What was going on when I was born?

ONLY a few years ago, Mark Uberman recalls, the primary aim of the social studies course in economics that he teaches at Norman Thomas High School in Manhattan was to prepare students to become discerning consumers. Now, rather than emphasizing how to balance a checkbook, he is more likely to ask his students to compare the effects of monetarism, supply-side economics and Keynesian policies on inflation and unemployment. ''What I teach now is economic literacy,'' said Mr. Uberman. ''I don't think I was confident enough to teach this way before, but students are more sophisticated now. They realize that economics is not just a dry subject - it's what life is about.''

The Connecticut General Corporation and the INA Corporation, two of the nation's most prominent insurers, said yesterday that they would merge into a new company named the North American General Corporation. The move, approved by directors of both companies last Friday and subject to the approval of shareholders and Government antitrust officials, would create the sixth-largest insurance company in the country, based on premium income. The merger must also be approved by insurance regulatory agencies in the states in which the two companies do business. In the 12 months ended Dec. 31, 1980, Connecticut General had net operating income of $316.7 million on revenues of $5.28 billion. In the same period, INA Corporation had net operating income of $278.6 million on revenues of $5.25 billion.

Plans for a three-week deer-hunting season in the rustic hills of Harriman State Park - the first in the park's 70-year history - have encountered a lawsuit and a storm of protest from wildlife-preservation groups and local residents. Opponents of the plan contend that hunters could endanger residents of the area or visitors to the 46,000-acre preserve. The Palisades Interstate Park Commission argues, however, that hunters would be restricted to a remote, 10,000-acre hiking area, and that other safety precautions would be taken. The commission said it had authorized the hunting season, which is scheduled to begin next Monday, in an attempt to cut roughly in half what it called an overpopulation of 3,350 deer in the park. The commission approved three-week seasons for 350 hunters in each of the next three years.

