http://www.districtadministration.com/article/social-studies-it-history
In recent years, there has been a change in the idea of History Class ( Social Studies). With the demand for better Reading, Writing, and Math scores. I know going through public school system, history class was not that big of a deal. You could take more to fill your schedule but it wasn’t always required. I picked an article that tells why kids are not learning the simplest things in history class. Do you agree that we should keep pushing away from the idea of Social studies? Or do you think it’s something we must all learn? Read the article and tell me what you think.
http://www.districtadministration.com/article/social-studies-it-history
14 Comments
Dawn Macklin
3/29/2015 01:26:25 pm
I absolutely believe that social studies needs to still be taught in our schools! In the article, Cathy Roller, director of research and policy with the International Reading Association says "Social studies are a major player in that arena and are integral to teaching a sense of civic duty and how all of the important things about a democratic society work." Who else is going to teach our students about their civic duty, about patriotism, about honoring our flag, about the state they live in etc? Taking it out of our schools would be doing a huge injustice to our students.
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Pat Tracy
3/29/2015 09:41:26 pm
I believe that social studies needs to be taught in our schools. The article discusses the importance of life skills that are taught in social studies. I mean, you learn the different types of government, financial skills, psychology, and certain civil responsibilities. The importance of understanding how to interact with others, and to understand the structures that affect our everyday lives. Many people already do not understand how the governing body works, and this is taught in school. There is a strong need for improvement and it should be emphasized in schools because a person should know their rights as an individual and the basics about fundamental skills to function in society (finances, how to vote, and basic laws).
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Devin Beasley
3/30/2015 06:45:10 am
I do not think that Social Studies should be taken out of our school whatsoever. Yes, writing, reading and math are very important but what makes them more powerful than learning about our government, geography, history, etc. In the article, it talked about how social studies are mostly tested with multiple choice questions so students are just memorizing in a vacuum and not for long-term use. I think more essays or relating the past to our current lives type of questions could help this part of the debate. That way, kids are now being asked to think critically instead of just memorize for the test and then forget about it afterwards.
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Taylor West
3/31/2015 05:35:20 am
I have always had the passion for History. Before picking Business as my major. I did want to become a history teacher. I noticed through school, you have some good and not so good teachers. I will always stand with history as a strong subject. There is so much more than just reading articles, and remembering dates. It’s the time's that where tough that has made us what we are today. There is so much we can learn from the past. Things that technology has changed that can still be used. I believe it is one thing that needs to be more of at schools. I do believe history will come back in a swing, which will be taught with more understanding. Things always change, and it’s just a matter of time until we go back to it.
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Kim Welch
3/31/2015 11:36:08 am
I currently teach 3rd grade, and I am 100% behind keeping social studies as part of every child’s curriculum. In the article, it mentions that a lot of schools are getting rid of teaching social studies in order to prepare students for spring assessments – MAP tests in Missouri. I unfortunately know exactly what they are talking about. In my school, we have had to push back the teaching of social studies and science topics due to Math, Reading, and Writing taking over the majority of our time. We are having to prepare student to take the MAP test in a few weeks, and content areas are not a high priority – at least for the school district. I totally understand that we are held liable for the test scores our students receive on MAP tests, but I know we are also held liable for preparing our students to become future citizens of the U.S. To me, I would rather give my students a well-rounded education, where they are prepared to function in society, than to just prepare them to pass an annual exam that makes sure our school continues to receive funding. Students need to learn about the structure of their government, important events in history, and how events in history have shaped our world. When students get older, they won’t remember what was on the MAP test, but I bet they will remember learning about the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, Civil War, Branches of Government, etc.
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4/1/2015 02:32:55 pm
I too believe Social Studies should be taught in school starting in elementary. With the internet, students are being exposed to global events. Creative lessons should be created to encourage students to learn about different places in the world. They could go on a fictitious vacations by reaching other countries via the internet. Issues of other countries could be addressed before teaching students how our country was developed. I believe other disciplines should incorporate history into their lessons as well In math, student could be introduced to ancient Greek culture when discussing the origins of some theorems. Learning history is crucial in order to not make the same mistakes over.
