Let’s do Social Studies Together.
“Doing social studies” can be observed and partaken in every single day. Whether it’s civic activity, learning lessons about the past, or interacting with others outside of our own culture we participate in the social studies more frequently than we think. It could be as simple as having a conversation with a coworker about public policy, but we “do” social studies on a much more regular basis than we are aware of.
My personal favorite way to do social studies is to simply have conversations with my peers and friends about current events and topics that I am passionate about. I was in class one day when a student shared that he thought the Women’s March in Milwaukee was a waste of time because women already have equal rights to men. Thanks to my awareness of current events and social studies I was able to refute him with several examples of how women are commonly treated unfairly in everyday life. I was even able to share my opinions on this matter with the Marquette Wire and many other members of the Milwaukee community.
It is particularly to teach our students how to actively “do” social studies. One great injustice that our school system does is instill in our young people that social studies is memorizing facts and important dates. Really we should be teaching, and assessing, their ability to think critically, find and use strong evidence, and apply what they learn in the classroom in the real world. The National Council for the Social Studies calls this practice “authentic intellectual work.” (NCSS 2009). This is the way we get students to use social studies to make a difference in their worlds.
A beautiful, and outside of the box, example of authentic social studies in the classroom comes from Melissa Bollow Temple’s first grade classroom. Temple had a student, Allie, who does not exemplify stereotypical “girly” characteristics. She enjoys wearing her hair in long braids and “Tony Hawk long sleeved T-Shirts” (Temple 2011). Some of her classmates would ask her why she was dressed like a boy, which made her very uncomfortable and upset. Temple decided to turn this into a teaching moment by making lists of objects and activities that are usually gendered and identifying how either gender could use or do these things. This lesson is a great way of “teaching open-mindedness” (Merryfield 2012) which is a crucial part of social studies. We need to teach our students about acceptance and love for those who are different from them. I believe that many of our worlds’ problems could be solved if the next generation grows up to be loving and empathetic people.
Another powerful example of young people doing social studies is Brian Schultz fifth grade classroom in Chicago. Schultz asked his students to make a list of problems in their community that effected them. His intention was to see if there were some small issues in the neighborhood that he thought the kids could help out with. Much to his surprise, most of the issues the students presented had to do with their own school building. They had been promised a new building years prior to this project the kids undertook, but were never given any upgrades to their situation. Mr. Schultz taught the kids about raising awareness for issues they care about, reaching out to their representatives, and following through with projects they start. All of this was a beautiful way to authentically teach children about being active members of their community, while demonstrating doing social studies.
These examples from adults and children alike are all great models for how everyone should be doing social studies in their communities.
