Social Studies Timeline

Quote: The committee was asked "to consider the proper limits of the subject area, methods of instruction, methods of testing pupil accomplishment, the most desirable allotment for each subject, and college admission requirements" (Evans, 7).

Summary: By the 1880's it was made increasingly clear that school programs were chaotic, not uniform, predictable, or comparable. This quote basically describes the rational development of both high school and university curriculum together. All in all, this was a trend in the right direction to make social studies more organized, the start of curriculum standards, and to help students be more college ready and prepared.

Quote: "In its report, the committee recommended greater emphasis on current issues, social problems, and recent history and a greater emphasis on the needs and interests of the students" (Evans, 21).

Summary: This quote is portraying that during this 1916 report social studies curriculum wanted to gear more towards social problems and current issues. This was also the first time where students needs and interests were made important. This impacted the profession because after this you really start to see educators tailor lesson plans to meet the needs of their students. It is not all about the content. Educators need to make relevant connections to their students, as well as discussing current and social issues to keep students more informed, and this was the start of that.

Quote: "There were several camps in the 1920s debates including those who were in favor of the new social studies proposed by the 1916 committee, those who were opposed, and those who favored a stronger place for either traditional history or one of the social sciences. By the late 1920s, arguments over the social studies curriculum were manifest in disagreement over the contents of the 12th-grade course, whether it should focus on one of the social sciences or offer a blend of several" (Evans, 32).

Summary: There was a big debate on either covering a more traditional social studies or getting more in depth, such as having debates, asking challenging questions, providing harder curriculum, discussing social problems in society, and much more. Additionally, there was a lot of disagreements over content. Some of these disagreements included discussing history, societal problems, and disciplinary boundaries.

Quote: The aim was not simply to save the PEA, but to cast the school as a lever in transforming the society. Arguing against the child-centered tradition, he challenged educators, "to face squarely and courageously every social issue,
come to grips with life in all of its stark reality . . . develop a realistic and comprehensive theory of social welfare, fashion a compelling and challenging vision of human destiny, and become less frightened . . . at the bogies
of imposition and indoctrination" (7932, pp . 9, 1 2) . Arguing that schools cannot be neutral, Counts wrote, 'AIl education contains a large element of imposition . . . the real question is not whether imposition will take place, but rather from what source will it come." He did not support the notion that teachers should "promote particular reforms through the educational
system." Instead, he hoped they would endeavor to provide a "vision of the possibilities which lie ahead" and "enlist (students) loyalties and enthusiasms in the realization of the vision." Teachers and students would "critically" examine "our social institutions and practices" (Evans, 50).

Summary: They wanted social studies education to be "child centered" which means meeting the needs of your students and reaching your students. Additionally, this quote wants to challenge students more and wants them to think more critically and ask more challenging questions.

Quote: "Progressive social studies educators were still working on the project of orienting social studies teaching around the problems of American Society, especially in the Problems of Democracy course" (Evans, 73).

Summary: This had a lot to do with teaching social problems and war concerns as well as campaigning for democracy and discussing war efforts. This was really the start of criticizing American history. Before this, social studies was always about looking at the positives of American history. So, it is good to see that this was a change in which students could think critically as well as critique democracy in the US and other historical events.

Quote: "The deluge of articles and books attacking
progressive education began in 1949 and peaked in 1953. The first strand of attack was from intellectuals, best symbolized by Arthur Bestoç a historian and leading critic of education. The second strand of criticism, redbaiting attacks, grew from the ideological conflict of the era, from those who viewed progressive education as a communist plot. A third strand attacked the public funding of mass education. Each of these was conditioned and voiced against the urgent backdrop of cold war crisis" (Evans, 97).

Summary: These attacks tilted toward conformity in the curriculum, and geared it toward more discipline-based subjects. Additionally, this addressed denatured form of inquiry, as well as getting away from modern problems and anything that questioned the attitudes of society. I disagree with these attacks heavily. I'm happy that social studies has geared more toward student centered thought, opinion, and arguments using supporting evidence. Students creating their own assumptions is a great way to learn and get different perspectives.

Quote: "The second theme of the conference had to do with readiness for learning and "the hypothesis that any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development" (p. 33). A third theme involved the nature of intuition and the training of hunches. "The shrewd guess, the fertile hypothesis," Bruner asserted, "is a much neglected and essential feature of productive thinking." These three themes, Bruner wrote, were all premised on a central conviction, "that intellectual activity anywhere is the same, whether at the frontier of knowledge or in a third-grade classroom. . . . The difference is in degree, not in kind" (pp. 73-74). A fourth theme centered on how to stimulate student motivation through interest in the material" (Evans, 124).

Summary: Students were encouraged to create more challenging and intellectual hypothesis. This promoted students to think more critically. This also started to promote the idea of using essential questions, which is commonly used in present day.

Quote: "Gerald Leinwand proposed a post structuralist focus on social issues, an idea that appeared prophetic for a time.
Deriding both the new social studies and traditional practice, Leinwand blamed the lack of improvement in classrooms on "the fact that there is such a thing as a social studies curriculum" and charged that "students learn a distorted, rather euphoric lesson in national and world events and emerge ill-equipped to wrestle with the evils that do exist and with which the revolutions of our day are involved . . . the social studies . . . remain detached and aloof, perhaps even alienated, from the throbbing events of our time as the curriculum bulletin decrees one thing but events show something quite different" (Evans, 136).

Summary: This was a mix of traditional social studies with the new wave. This method incorporated old curriculum with new methods on how to teach the curriculum. Which included challenging students and asking essential questions.

Quote: "anticipated impact on classrooms led to a great deal of hand-wringing. By the late 1970s, it seemed that social studies was a field in search of itself. The journal social Education and a number of other publications reflected this soul-searching. From the late 1960s,it seemed that social Education had become something of a potpourri, a journal dominated by special issues with a focus on what seemed to at least one observer as "one-damn thing after another" (Evans, 170).

Summary: There were a lot of definition dilemmas. There was somewhat of a drift in social studies because there were no new initiatives with the progressive movement. So there emerged,
for a time, a gap in reform movements, combined with a retreat in the face of the conservative restoration and the return by many teachers to more traditional means of teaching.

Quote: "The pattern of the history of social studies during the 20th century is one of struggles over content and approaches to teaching. Like waves, the competing camps int he struggle are all present at any given time, with one wave rising and another falling. At times, certain camps, notably the meliorist and re constructionist have challenged main stream institutions, or ideologies. More often than not, such challenges lead to attacks on social studies by small groups of vocal,critics followed by mainstream skepticism or outright condemnation of social studies as a field" (Evans, 175).

Summary: There were still many questions on the right way to teach social studies. Even present day there are remaining questions on how to properly educate students. These questions impact social studies by making teachers and students think more critically and also to challenge students further. There is also a fine line on which topics to cover in the sense of mainstream culture, ideologies, and institutions.