It is not often that Supreme Court watchers agree; however, right now, it seems that most agree on one thing: the Supreme Court term that started in October 2013 is going to be a blockbuster. The docket over the last couple of years has had more than its fair share of headline-grabbing cases, from gay marriage to Obamacare to the Voting Rights…

In this article, the authors explore the timely and sometimes controversial topic of gay civil rights and how the attendant issues might be taught in the social studies classroom. Many teachers shy away from teaching students about gay rights issues for a variety of reasons including personal beliefs, a lack of instructional time as a result of…

The most common activity in a social studies classroom should be the analysis of primary sources. Students are intrigued and engaged by edited and unedited documents, written statements, transcribed speeches, photographs, pictures, charts, graphs, cartoons, and even material objects. Ideally, the goal of social studies teachers is to prepare…