Goal

The goal of social studies is to help create literate and well-informed citizens who actively participate in a democratic society. Students learn how to become effective citizens through:

• active engagement in the learning processes and skills of the social sciences and history;
• development of a useful knowledge base in culture, economics, geography, history, and politics;
• learning the fundamental structures of human systems of interaction and how these systems have developed over time;
• application of concepts and knowledge of the past to problem-solving real-world issues of the present;
• application and evaluation of the role of an effective citizen, including putting citizen participation theory into practice;
• effective use of multiple sources of investigation for research and learning, including technology, primary and secondary source materials, the arts, film, and oral history; and
• development and communication of social studies concepts and knowledge using a variety of formats, with a special emphasis on analytic and argumentative writing.