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What exactly falls under "Social Studies"??
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LOL. That’s a good question. As a former “social sciences” teaching candidate, I have a hard time answering this. A lot of what is called “social studies” is, um, not really directly related to other traditional categories of knowledge. IMO, the content of most of the “social studies” books and courses I’ve seen intended for public schools consists mostly of something one might call “civic awareness” and has today degenerated down to stuff like recycling campaigns and discussing what policemen do. Can you tell I’m not a big fan of “social studies” LOL
What “social studies” replaced were courses in history, geography, government and social sciences like psychology, sociology, civics, current events, etc. So in a way, history might be considered a sub-category of social studies, and one which has really gotten short shrift in most social studies curricula. For example, in the school I was briefly in the education department for, “social studies” in elementary and middle school included:
A little American history; a little history of the state you were in; general civic awareness (policemen, firemen, post offices, etc.); a little basic government (who is the President, etc.); a few bits of geography; some generally useful things like what tax forms are, why you should vote; “responsibility” about things like recycling, keeping population levels low (yes, really!) and stuff like that. Now probably also including things like why President Obama is great, how to save polar bears by razzing your parents about the car they drive, and other useful items. OK, that last part is a little tongue in cheek. I dropped out of the education program at my college because of the vapidity of “social studies” so I sort of have an ax to grind. LOL
Michelle D
I agree with Michelle – I got a degree in Britisht and European History and a degree in Geography back in the day — my intention was to teach history and geography. In my school many moons ago we were taught history, geography, government and sociology as individual subjects and they were all in depth. Well then, the loony left got a hold of education and everything became the dreaded social studies and all subjects became watered down or were ignored completely. I have only ever taught my degree courses as a tutor never in a school because of this, fortunately there were always a few who wanted to learn in depth. When it came to homeschooling my own children, I do not even use the words social studies – we do each subject indiividually and we use original sources and a lot of books that were written before history was considered a dirty word. History is being changed as we speak, and it disgusts me – children deserve the truth, and though we know that books are written by individuals who have their own agendas and the only true history is from original sources and the Bible, we have the right in my humble opinion, to have honest discourse – I always tell the girls to read and study their history carefully, look for bias, and seek other opinions and try and find original sources to back the information. I have absolutely no time for the gobbledygook they try and fob off as social studies today. I would always recommend teach each subject, lets not perpetuate the lies that are often taught in school today. I am all in favor of recycling and saving polar bears and lovin on Obama if that is what you want to do – however those things should not be considered serious school subjects. Hope I have not offended anyone, but that is how I feel. Linda
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