understanding so far of the different schools of economics (click on image to view full size).

Economics, for me, starts with The Classicals- Adam Smith being the first of them. Marxism and Neo-Classicism for example are both schools that directly stem from the Classical school of economics, whereas Keynesianism stems from Neo-Classicism and is the scion of three more schools.

I'm quite keen on the Austrian school, but my second choice would be the Institutionalist school which takes its roots from a mix between Marxism and Veblenese economics.

What we're taught at school in New Zealand is actually drawn from every one of these schools. How else could it be, since all of these schools have great world-shaking ideas that cannot be ignored? But in the main our university lecturers tend to be dominated either by Neoclassical, Keynesian or Monetarist thought.

This table is only advanced as my own knowledge. As I understand more schools I modify the table. There is no place on my table the likes of Frederick Bastiat or the thematic school of Game Theory. The former is more of a gad-fly muse than any school, the latter is a system of logic that is compatable with nearly any school you please.