Reforming “Social Studies” in Schools

Can the teaching of “social studies” in grade school and high school be made something better than the “social stew” which many pupils rightfully, if mordantly, call the amorphous, sloganizing courses to which they are subjected? Every teacher, schoolboard member, and intelligent parent interested in so important a reform ought to become familiar with the “Greater Cleveland Social Science Program,” being developed by the Educational Research Council of Greater Cleveland (Rockefeller Building, Cleveland 13, Ohio).

Supported by charitable foundations of Ohio, the Educational Research Council is endeavoring to improve the whole level of school instruction. Finding most textbooks inadequate, the Council prepares its own elaborate series of workbooks for children and teachers’ guides. It began with a successful “Greater Cleveland Mathematics Program”: now the Council (whose executive director is Mr. George Baird) concentrates on the social sciences, a project to be carried on for years.

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Russell Kirk

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Can the teaching of “social studies” in grade school and high school be made something better than the “social stew” which many pupils rightfully, if mordantly, call the amorphous, sloganizing courses to which they are subjected? Every teacher, schoolboard member, and intelligent parent interested in so important a reform ought to become familiar with the “Greater Cleveland Social Science Program,” being developed by the Educational Research Council of Greater Cleveland (Rockefeller Building, Cleveland 13, Ohio).

Supported by charitable foundations of Ohio, the Educational Research Council is endeavoring to improve the whole level of school instruction. Finding most textbooks inadequate, the Council prepares its own elaborate series of workbooks for children and teachers’ guides. It began with a successful “Greater Cleveland Mathematics Program”: now the Council (whose executive director is Mr. George Baird) concentrates on the social sciences, a project to be carried on for years.