Read this editorial article written by an American high school student about US students' lack of knowledge of their own country. Once you have read the article and thought about what he has to say, think about the question posed to you in this week's title..."Is Social Studies Important?" Compose your response and post it as a comment.
In My Opinion: You don't know Jack about America
Do you know who the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is? How about the year the constitution was written? Who said “Give me Liberty or give me Death!”? If you don’t know the answers to these questions, you know less about our government than any immigrant who came by legal means. These three questions are pulled right off of the citizenship test that the government issues to immigrants wishing to enter our country. By the way our chief justice is John Roberts jr., the constitution was written in 1787, and Patrick Henry was the speaker of this famous quote. If you didn’t know that it may not be your fault.
The idea that more people know more about who lives in a pineapple under the sea than about who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave is scary.
Studies show that millions of natural born American citizens know very little about the US government. On an episode of The Jay Leno Show Jay did a segment called “Jay-Walking” where he asked people if they knew who the vice president was, the speaker of the house, and basic questions about the US government system.
The most stunning revelation of the segment is how little people actually know about their government. Many people didn’t even know we had a speaker of the house, didn’t know who Joe Biden was, and failed miserably on simple questions about their own homeland.
Is it their faults? Most likely, but the teachers they had growing up in school should also be embarrassed. Even in my own Social Studies classes, I have noticed that some high school juniors didn’t know that we had 50 states. Earlier this year a student in my government class asked if Wyoming was really part of the United States. It’s embarrassing.
I blame a large part of that on our entire Social Studies education system. Throughout school we are taught Math, English and Science until we learn it. Social Studies on the other hand, fall short. Students aren’t forced to learn about this subject half as much as the others, but Social Studies is not a “second class subject.” The fact that many students leave high school knowing how to properly balance a chemical equation, or graph trigonometric functions, but don’t have a clue how the Electoral College works is frightening.
From the time we are in elementary school we figure out that citizenship pales in comparison to math or science. Unfortunately there are teachers who sit by and allow this to happen. Just because the class is required it doesn’t mean it should be easy. Many Social Studies teachers actually enable this dislike of the subject to happen by making their classes easy to pass or over simplified, sometimes not even teaching the material. This creates a larger gap between the students and the subject. These useless classes become a detriment to citizens down the road. It is no wonder that more immigrants know who the father of our constitution is than do American citizens (It’s James Madison in case you didn’t know). If the teachers aren’t giving us the tools to our country how can they expect us to run the country one day? If we the students don’t learn our government’s workings, how will we be productive citizens?
— By Charlie Johns
- Posted on May 26, 2010 (www.tweentribune.com)
I think that is true for some schools and for some social studies teachers. That is true for teachers other than for example, my fifth grade social studies teacher. Because of her I knew what the answers were to two of the first three questions. Knowing about our country is importaant but knowing about other countries is important too. We would not be able to interact with other countries if the only place we knew anything about was the United States.
ReplyDeleteJohnMorgan 3rd
In the selection "Is Social Studies Important?" I learned that knowing about things that are happening in our world each day affect us too no matter where they are. Lets say you visit a differnt country and you didn't know anything about where you were going. What would you do?. Knowing the languages and cultures of the people and things (etc;) around our world is for are own good. I didn't fully understand this before. From now on i will try to have a better outlook on Social Studies not only this year but also for the years to come.
ReplyDeleteTaylor Griffin
6th period.
In the selection I learned that Social Studies is real important. I think this because it is pretty sorry that some people dont know about there goverment. I also feel like that teachers should spend more time on the USA than other countries. Another reason in my opinion is because not a lot of people know USA history period. So thats why I think social studies is important.
