In the United States Education system, social studies is the integrated study of multiple fields of social science and the humanities, including history, geography, and political science. The term was first coined by American educators around the turn of the twentieth century as a catch-all for the above-mentioned subjects, as well as other subjects which did not fit into the traditional models of lower education in the United States, such as philosophy, and psychology.
In 1913, the Bureau of Education (not to be confused with its successor agency, the United States Department of Education) was tasked by then Secretary of the Interior Franklin Knight Lane with completely restructuring the American education system for the twentieth century. In response, the Bureau of Education, together with the National Education Association, created the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education. The Commission was made up of sixteen committees (a seventeenth committee was established two years later, in 1916), each one tasked with the reform of a specific aspect of the American Education system. Notable amongst these was the Committee on Social Studies, which was created to consolidate and standardize various subjects which did not fit within normal school curricula into a new subject, which was to be called "The social studies."
Bulletin No. 28
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In 1916, the work done by the Committee on Social Studies culminated in the publication and release of Bulletin No. 28 (also called "The Committee on Social Studies Report, 1916"). The 66-page bulletin published and distributed by the Bureau of Education is believed to be the first written work dedicated entirely to the subject of Social Studies. The bulletin was designed to both introduce the new concept of Social Studies to American educators while simultaneously serving as a guide for the creation of nationwide curricula based around this new subject. Due to many of the ideas proposed within the bulletin (many of which were radical for the time), the document has been regarded by many educators as one the most controversial educational resources of the early twentieth century.
In the years after its release, the bulletin received criticism from educators on its vagueness, especially in regards to the definition of Social Studies itself. Critics often point to Section 1 of the report, which vaguely defines Social Studies as "...understood to be those whose subject matter relates directly to the organization and development of human society, and to man as a member of social groups."
References
External links
- The Social Studies in Secondary Education
