Read the position statement of the National Council of Social Studies and respond to the question below http://www.socialstudies.org/positions/nclbera
Some would argue that No Child Left Behind has taken the learning out of school, that we have turned our students into memorizers of facts and excellent test takers. But then at the end of the day what do they have to show for it all? The focus placed on Math and English has taken time and money away from Social Studies. Has Social Studies dodged a bullet in that it has not necessarily become a drill and kill subject allowing it to be truly taught and learned by our students? Or should Social Studies join the tested ranks of Math and English and will this in turn shift its importance in American society?
I am glad that social studies has not become what math and English have become nationally--standards and tests to teach repeatedly. But, what worries me is that the overwhelming amount of school funding is headed to math and English. In my opinion, most of the topics in Social Studies covered critical thinking topics that cannot be approached in any other discipline. Most importantly, however, is that I believe that Social Studies education forces students to think outside of the box... to think about other people besides themselves.
ReplyDeleteSocial studies places us in the context of the world around us and helps to see our history, geography, governments, and peoples/cultures as uniquely intertwined. When I look at the problems of our society, I think that we could all stand to think about others just a bit more and to take ourselves out of some situations. Without Social Studies (or its current process of being de-emphasized), I fear that many of these life skills are not being taught.