This unit's readings made me reflect on why we teach social studies.
I was recently having a conversation with someone who, after finding out I was
a social studies teacher, said, "I am surprised they still teach social
studies in schools today." While at first I was taken by surprise at this
comment, it made me stop and think about to what purpose we teach social
studies. Do we teach it to learn from the past so we do not repeat the same
mistakes, as is often the case made for studying social studies? Do we teach it
with the hopes that our students will one day vote in elections? As I read
through this unit's readings and reflected on the comment that had taken me by surprise,
I had to think about to what purpose social studies holds in schools today.
While I grew up with enjoyment
in learning history and studying social studies, I know that many of my
students do not. I have been asked by many students why they
need to take this class when they will never use it again. I have moved away
from saying that we learn from the past so we do not make the same mistakes
because I do not think it really tells a student why they are in social studies
class. I explain to them that they are learning skills and tools that will help
them in the future. Because I teach a lot with primary sources, skills like
corroboration and sourcing are a major part of my daily lessons and skills that
as students come to understand and apply in the classroom are skills that they
take with them to use in their everyday lives outside of school. The historical
thinking skills that I practice with my students every day are the biggest
takeaways I hope they take with them when they leave my classroom at the end of
a semester or the end of a year.
It is also my hope that beyond the skills of historical thinking, social
studies class is a place to build empathy. Melinda Anderson’s article on what kids are learning about slavery in schools today forced me to think about my
own teaching on the system of slavery as I taught United States history for the
past two years. The comment she made on using the term “enslaved people” instead
of slaves stuck out to me because this was a change I made this past year in my
own classroom. While only a few students picked up on the change before I
explicitly stated why I had done it, it was a change that could be felt in our
conversations throughout the rest of the year on slavery. When the people we
studied were humanized rather than thought of as just what their role was in
our society, students built empathy and had a greater understanding of the role
enslaved people played in our country’s history. While I know there are still
improvements I could make to my teaching on slavery, I felt comforted with this
start.
So as I think about the role of social studies education today and
answering a student’s question to why learn history or responding to a
comment from someone outside of the school system wondering why social
studies education is still happening, I think less about memorizing dates and
people and more about the skills my students will take with them and the
growing empathy they have towards others. As I begin to prepare for a new
school year, I am thinking about the ways I can do this in a middle school
classroom. Through discussions and primary source readings, I think that I can
make a point to my students, and eventually to the public, that while social
studies education is partly learning from the past, it also learning the skills and tools
we need to play an active role in our society.
You've made a lot of great points here, Brienne! Although I am a second grade teacher (where much of the focus is upon literacy and math skills) I had many of the same takeaways that you did. Classroom practices & lessons that foster empathy, historical research skills, how to discuss difficult realities, and the importance of establishing kind (let alone humane) thought processes within our students is how we promote change. I do believe that it is so easy to look at social studies as the study of events on a timeline and the who/what/when/where/why/how of it in broad, unexciting, and cold terms. That is how I look back at the way I was handed "social studies" as a child and young adult (at an age when I just wasn't ready to take in all of that information so quickly, let alone deeply yet). I so wish I spent time with more teachers who allowed us the time to research our nation's (& world) history via primary sources and collaboration. You should be proud that you provide your students those opportunities. It is refreshing to hear that you strive to instill in your students the skills needed to research like a historian might in order to become informed on their own accord, rather than looking at your students as vessels to be filled with information!
ReplyDeleteHi Bri,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post. I enjoyed reading it.
First off, I'm wondering what the heck the person you talked with meant. Was it just that we don't really use the term "social studies" all that much any more, especially at the secondary level (where we tend to talk about the disciplinary subjects instead)? Or is it the idea that with google around, who needs to memorize all those dates and names?
Rationalizing social studies instruction in terms of skills is really helpful. Especially for students, and in this country, where the idea of learning a transferable skill usually sells pretty well. But, at least in your own thinking, I would not dodge the question of identity. One point of my article was to suggest that any sort of history instruction builds connection with a group identity. It tends to create an "us" and "them." I guess, in this sense, even empathy could be critiqued for reinforcing the us/them mentality ("we" should empathy for "them," who are different from "us").
In short, some sense of solidarity seems to me an essential part of the history classroom. If you teach white students, it seems important to me to look at how differently white people responded to events like slavery or the forced assimilation of native peoples. It's hard to read a "story" like history and not have any characters you identify with. I wouldn't say we should promote heroes, but perhaps role models? A richer sense of who I can be by a deeper sense of what has been? I don't know. I do know that that imagination is required for identification, and that this is a skill that doesn't always get talked about in the history or social studies classroom.
Some food for thought. Great post!
Kyle