| Show SOCIAL STUDIES IN HIGH SCHOOL how history civics and kindred subjects in the high school may be made to meet the require ments of present day citizenship and the needs of boys and girls as growing citizens is told in a report on the social studies in secondary education just published as a bulletin of the united states bureau of education of the department of the anten interior or this report is the first to appear of the final reports commission on the reorganization of secondary education which was appointed in 1912 by the national education association the commission organized in 16 committees which include in their membership more thap than superintendents prin principals ciMs and teachers representing nea nearly all the states of the union has ha s been at work continuously since its appointment the report on social studies comprises a s six ix year program embracing the dorkof work of the seventh and eighth grades and that of the present four year high school while the civic educational value of all the social studies such as history government economics and geogia geography hy Is kept in the foreground of twe the report especial emphasis is given to organized civics instruction of the community civics typo type in the eighth and ninth years is emphasized however that the pupil is a mem ber not only of a local community but also of a national community it would be inexpressibly unfortunate if the study of local community life and relations should supplant a study of national life and national civic relations the two aspects of civic life should clearly supplement each other questions of health of education of industry can no longer be con in their local bearings aone alone but must be dealt with in the light of national policy and to the end of national efficiency fp other topics tonics dealt within part 11 of the report are the civic relations of vocational life the adaptation of civics to rural conditions dit and the relation of civics to to history in connection with the firstos first of these topics it is said the that the chief purpose should be the development of an appreciation of the social significance of all work of the social value and interdependence of all occupations pat ions of the social responsibility of the worker not only for the character of his work but for the use of its fruits oath of the e opportunities and necessity fol foi good citizenship in vocational vocation life of the te duty of the comma anity to the worker of the necessity for social con control troi governmental ern mental and otherwise of we the economic of the community and of the part that government actually plays in reg elating the economic life of the community and the individual F for or the last year of the h high agh school the report proposes a concrete study of problems of democracy these problems will naturally vary from year to year and from class to class but they should be selected on the ground 1 of their immediate interest to the class clams and 2 of their vital importance to society the purposes of second ary education and not the in value of any particular body of knowledge should be the determining consideration 0 0 it is far less important that the adolescent youth should acquire a comprehensive knowledge of any or oll oil of the social sciences than it is that he should be div en experience land and practice in the observation of social phenomena as he encounters them that he should be brought to understand that every social problem is many sided and complex and that he should acquire the habit of forming social judgments only on the basis of dispassionate consideration of all the facts available this can best be accomplished by dealing with actual situations as they occur and by drafting into service the materials of all the social sciences as occasion demands for a thorough understanding of the situations in question part IV of the report deals with standards by which to test methods the preparation of teachers and the availability of text materials |