ReplyDeleteAustin Britt
6th period
I totally believe in what this kid who wrote this article is trying to say, yet at the same time it is not always the teachers fault that the kids fail. Most of the time it is the students that dont care about what the teachers are saying and get off track, creating problems as we see in this article. Yet at the same time the point in the article is only for the USA which is half the curriculum of Social Studies. I think that there is also a reoccuring problem with Social Studies in the other countries as well, I bet if Mrs. Tuck asked who the Prime Minister of Russia was only 25% of the class would get it right. And just in case you don't know who the Prime Minister of Russia is, he is Vladimir Putin. That goes with all the other countries as well. I agree that Social Studies is a falling subject, yet I don't believe that it is falling because of the teachers. The teachers are there for a reason, and that reason is that the teachers are smarter than the kids and are able to teach them. Yet the kids are arrogant and don't study even if there teacher told them to because they think they are to smart. Which then makes them fail Social Studies.
ReplyDeleteDrew Lischke,
3rd Period
It's true to say that class should not be kindergarden easy! To me Social Studies should not be easy because the world is not easy to understand.Students should understand about everything that is difficult in the world.Sometimes teachers teach things that seem not important. Later on in life your teacher will say, "I am sure your teacher taught you this in seventh grade."
ReplyDeleteI believe that Social Studies is very important because we need to understand how the government works and who runs the government. We also need to learn about the history of the United States and the different cultures. Students take Social Studies for granted because they think it is easy and all they need to do is memorize for the test. After the test they forget about what they learned and throw away their papers. Since they don't use this information every day like you do with math for example they forget it and can't answer the questions later in life. I actually really like Social Studies because I find the history of our country and other countries very interesting. I hope to be able to travel to some of the locations that we study one day when I am older, like the Middle East. It would be nice to see where my grandmothers family was from in Lebanon. I LOVE SOCIAL STUDIES!
ReplyDeleteMackenzie Greenly
3rd Period
I think that Social Studies is important! What if you went to High School or College and you didn't know social studies what would you do? I am so glad I am learning Social Studies right now. I will also have a bigger chance to go to college for knowing Social Studies.You know Social Studies will come in handy when you are older!
ReplyDeleteAshton Coley
6th period
In this selection I thought that it was mainly on the teacher because they need that student teacher connection sometimes. Also they need to know how the student learns best by and how that can affect them. Most of the time we are studying China and several other forgien countries than of our own and it is imortant to know these things because we might leave the country come back and have the americans think that we are a imigrant! I think that the americans need to lower the questions for the imigrants because they might not have been able to afford a education or know little about our country.
ReplyDeleteKimberly Crooks
5th Period
This article taught me a lot. It taght me that I should really pay attention more in social studies. It also makes me think that most of America is supid. Who knows maybe when I grow up I will run for president. If I dont know our history why should I deserve to be president. Plus history teaches us about our mistakes. If we don't learn how we messed up then what is stopping us from making the same mistake again. That is why i think from now on we should have a social studies EOG, then studentsd will start caring about social studies.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with this article, and deffinately think that this needs to be corrected about americans. Because it is very important that these students and people know social studies, and there own government. In my opinion voting is needed for this country. But not when there are people voting for the first name they see on the list perhaps , or things like that. I think they should just not vote in that case. There is a solution to this problem by teaching students at a young age about our country and how important it is to know most everything about it. Voting goes along with government and social studies. This problem needs to be fixed severely!
ReplyDeleteI think scocail studies is really important because what if when you grow up and have to vote you have no clue what the canidates are talking about? Then it also may affect your future job because what if your customer wanted to talk about politics and scocail studies related things then you will be like "Uhhh what??" so to conclude this i think that scocail studies is important so if you are going to college and a person in middle or elemertary school knows more about states, the goverment, and countries around the world then you need to rethink going to college!!
