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Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: PrefaceCurriculum Standards Table of Contents
As Ben Franklin was leaving the constitutional convention one afternoon in September 1787, a young woman approached him and asked, "Well, Dr. Franklin, what have you given us?" "A republic-if you can keep it," was his reply. Keeping the republic requires that United States citizens labor vigilantly to ensure that this form of government continues to extend the blessings of liberty to all its citizens. As we move toward the twenty-first century, it is clear that the dominant social, economic, cultural, and scientific trends that have defined the western world for five centuries are rapidly leading in new directions. We are living in a time colored by dramatic change not unlike the transformations associated with the beginning of the fifteenth century that brought new conceptions of time, community, family, and even nationhood. We are also being forced to redefine our fundamental institutions and to construct new social contexts and relationships as we continue efforts to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our children. The twenty-first century will bring us face to face with the information-electronic-biotechnological age. New issues, together with old problems, will confront us and tax our intellectual and moral fiber, making it increasingly difficult to implement the goals that define us as a nation. Demographic and statistical data force us to look closely at the changing nature of our families, the reconceptualization of work, the distribution of justice and poverty, the conditions of illiteracy, and the age, class, gender, and ethnic makeup of our people. The world is diverse, ethically challenged, yet globally interdependent, and the task of "bringing the blessing of the American dream to all" calls for citizens with a new sense of purpose. Given the realities of today's world and the desire of U.S. citizens to carry the ideals of our republic into the future, it is necessary that we create a new vision for our work as social studies educators. That vision must motivate us toward a commitment to extend the promise of full scholarship and citizenship to each and every person in the United States. The central focus of this goal is the design and implementation of social studies education as a liberating force in the life of every citizen. That is, our work should illuminate the essential connection among social studies learning, democratic values, and positive citizenship. As a people, then, our first priority, our first public policy goal, must be to ensure our survival as a free nation through the development of students who can assume the office of citizen. What expectations should we have of students who are to assume this office? The vision of the members of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Curriculum Standards Task Force is the following: The informed social studies student understands and applies to personal and public experiences the content perspectives of the several academic fields of the social studies. Equally important, the informed social studies student exhibits the habits of mind and behavior of one who respects the relationship between education (i.e., learning) and his or her responsibility to promote the common good. To achieve such a vision of social studies, we must ensure that students become intimately acquainted with scholarship, artisanship, leadership, and citizenship. These mutually inclusive attributes are the hallmarks of excellence in social studies-a program in which students will gain the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes to understand, respect, and practice the ways of the scholar, the artisan, the leader, and the citizen. Our "we the people" republic is built upon the principle that the people occupy an important position in government-the office of citizen; thus, it is necessary that attention be paid to the education of those who assume this office. The civic culture of our nation is built upon four components: the legislative, the executive, the judicial, and the people. The three branches of government depend on the people (the fourth branch), who must develop the attributes of the enlightened citizen-i.e., individuals who understand the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. Citizens who take this office seriously are in touch with the cultural heritage of the nation. They possess knowledge of the economic, political, and social factors that make up the human ecosystem in which all must function, and they understand its relationship to natural systems. They understand the principles of rule of law, legal limits to freedom, and majority rule with protection for minority rights. They have informed spatial, temporal, and cultural perspectives. They possess the attitudes and behaviors that support fair play and cooperation. Without a conscious effort to teach these ideals, a free republic will not long endure. As Maya Angelou bid us on Inauguration Day 1993: "Lift up your eyes upon This day breaking for you. Give birth again to the dream." -Michael Hartoonian for the members of the Curriculum Standards Task Force |