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Jodi Himmelberg
4/2/2015 11:00:20 pm
I that Social Studies should be continued to be taught through out the student's entire school experience. We just did a thing in Advisory about Injustice and we had to talk about the Jim Crow Laws, Executive Order 9066, The Indian Removal Act, and other historical events and the students had no clue about any of these events. It made it very hard to have a discussion about Injustice because they did not know what went on in our country and then when talked about what was going on today in society they also had no clue. I think it is important because history teaches them that events shape society and legislation.
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Jeromy Layman
4/5/2015 10:32:28 am
In truth, I personally find this idea appalling. Even as an educator, I am stumped as to why pushing social studies out of the curriculum is even an option. Working in college and career readiness, I know that colleges are looking more and more at a well rounded student. Test scores are not everything. It isn't just about the GPA, the ACT score, and the essay anymore. Colleges are looking for globally conscious students with a well rounded course load. How are students supposed to be global thinkers if they cannot even identify a country on a map. If we are going to preserve our democracy, we need students who are prepared to be civically engaged, who understand the government and how it is run, who know the states of our country, who know where other countries are.
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Tyler Fritz
4/5/2015 02:47:28 pm
I strongly think that every kid needs to be taking social studies. I loved all of the history learning when I was younger and making the projects for class that was fun. Ive always been really into history and those sorts of things so I am a little partial to history and social studies. These things are good to learn, every kid should read and earn about our history and the land. I am just kind of confused about why they would even want to get rid of social studies for younger kids.
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Ryan Ellis
4/6/2015 12:18:26 am
I agree with many of the posts above that Social Studies NEEDS to be taught in our schools. Mrs Roller states that, "Social studies are a major player in that arena and are integral to teaching a sense of civic duty and how all of the important things about a democratic society work." This is a great excerpt that shows how true the fundamentals of this class are. If we remove it from our schools we will see the loss of historical and creative thinking by our students in this area. Those who don't remember the past are doomed to repeat it. We should always incorporate this class into our elementary and junior high school's curriculum. Not only will it give the students a better sense about who they are but also where they come from and what our country has accomplished
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Simon Barinas
4/10/2015 12:14:22 am
Like most of you, I believe that social studies must continue to be taught in school, this would give an opportunity to those students to be aware of the state/country they live in not only to know about it geographically, but know how the place that they live in got there, and why.
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Paden Kleinhesselink
4/13/2015 01:34:01 pm
I think history needs to be taught. I am partial because I am very much a history buff. I love history. I think the upcoming generations need to know where they have come from. I think they need to be taught all the major points in history but I really believe that students need to be taught the local history, such as state and county. There is so much to learn about the towns the children grew up in. I would love to learn more about where I grew up and how my town became what it is today, and I hope other children do too.
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J. Golden
4/27/2015 11:32:32 pm
I believe that social studies still needs to be taught in all schools. The schools have tried to focus on reading, writing and math and while these skills are still very important, social studies needs to be a focus as well. These children need to know the impact they can have on voting when they are of age and obviously know the branches of government. It amazes me that some of these students don't know what state or country they live in and thats a problem that NEEDS to be addressed.
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Terry Keown
5/4/2015 08:21:06 pm
Social Studies and History are essential courses in order to provide linkage to the world we live in. The closest analogy I can produce for how imperative it is to have this linkage is the separation of mother and child at an early age. The child always has linkage to their mother who is out there somewhere but can't identify with them. I believe the absence of these courses creates the similar lack of identification in students with the world they live in. Collectively, in a perfect world where we could depend on another to know our history in the world within a group the learning of history may not be so necessitated by all with that group, Unfortunately though we do not live in such a world and therefore we need to understand our history in order to plan our future individually,
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