ReplyDeleteConner Szaro
6th period
Yes,social studies is important. Its pretty sad that we don't know any of that stuff. The fact that a high schooler dosn't know that we have 50 states is pretty sad. Or that one high schooler didn't know Wyoming was a state.I think that we should spend more time on social studies than we do.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe that high schoolers dont know that we have 50 states in our country or even who the vice president is. I think its partially the teachers fault and mostly the students fault. its more the students fault bacause they are worried about other classes because they think they are more important and half of the time the kids arent even listening but the teacher is taching the curriculum. I think this is horrible and we should now about our world
ReplyDeleteI think social studies is important because we need to know more about our country.I also agree with the author that we do not know alot about our country!Last year since we didnt have to take EOG'S on social studies my teacher just gave the answers to every single class and we all got A's now if you didnt get an A in that class it would be pretty sad!That is one of the reasons i changed schools because i do think socisl studies is important and i do want to learn about the world! I also want to learn about the world because i promised my aut Coco and my mom that we would travel across the whole world someday!And i do hope to do that someday i think it would be so much fun!!!!!!
ReplyDelete-Sky Mondrian!:)
I think that this problem is created because the age of the people they asked. I do expect a seventh grader to know this but not a high schooler. This is because they may take some other class than social studies. And you can not ask someone of the street because they may not have had this class in 5 years! But they should keep up with current events.
ReplyDeleteWesley Moose
3rd Period
Everything in this artical is ture. I believe that we should learn more about the world's history and present. When we grow up and are on our own we should know about the worlds history. If someone came and asked you who was the vice president in 2010 and you didnt know . You would feel and seem very dumb. Yes, social studies are very imporant thing to know!
ReplyDeleteKelly Reid
6th
I think Charlie Johns is completely right. Most people don't know anything about our country. The kid who asked "Is Wyoming really part of the U.S." needs to start catching up. I think social studies is very important. How else are we going to learn anything about our country. I wouldn't want that kid asking if there were fifty states, the president of our country. It makes me very upset to know that there are even adults out there that don't know who the vice president is. WAKE UP PEOPLE! You voted for Obama you should know who the vice president is!
ReplyDeleteCaleb Main
6th period
I think that social stuides is extremely important because what kind of people are we if we don't even know about our own nation? Not knowing that we have 50 states is also pretty sad, and I think that Social Studies should be just as important as reading or math. We need to learn about the history of the U.S. because it is important and we will probably need it in the future.
ReplyDeleteI agree when he says Social Studies is not taken seriosly. History and geography are exteamly important because someday we will run the country. What surpeized me the most is that most juniors don't know there's 50 states. It's incredible! He makes a great point. Honestly, before I read this, I never realized what a problem this was, thats how underground it is. And the fact that imigrants know more about ourselves than we do, is just shamful. I'm very glad people are recognizing this problem, now, we just have to do something about it.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is rediculous that people don't know that there are 50 states, and who Joe Biden is. I think that it is not only the students faults, but also the teachers. I mean just by watching "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader" is embarassing. Not knowing the answers to some of the Social Studies questions is humiliating. I think that to go out of your state you should be able to tell someone who the president, vice president, your mayor, and who your govenor is. Social Studies is really important in my opinion. If we don't learn about the world now, where would we learn it from other than our parents? It would suck to be sitting in High School or College and not know that Wyoming is in the United States. I don't want to look like an idiot and I am pretty sure that no one else does either. For Social Studies, I am used to reading a chapter, and taking a test on it. I think that if it keeps you from looking like a fool, I would be up for a few more tests, or more challenging classes where we are actually learning something.
ReplyDeleteMorgan True-3rd
Yes social studies is important and I totally believe in what this kid who wrote this article is trying to say, yet at the same time it is not always the teachers fault that the kids fail. Most of the time it is the students that dont care about what the teachers are saying and get off track, creating problems as we see in this article. Yet at the same time the point in the article is only for the USA which is half the curriculum of Social Studies. I think that there is also a reoccuring problem with Social Studies in the other countries as well, I bet if Mrs. Tuck asked who the Prime Minister of Russia was only 25% of the class would get it right. And just in case you don't know who the Prime Minister of Russia is, he is Vladimir Putin. That goes with all the other countries as well. I agree that Social Studies is a falling subject, yet I don't believe that it is falling because of the teachers. The teachers are there for a reason, and that reason is that the teachers are smarter than the kids and are able to teach them. Yet the kids are arrogant and don't study even if there teacher told them to because they think they are to smart. Which then makes them fail Social Studies.