A matter of sensibilities in a small German town A2 Quebec Premier assails accord on new Canadian constitution A3 Polish Government dismisses Prosecutor General A4 Brazilian playboy's fall aids femi- nist aim A5 Nicaragua says U.S. invents evi- dence of Sandinist meddling A6 Bolivia, economy ailing, turns to the private sector A8 Around the World A9 U.S. troops arriving in Egypt for start of 3-week exercise A11 Saudis say they chase off Israeli jets A13 Moscow gives ''Gorky Park,'' a best seller in U.S., a bad review A15 Washington Talk Briefing B10 Mimi Sheraton reviews the Sen- ate dining room B10 G.O.P. Congressional race direc- tor has $35 million to spend B10 Some not-so-vital statistics about Alexander M. Haig Jr. B10 General ''Limestone capital of world'' tries luring tourists A16 Around the Nation A17 Times editor warns of attack on free press A19 Times wins 23 awards in newspa- per design competition A20 A prototype of shopping malls celebrates 25 years on L.I. B2 Nancy Reagan sees parents' role in fighting drug abuse B14 Religion St. Bart's rector is real force be- hind proposed tower B1 Style Notes on Fashion B18 Four designers top Seventh Ave- nue class B18 The Cellar has a birthday B18 Science Times Genetic flaw provides a ''human lab'' to test cholesterol theories C1 Childhood work habits predict adult mental health C1 In China, production of fuel from waste is widespread C1 Education: New interest in eco- nomics surges in classrooms C1 Science Watch C2 Science Q&A C2 The Doctor's World: Radiologists are becoming therapists C3 About education: A foundation examines children's television C5 Government/Politics Justice Department asks relaxa- tion of tax-data prohibitions A19 9.6% rise in Nassau County budget is proposed by Purcell B2 Koch and Regan disagree on the impact of Federal cuts B3 Koch may let ambulance crews refuse to take some to hospitals B3 Cuomo urges Carey to veto prop- erty tax-assessment bill B5 Localities outside New York City to get extra state aid B5 Williams urges Senate colleagues not to expel him B6 Koch calls apparent rejection of prison bonds ''outrageous'' B8 Cost of 100 B-1's estimated at $39.8 billion B11 Adm. Rickover's retirement sought, Pentagon sources say B15 Supreme Court Roundup B16 Brooklyn detective is selected as Birmingham Chief of Police B17 Arts/Entertainment Moura Lympany, pianist, at Carnegie Hall C6 Ronald Harwood's ''The Dress- er'' opens at the Atkinson C7 Film makers need Christmas boom, but hope is faint C7 Ann Marie De Angelo has lead in Joffrey's ''Shrew'' C9 Thomas Harris's thriller ''Red Dragon'' is reviewed C11 Broadway's tough side: closing on opening night C12 Van Gordon Sauter to head CBS News C12 CBS-TV's ''The Body Human'' ex- amines men and sex C21 Sports Yanks' Jackson considers switch to first base B19 Cowboys rally to turn back Bills, 27-14 B19 Giants recall Clack to replace in- jured Hughes at center B19 Dave Anderson on Amos Alonzo Stagg B19 Todd, in seventh season, finally in control of Jets B20 F.B.I. agent testifies that player confessed to shaving points B20 For Aguirre, a year of pressured growth B21 Ray Williams goes against Knicks tonight B21 Cooney tells Holmes he can't have more tuneups B22 Features/Notes Issue and Debate: Revising the Clean Air Act B13 Notes on People B17 Sports People B22 Going Out Guide C10 News Analysis Frank J. Prial assesses effects of Soviet submarine incident A3 Richard Witkin on lack of move- ment to rehire controllers A18 Paul Goldberger assesses dispute over proposed East Side tower B8 Clyde H. Farnsworth on General Motors' spending D1 Editorials/Letters/Op-Ed Editorials A22 Reagan gags on Voting Rights Funny money for housing Long count in New Jersey Peter Passell: aluminum Letters A22 Sydney H. Schanberg: covering the wrong wounds A23 Tom Wicker: creeping to the right A23 Vasily P. Aksyonov: fie, Comrade Nikolaev A23 Charles Fried: curbing the judici- ary A23

DALLAS CHOLESTEROL, a vital substance but a lethal one when it gets in the wrong places, is never more deadly than in people born with a genetic defect that dooms them to an early death from heart disease. Seven years ago, two medical scientists elucidated how this defect endangers its victims and how the body's cells use cholesterol. Now, they are studying promising new treatments that may have general application, preventing heart disease by drastically lowering blood cholesterol levels. The doctors, Michael S. Brown and Joseph L. Goldstein of the University of Texas Health Sciences Center here, are known locally as ''the gold dust twins'' for the many prizes and generous private support their work has drawn. Their investigations revealed that some people are born with an error in the signaling system that regulates cholesterol production within the body. The result - an overabundance of cholesterol in the blood - renders such persons highly susceptible to clogging of the arteries (atherosclerosis) and an early death from heart disease. It is the most common potentially lethal human genetic defect yet identified.

PEKING CHINA, a land where almost no natural resource goes overlooked, has mounted the world's largest and most determined effort to generate substantial quantities of methane gas for rural household use by fermenting human and animal wastes. The program has advanced well beyond the experimental stage, and millions of backyard fermentation tanks on communes and farms are supplying up to 35 million peasants with fuel for cooking, lighting and heating that would be otherwise difficult to obtain. China's experience in producing ''zhaoqi,'' or marsh gas, was described by Zhang Jigao, a prominent agricultural engineer, at a recent seminar in Peking entitled ''The Changing Rural Habitat.'' The seminar, sponsored by the Aga Khan Foundation, brought experts from nine countries together to share locally developed technologies.

