The Social Studies are Essential to a Well-Rounded Education - 3 views

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  #1 Marlene esteves on 19 Sep 11

   

  Duncan, looks critically at the curriculum in The United States, outlining how the social studies have been greatly undervalued. In his perspective, it is crucial that the curricula be expanded so that students have access to all of the core disciplines in order to widen their opportunities and get a well-rounded education. A well-educated person needs to learn much more than math, science and English. He believes that more time needs to be designated for social studies and that they should no longer be treated as second-class subjects. He also mentions that testing should be improved to better assess development. However, the intention of improving testing is not to grade upon content knowledge but to help students be "engaged and thinking citizens," who are prepared for college and careers. In his perspective, "The social studies plays a critical role in creating civically competent young people who make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good and who contribute to an increasingly diverse, but independent world." Duncan ends with an interesting but moving quotation from James Leach, the chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, stating, "a society that fails to study history, refuses to learn from literature, and denies the lessons of philosophy 'imprisons [its] thoughts in the here and now," (p. 125).
  http://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/SOCIALSTUDIES/8b42cf1d-bada-43c0-a806-65645795b396/UploadedImages/Social_Education_75-3_ArneDuncanArticle.pdf

   

  <div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">Duncan, looks critically at the curriculum in The United States, outlining how the social studies have been greatly undervalued. In his perspective, it is crucial that the curricula be expanded so that students have access to all of the core disciplines in order to widen their opportunities and get a well-rounded education. A well-educated person needs to learn much more than math, science and English. He believes that more time needs to be designated for social studies and that they should no longer be treated as second-class subjects. He also mentions that testing should be improved to better assess development. However, the intention of improving testing is not to grade upon content knowledge but to help students be "engaged and thinking citizens," who are prepared for college and careers. In his perspective, "The social studies plays a critical role in creating civically competent young people who make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good and who contribute to an increasingly diverse, but independent world." Duncan ends with an interesting but moving quotation from James Leach, the chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, stating, "a society that fails to study history, refuses to learn from literature, and denies the lessons of philosophy 'imprisons [its] thoughts in the here and now," (p. 125). <br /> <a href="http://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/SOCIALSTUDIES/8b42cf1d-bada-43c0-a806-65645795b396/UploadedImages/Social_Education_75-3_ArneDuncanArticle.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/SOCIALSTUDIES/8b42cf1d-bada-43c0-a806-65645795b396/UploadedImages/Social_Education_75-3_ArneDuncanArticle.pdf</a></div>

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