ReplyDeleteIn this selection I believe that this guy is absolutely right! Social Studies is very important yet it's the subject that most students know less about. I love social studies and think that students do need to learn more about this subject because what Charlie Johns said is completely true. Most Americans do not know all of the questions he asked including me. I think that is it partly our fault as students/Americans that we don't know half these questions and partly our school systems. It is partly our fault because if you are in high school and still don't know that there are 50 states that's pretty bad considering there are many things that notify that. Partly our school systems because they really should teach this kind of things.
ReplyDeleteDebbie Killian
3rd
That's sad that some of the high school stdents don't even know how many states there are in the United States. If you live in the United State so you should know how many state there are or who the president is. More social studies teacher should make students know that social studies is as important as any other subject. I think the school system should make a End-Of-Grade test for social studies to make students car about the subject more.
ReplyDeleteIn this selection on "Is Social Studies Important?" I learned that Social Studies is very meaningful and important. I do not think it is right that some students do not know that the United States has 50 states. I think that it is the students and teachers fault. Social Studies is a very important class and yet students know less about it. We should know more about where we live and what happens in the world. We should all take pride in where we live and learn as much as we can. What is happening in our world can effect us too and the more that we know, the better we will be. From now on, I will look at Social Studies from a different perspective. I will try to learn much more about Social Studies and use it throughout my life!
ReplyDeleteDanlee Brown
6th Period
Social Studies is definetly an important thing to know, learn, and to teach others for the most part. I cant believe that some people dont even know about our own government. and thy're in high school! I think social studies is something every one should learn so you dont look like a complete fool! Teachers are suppose to teach us this kind of stuff so if we dont know it, then the teachers didnt do there jobs very well!
ReplyDeleteAlexandra Ziglar
5th period
I think that Social Studies teachers who let the class become easier just because they think Social Studies is not important are not teaching correctly. Social Studies is just as important as Math or Language arts to a student's education. You need Social Studies for many reasons. It helps you learn about other people and their cultures and enables us to learn about our past history. Also, if you don't know about mistakes of the past, how do you know you won't repeat them in the future?
ReplyDeleteStephanie Menten
5th period
I think that this could be a real bad issue in the future. Social Studies is just as important as any other subject. You need to learn about social studies because it helps us learn about our worlds history and all of the different cultures. If we didnt have social studies we wouldnt know about how the world came to be.
ReplyDeleteMadison Lancaster
6th Period
I never thought if social studies as a very important subject but after reading this it made me think twice about it.For people in high school not to know who said "Give me liberty or give me death" is just plain sad!I learned that in 4th grade!!Now some of those other questions i didnt know but i do now!I want to learn this year knowing how doumb i will look if i go into high school not knowing thsis stuff!
ReplyDeleteCassie Holland
5th period
I think social studies is important but I barely knew any of thoes questions. I wish I knew more about the United States since I live here. I do not think it was just the students fault.It also was the the teachers fault for letting their students get like that.I also believe that they think social studies is a fun class and they can get away with anything.Most students including me (sometimes) just study for tests and then forget everything.Along with that we will have a social studies EOG soon and I don't want to forget any of that. :)
ReplyDeleteDaniel Hayes
3rd period
I really do agree to what they said. I truly only knew one of the questions asked. All I basically know is our president is Obama. This is not one of the main subjects that social studies teachers teach but it should be. I believe that this is a subject that should be thought so that us students can understand the government and take over one day. I think that it is kind of sad that Americans don't really know their culture unlike immigrant's that know their culture left, right, up, and down. I hope the school system makes a quick change of that.A.J. Johnson
ReplyDeletewell in this selection about social studies i think is very important. i think its kinds of sad how people in other countries aren't learning social studies because teachers aren't doing it properly. also its not very good that people in other countries and people in are country don't know about u.s.a history. i think that teachers in other countries need to try harder.