The decline in interest rates gained momentum yesterday, with some short-term rates declining almost a percentage point. The decline in short- and long-term rates has been steep since Oct. 28, with three-month Treasury bill rates falling almost two percentage points, to 11.128 percent, while 30-year Treasury bond yields have dropped about one and a half percentage points, to 13.53 percent. The prime lending is also declining, and yesterday major banks announced a half-point cut, to 17 percent, from the 18 percent figure set on Oct. 28. (Page D14.) More economists yesterday predicted still lower interest rates, including some who had been saying recently that rates would rise by year-end. In general, analysts are now saying that the economy's slide into a recession will be steep enough to reduce credit demands and keep a lid on inflation. In that environment, they say the Federal Reserve will continue to encourage lower interst rates.

He has never designed a building or sketched a dome or vault, but the Rev. Thomas Dix Bowers is, as much as any man, the architect for an office tower next to St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church on Park Avenue. It is this activist rector's vision of a broader mission for St. Bartholomew's that is, ultimately, the driving force behind the proposed real-estate deal. If approved, it will bring in hundreds of millions of dollars over the next half-century to a church that once had one of the wealthiest congregations in America. Problem in Understanding ''Our mission is to somehow use the resources we have to the maximum extent possible to touch human lives,'' Mr. Bowers said. ''That's what the church is about. The church is not a building. It's just so hard for people to understand that.''

Grand juries in Brooklyn and Queens yesterday accused 17 major milk distributors and 28 of their top executives and employees of a decadelong conspiracy to fix prices in the metropolitan area. Robert Abrams, the state's Attorney General, who sought the indictments, said his yearlong inquiry showed that price-fixing was ''widespread'' in and ''endemic'' to the milk industry and had led to millions of dollars in illegal overcharges to consumers since 1971. Mr. Abrams said the companies indicted on criminal charges yesterday supplied half the milk sold in the metropolitan area. Yesterday's indictments brought to 24 the number of milk companies indicted since October 1980, when Mr. Abrams began an investigation into milk-industry violations of the state's antitrust laws. The investigation, he said, was still continuing.

International Israeli military action in Lebanon is in prospect unless American diplomacy produces results, according to Defense Minister Ariel Sharon. He mentioned no deadline, but cited increasing dangers posed by Syrian missile sites in Lebanon and a heavy weapons buildup by the Palestine Liberation Organization. (Page A1, Column 1.) Britain's tactics for Mideast peace, which are strongly opposed by Washington, were described by London officials as ''the natural outgrowth of a basically different assessment of what will work best.'' The difference, they said, goes back to 1978, when Western European officials reacted with private skepticism to the Camp David accords because they believed the agreements failed to provide a framework for a resolution of the problem of the Palestinian Arabs. (A12:3-6.)

In a hushed Sotheby Park Bernet auction hall, as tense cable television executives signaled with paddles, a sale of communications satellite facilities for their booming industry brought $90.1 million in winning bids yesterday. The high total, a record for a Sotheby auction, reflected keen competition for use of the facilities, which are to be carried by an RCA satellite to be launched on Jan. 12. Auctioned off, at Sotheby's York Avenue galleries, were seven-year leases for seven devices called transponders, which are used for relaying signals from the earth's surface back down to earth and, indirectly, to television screens and other recipients. Demand for transponders is intense, largely because cable television programming has been proliferating.

New Jersey's counties submitted their official vote tallies to the state yesterday, and they showed former Assembly Speaker Thomas H. Kean with a narrow lead over Representative James J. Florio in the race for Governor. The revised total, which included certified figures from all but two of the state's 21 counties, showed Mr. Kean. a Republican businessman from Livingston, leading with a vote of 1,145,124 while Mr. Florio, a Democrat of Runnemede, had 1,143,392. The 1,732-vote difference was, in percentage terms, the smallest in history for a Governor's race in the state. Nevertheless, the battle for the State House was far from over. Mr. Florio was expected to make a formal call for a recount on Saturday, according to his press secretary. And the State Board of Elections still must confirm and certify the county tallies, which were being checked by the Secretary of State's office. The board has until Dec. 1 to make its certification.