The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1958-12-05

found that it's systematic methods
of analysis are appropriate and
useful in wrestling with economic
problems. Political science has
proved its value in handling prob
lens connected with the structure
and administration of government
And for two thousand years, his
tory has been the recognized
school of good citizenship. One
commentator on the ancient his
torian Thucydides put the matter
thus: "The statesman, the patriot,
the friend to liberty and reason
will be better enabled to plan and
to regulate his OWN measures,
when he can see the tendency and
consequence of such as were fol-
lowed on parallel occasions"
Advocates of the social-studies
approach promise to accomplish
all these things, and to accomplish
them better. They propose to do
so by breaking down the supposed
barriers" between the different
fields and by concentrating the
students attention on contempor-
airy, rather than historical prob
lens. They decry as old-fashioned
the systematic study of each field
the chronological study of his
tory, for example, or the study of
/ government by Analysing political
structures and theories in the way
the political scientist analyses
them. Instead, the advocates of So
cial studies expect students to pick
up the principles of the various
disciplines casually, as they en-
counter. them in "problem-solving"
situations.
That well-educated, thoughtful
citizens can be produced in this
haphazard, hit-or-miss fashion is
surely one of the most preposter-
Gus theories current in American
education. When the social-studies
approach is pushed to its logical
extreme, graduates tend to have
a smattering of knowledge about
everything in general, but a clear
and disable knowledge of nothing in
particular. They have been on
numerous field trips, to factories,
housing projects, and government
offices, and they have aired their
opinions in discussions of current
public problems. All these would
have been fine as extracurricularI
activities. In the classroom, how
ever, these young people have rare
f! ly worked in a continuous and or
derby way to acquire mastery of
any Of the genuine tools of
thought. They have looked at prob
lens with economic aspects, butt
they have never learned to ana
lyze the economic factors involved
and to treat them Systematically.
They know a few provisions of theI
Constitution, but they never think
about the Constitution as the prod
uct of a distinctive and consistent
theory of government. nor can they
point out clearly the logical differ
ences between it's principles and
those of alternate systems. Far
from having been trained to STU
DY contemporary problems, they
have been misled into believing
they can go right ahead to SOLVE
contemporary problems through a.
round of group discussions, without
benefit of precise knowledge, logi-
cal analysis, or historical under
standing.
The idea of pushing history.
aside to concentrate on contempt
rary problems may be plausible
until one begins to think about it, i
Then one realizes that there is no
such thing, strictly speaking, as a.
contemporary problem. Social and
political problems do not, in fact,
burst on us in any such sudden
manner. They arise and alter and
! develop over long periods. To un-
derstand how they came into ex-
istence is usually the most impor-
tant step in graphing with them.
Take, for example, the crisis
over racial indignation in Little
Rock, Arkansas, last fall-a con-
temporary problem that appears to
have been studied in many high
schools. How can it be understood
except in historical terms? How
can anyone discuss this matter in
diligently, let alone plan a future
course of action, without knowing
the history of slavery, of the Civil
War and Reconstruction, and Of
the Fourteenth Amendment of
1868, on which the Constitutional
issue in Little Rock hinges? Or, to
take another example. what I'M
derstanding can one have of cur
rent problems in France without
knowing of the French Revolution
and the bitter divisions it pro-
duced, and some comprehension of
the situations that enabled two
Napoleons to rise to power on the
ruins of earlier French republics?
| 1t will be argued, of course, that