Provides a response to the April 2001 "Social Education" article, "A Critique of the NCSS Curriculum Standards," (Anna Ochoa-Becker). Focuses on the critiques offered by Ochoa-Becker that address the lack of time given to certain issues. (CMK)

Asserts that social educators promote the civic competence of young people by conveying the knowledge, skills, and dispositions for taking productive social action. Maintains that quality trade books introduce children to people of diverse backgrounds who model difficult aspects of civic competence. (CFR)

Describes the National Board for Professional Teacher Standards (NBPTS), addressing the types of certification available to teachers and the NBPTS propositions. Discusses the procedures for NBPTS certification and the types of certification areas for elementary social studies teachers. (CMK)

Considers the use of history in politics and the debate about the national history standards. Discusses the view of history and history teaching in Sweden (providing background information), a comparison between the United States and Sweden, and the history standards in Sweden. (CMK)

Examines the issue of national curriculum standards within social studies education. Addresses conservative and liberal viewpoints, insights from the works of John Dewey, Paulo Freire, and Michel Foucault on how a radical Left critique developed, an essay by E. Wayne Ross as a case study, and the implications of the radical Left critique. (CMK)

Focuses on a 1998 University of Nevada project in which forty elementary and middle school teachers learned about the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) "Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People" and the NCSS thematic strands. Highlights strategies that emerged from the project that integrates children's literature…

Reviews key curriculum models to illustrate how geography is facing increased competition for class time. Addresses the need for a standards-based scope and sequence. Focuses on a project that prepared a content-specific scope and sequence, displayed as a matrix, and a teacher's guide for geographic education in grades K-12. (CMK)

In this article, the author analyzes and summarizes geographic education in Louisiana from a historical perspective with a specific emphasis on the degree to which geography was implemented into the state's standards. To accomplish that, he draws from the following three sources of information: active and retired social studies teachers from a…

Developing financial fitness requires first developing a knowledge base and then applying it. This teacher guide and student storybook package focuses on personal finance skills for primary school students in grades K-2. The teacher guide contains 16 lessons divided into the 5 theme areas of earning an income, saving, spending, borrowing, and…

When Orville and Wilbur Wright began their studies of aviation, they did not overlook the great experts on the subject the birds. The brothers became interested in flight as children, when their father brought home a little flying toy powered by a rubber band. Later, they corresponded with the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC) which sent…

Don Henry was a student at the University of Kansas (Lawrence, Kansas) who experienced a profound political change during his years on campus. Henry became a leader in radical campus organizations, volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War with the Lincoln Brigade, and died on the battlefield in Aragon (Spain) in September 1937. An article in…

Life in the western United States was reshaped by a series of patents for a simple tool that helped ranchers tame the land: barbed wire. Nine patents for improvements to wire fencing were granted by the U.S. Patent Office to U.S. inventors beginning with Michael Kelly in 1868 and ending with Joseph Glidden in 1874. Vast and undefined prairies and…

This lesson offers historical background on federal Indian policy from 1870 to 1900, focusing on the Dawes Act of 1887 (with two resources). It provides four primary source documents, including maps of Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and Will Roger's application for enrollment in the Five Civilized Tribes. The lesson relates to the powers granted to…

Explores the inclusion of science-technology-society (STS) education in social studies. Provides background information on global warming and the depletion of the ozone layer. Focuses on reasons for teaching global climate change in the social studies classroom and includes teaching suggestions. Offers a list of Web sites about global climate…

Critiques the 1994 curriculum standards by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), "Expectation of Excellence: Curriculum Standards for Social Studies," stating that there is a need for revised standards. Focuses on three main criticisms of the NCSS social studies standards. (CMK)