Social Studies? Important or not?

dimpy.handa

Dimpy Handa
The idea that I as a human need to know why I shouldn't go start a riot in Yorktown and not sign a treaty is, excuse my French, bullshit. The bigwigs and broken piggy banks need this knowledge so they, quote unquote won't, 'make the same mistakes in our future'. Oh wait. What the hell am I saying? They ARE making the same mistakes. The one thing I have learned in history is that history repeats itself. You can't prevent this by teaching Johnny Woodcock not to go throw snowballs at law enforcers or not to fire on Fort Sumpter. Bailouts, health-care, taxes spent on bridges that go to Imagination Land all the way to Timbuktu. Americans are stupid, don't get me wrong; but my god people.
If you were to ask a 9th grader a question from the same textbook he had last year, how many would he get wrong before he got one right? It is not an interesting subject. Sure, there are ways around this boring and depressing, GPA lowering, subject. Sure, maybe there is someone out there who adores Social Studies. But the majority of the students in the classroom can't wait to leave though that doorway when the bell rings. What's the homework for tonight? Read the questions in the back of the chapter and match them with the bold letters in pages 115-130 assigned. Jesus Christ. And when a test comes, get out a pencil and say your 10 hail Marys because you might experience a bumpy ride.
If you really want to learn about how our country came to be, then fine, make it equivalent to a language course, Spanish I, Spanish II. Could we end History for kids after middle school?
 
Social studies is the "integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence," as defined by the National Council for the Social Studies.[1] Social studies is most commonly recognized as the name of a course or set of courses taught in primary and secondary schools or elementary, middle, and high schools, but may also refer to the study of particular aspects of human society at certain post-secondary and tertiary schools around the globe. At the elementary school level, social studies generally focuses first on the local community and family. By middle and high school, the social studies curriculum becomes more discipline-based and content-specific. It includes various fields which involve past and current human behavior and interactions, such as sociology, history, political science, economics, religion, geography, psychology, anthropology, and civics.
 
Social studies aim at creating educated individuals who can grow up to be responsible citizens of their nation. The study of social studies intends to build creative, caring and courteous human beings out of children. Teaching our children social studies increases the possibility of their becoming knowledgeable individuals. Teaching them social studies increases their chances that they will adhere to ethical and moral values in their life. The study of social sciences is necessary, if we want a brighter future for our society.
 
In SS you learn about other people, other places, and other cultures. It is essentially history. you may have hear "History repeats itself". It is taught to preach history and to repeat the GOOD things that we did and NOT repeat the BAD things that we did. for instance, African American slavery were one of the causes of the Civil War, we looked down upon a certain race or culture. A century later, WWII was fought because Hitler disdained Jews, and eventually the holocaust happened. It also teaches you how certain events lead up to one another. WWI loss + WWI debts + Hitler thirst for power + right circumstances = WWII
 
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