One need only remember the war over the history standards in recent years to realize how passionately people feel about what students are learning. Educators, scholars, and parents have put a great deal of effort into thinking about what students should learn in the social studies classroom. The field has curriculum standards for social studies and for disciplines including history, civics, geography, and economics. These national standards, in turn, have been used as the basis for state and district social studies standards and frameworks, say those who study the issue. There is a proliferation of standards in the content areas.
Teachers have a five-foot high pile of standards and are overwhelmed.
And because curriculum decisions are being made at the state, district, and school levels, social studies instruction varies across the country. As school administrators, teachers, and parents work to create a curriculum filled with meaningful content, they must also make sure that students are challenged by social studies throughout their school careers. There should be social studies every year of K-12 school. For example, world history is still an elective in most high schools. Somewhere between half and most high school graduates in the United States have not taken world history, Parker says.