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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There are lots of ways to teach social studies that are NOT random whitewashed lessons in US History. My 2nd grader, in the past two years, has learned: what makes a community and how different types of communities may be structured; civics, including voting and other rights; structure of local and other governments; markets and money, etc.  Critical thinking about citizenship and society is just as important, if not more important, as fluency in STEM skills.[/quote]

Those all seem like concepts that are not really suited for elementary education.  I'd rather see more focus on reading, writing, and math; plus a good social-emotional curriculum.  Pushing abstractions without the necessary maturity ("critical thinking about citizenship"??) and random facts about voting and markets just seems like a waste of time.  There's a reason the Common Core includes only math and English.  (PS I feel the same way about all specials, not just social science and science.)  In my ideal world school would be 2 hours of math, 2 hours of english, 1 hr of PE, 1 hour of lunch and recess.  Real music and art classes  (where kids make focused, sustained efforts) can be after school.  [/quote]

Yeah, well, the real experts in education (not the politicians) would disagree with you.  Having something interesting to learn about is what motivates learning, not drill and kill.  And children ate quite inclined to think about how people get along, fairness, natural sciences, etc.[/quote]

The point is that the primary task of elementary is to learn about reading, writing, and math.  The rest can be a distraction; and I doubt that kids are truly that motivated by whatever canned "expeditions" they do about science topics.  Teach kids the fundamentals first, then give them free time.  [/quote]

Actually the curriculum is set up so that they are using science and social studies topics to learn reading and writing for a pretty decent portion of the non-fiction time. That is balanced with fiction/poetry/plays etc.[/quote]

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