ReplyDeleteI think social studies is very important because we need to understand how the government works. Also who is in charge of our government and the different parts of the government. second to know the history of the United State of America. social studies is also important because kids need to know about the USA and how it became what it is know. Also about the different cutlers around the world.This are my opinion about why social studies is important.
ReplyDeleteSocial Studies is important because it teaches you how and why our country was started and how the government works. I think it is really sad that high school students do not know that there are 50 states in the United States. I think it is mostly the fault of students that they do not take Social Studies seriously. To get them to take it seriously, I think there should be an end of grade test for Social Studies after each grade.
ReplyDeleteEvan Smith
5th Period
Social Studies is important! Some Social Studies teachers don't teach well, but the students should take most of the blame.If the teacher doesn't teach well, the kids should go online to look up information or ask for help.We must know about our country. US citizens should know how the country was formed and why our country fought or helped in certain wars.We need Social Studies to understand democracy and the reason we have certain laws and in what states they effect.We need to know how to live in a community.Citizens need to know the past so they can learn from the positive events but also from mistakes.
ReplyDeleteThomas Best
6th period
Is Social Studies Important?
ReplyDeleteYes Social Studies is very important and needs to be more emphasized at school. As a student, I need to know more about the history of USA and more about its political system. I would love to visit all 50 states and I have been trying to convince my grandfather. History intrigues me! I believe that we should have to learn more about the USA for I live here and need to know how it was started and that means also studying about other countries. Maybe we should all be required to take the citizenship test to make us learn important facts about our country. We should want to learn more in Social Studies and listen to our teachers. Its our responsibility to learn.
For example, do we all know the meaning of Labor Day? To pay tribute to working men and women.
Logan Carter
6th period
I admit, like others have before me, that I don’t know much about my home country and its government. However, I do know a few basic things like; the congress is made up of republicans and democrats who decide whether to pass certain laws or not. I certainly know that the United States has 50 states and that Wyoming is a part of the US. I think everyone should. I guess I can’t talk though because there are a lot of things I don’t know about the United States of America too. For instance, before I read this article, I had no clue that Patrick Henry was the speaker of the famous quote; “Give me liberty, or give me death!” I didn’t even know that the constitution was written in 1787 or that John Roberts jr. is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Quite frankly, I’m ashamed about how little I know about my home country. I was never taught all the things immigrants are expected to know and I’m very embarrassed that I know less than they do about the United States of America. I do think Social Studies is an important and interesting topic, but I find it kind of silly that we learn about Rome or wherever before we learn even some basic facts about our home country. How is this generation supposed to learn from the past if we don’t even know what happened back then? I think it’s important that this generation is more educated about the United States of America!
ReplyDeleteIla Vienneau
6th period
I know Social Studies is important, and I respect that. I have always thought it was interesting to learn about other cultures and war. I can't believe that teachers would sit and not care that the kids think S. S. is a stupid subject. My fifth grade social studies teacher would've gotten real mad when somebody wasn't paying attention. The fact that a high schooler doesn't know we have 50 states makes me sad and to not know that Wyoming is a state! Some people in 7th grade and lower can name all 50 right off the top of their heads. Some can do that with capitols too.
ReplyDeleteNoah Smith
5th Period
I think that it is wrong that more immigrants that haven't even lived in the United States knows more about the U.S. Government than the actual U.S. citizens do. I also think that Social Studies is more important than what people think it is. I mean, what if you wanted to run for the president one day, and you didn't know what a vice president was, how embarrassing is that? Everybody should take Social Studies more importantly and step up to the plate to actually learn about the government!
ReplyDeleteTo me Social Studies is very important. It teaches everybody about the cultures and accustoms of differnt countries. I do not agree with the person who wrote this because it is not always the students' fault or the teachers. It can be both, usually it is the students when they do not study or pay attention. I also think we do need to get taught more bout the government and USA, we are always concentrating on other countries when some people do not even know about there country. I hope we can fix these problems to help everyone learn Social Studies better.
