Teaching Methods and Practice: Teaching Social Studies

Based on my reading of: Revitalizing Civic Learning in Our Schools and The SS Interview

I thought/ I remember….

When reading these articles I remembered when I was in school and how much we did not serve or learn to contribute to our community. I do however remember my gym teacher being very active in our school community and our outside community. Because she was so involved, and fairly old fashioned, we learned some pretty cool trades and showed both those communities regularly.

In the field…

In the field we are working very hard to help our student create a body and voice in the community. We are working as a whole school community to make a difference. This is our attempt at helping children to get socially involved in their town. I think a lot of the time this idea is overlooked because we are too busy teaching the behavioral expectation for a good society, but not actually what to do for your community.

I believe…

“As Thomas Jefferson, Horace Mann, John Dewey and other great educators understood, public schools do not serve a public so much as create a public.1 The goal of schooling, therefore, is not merely preparation for citizenship, but citizenship itself; to equip a citizenry with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed for active and engaged civic life.” (NCSS article)

I believe this article is getting at the fact that schools do not teach kids to be their community, they just teach them how to be within it. To be a good part of your community you need to not only be in it, but an active part, and that is often left out of schooling.

A connection I can make is…

“Students tend to see Social Studies in general, and History in particular, as the subject matter that has the least relevancy to their current lives and their future needs.” (Interview article) The connection I make here is the dreadful one that when you were a child and Social Studies just seemed to mean history. It’s obviously much more than this, and it’s the job of the educator to help students see the difference and not the misconception.