Reviews changing attitudes toward the objectives of social studies throughout our country's educational history. Emphases have included history teaching, geography and civics, strengthening democratic institutions, education for life adjustment, knowledge of specific disciplines, relevance of life experiences to academic knowledge, and the "back…

The implications of six national reports for social studies are examined. These implications are compared with past and present practices in the social studies and the ways in which the reports fail to give useful guidance to teachers are noted. An introductory chapter presents a broad overview of the six reports: "The Paideia Proposal: An…

This study is an assessment of the current status of world history instruction in American secondary schools and an attempt to detect trends in the teaching of this subject. The report is divided into the following sections: 1) Introduction; 2) Historical Development of the World History Course; 3) Criticisms of the World History Course; 4)…