A recent CNN article highlights the struggles of social studies teachers dealing with convoluted expectations and insufficient classtime.
“In the 1860’s, the United States was caught up in the Civil War. The 1960’s are remembered for social revolution, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and Beatlemania.
But high school teacher Davide Plonski notices that some students have a weak sense of time, are unable to picture the different characteristic of these eras and often confuse events a century apart.”
Teachers blame a slew of factors – less time spent on social studies at the elementary level, technological distractions, and lack of required history testing under NCLB. Whatever the case, teachers see a startling lack of historical literacy among their students, who can point to a Declaration of Independence but don’t recognize its significance.
“In a lot of districts, social studies and science have been removed from the curriculum, per se, because of math and language arts testing,” says a Wyoming elementary school teacher.
It’s encouraging to see teachers work to counteract this trend: Elementary teachers use social studies texts as “informational texts,” fitting them into their language arts curricula. High school teachers sift through the disjointed details required by their standards to help their students see history in context.
Once again, teachers have it right. But, I wonder, is their battle winnable? Are they fighting an impossible fight against an increasingly basic-skills-obsessed education system?
Stephanie Porowski
Social studies is dead. It started years ago when coaching was considered by many as a requirement for teaching the subject. It had a grave dug by universities that didn’t teach it as a subject, but promoted history or geography, or whatever as a replacement. The final straw was probably the NCSS’s failure to promote its own teachers as speakers at national and state events. They would bring in politicians or university professors who would talk about their history reserach.
You can forget about the good fight now, because the people who did Common Core failed to realize the importance of creating a thinking citizen in their quest to create their standards.
I think social studies it a vital subject for America and wonder how this group missed all the great teachers who help up the flame for so long for those in power to see its value to the nation.
Were any of you asked for input or to serve?
Thought so. Neither was I.
Alan Hsakvitz
National Teachers Hall of Fame
Nationa NCSS Middle Level Teacher of the Year
National NCSS Exemplary Program
NCSS Christa McAuliffe Award
Robert Cherry International Social Studies Teacher of the Year
Reader’s Digest Hero in Education
Learning Magazine’s Professional Best Award
etc.
[...] of Education Progress (NAEP). Considering the shoddy standards, dwindling assessments, and inattention to history across the states, we expect performance on NAEP 2010 to be even [...]
[...] has been crowded out to make room for the more tested subjects. As education historian Diane Ravitch notes: “Fewer [...]