ReplyDeleteSincerely, Jamie Renae O'Dell
3rd Period
It is amazing how many people don't know about their country. I can relate to some of the people because I don't know much about our government. My fifth grade social studies teacher taught us a lot about geography but not a lot about our government. I did not learn a lot in sixth grade social studies either because my teacher spent too much time on vocabulary. I think social studies is one of the most important subjects you need to know because it's important to know not just about your own country but other countries in the world too.
ReplyDeleteFor me social studies is not an important subject to learn when you have to choose between math, science, and language arts. But it is require if you want to learn who said 'give me liberty or give me death'.Or when you want to know where Asia is located. Without social studies almost 97% of the peopole whould not know where North America is located
ReplyDeleteSoicial Studies should be as important as other subjects. I do not think people care about it as much as they need to. I think we need to learn more about our country and less about other contrys. we should spend more time learning about our U.S. goverment. I hope that i learn more than have in the past with my other teachers. Social Studies is very important.
ReplyDeletePeople need to learn more about culture and the world around us. Our knoledge about the wourld is important. In the future we will need to rely on what we learned in the past. I hope I have a vast knoledge on Soicial Studies. All subjects are important. History in genral tells us about our wourlds past.
Social Studies is defiantly important. If the people that come here for freedom know more about our country than us, the people that inherited the freedom, I think we should do something about it. To be honest I didn't know most of the answers to the questions in the article. If we live in this free nation we should at least know about the history of how we got to be free. I have a friend that thought Michigan was in China! That just proves how little most Americans know. Social Studies is an important subject that for most is used just as much as Math or Reading. If we celebrate independance day shouldn't we know the meaning of jow we got the holiday? It is up to all of us to learn the history and geography of our country so that we can be just as educated as the immigrants.
ReplyDeleteMichaela Shaw
5th period
He is right some people who are born and raised in america don't know anything about the government. My fifth grade teacher made us memorize the Star Spangled Banner, and recite it to the who class. She had encountered a man that could not sing it, so my teacher did not want that to happen to us some day. I think that social studies is important, because it is not right for imigrants to know about our country more than the ones who are born here.It is now our dutty to turn that around, and not be lazy, getting bad grades for a very important subject. The teachers dutty is to teach these important facts to us. They need to push our limits, and make these facts installed in our brains so we won't forget over the summer what we learned. Sometimes it is the teacher's fault for America's mistake, which is very sad so teachers need to step it up.
ReplyDeleteTyler Edwards
5th period
I totally agree that the most obvious things about our country aren't taught in most social studies classes across America. I'm embarrassed to say this, but half of those things mentioned I wasn't taught! I have noticed that we learn more about other countries than we learn about our own country! But it's not always the teacher's fault.....kids should look for things about social studies just like kids read books for language arts. But to not to know that there are 50 states in the USA, that's RIDICULOUS! I would say that is the teachers fault. I think social studies is just as important as math or reading!!
ReplyDeleteKienle Valentine
5th period
Is Social Studies Important?
ReplyDeletesocial studies is important. It tells the history about the world. It also tells about trading and agriculture. We need to learn about social studies so if we want to go to another country we should know about who is leader and some places to visit. Without social studies we would not know as much about the world. we would not even know what country we could of came from.
Is social studies important?
ReplyDeleteI think its really sad that some americans don't know anything about our government! Most of the things mentioned in the selection, we all learned in elementary school! I think its very important to know about our country and government because its where we live! IF you dont know who our president is you must be pretty lost. Social Studies is very important. If we didnt have it, we wouldnt know anything about our history and land!!! If many people dont know about our country, it should be more emphasized in schools.
-Jordan Nievinski(5th period social studies!!)
Yes Social Studies is very important and I think everyone should know about it.I think that it is sad that some people don't even know about their own country.Social Studies is a very important subject and should be taught and known by everyone.One day we students will be in charge of the U.S. and if we dont know the history of our country then we won't be fit to run it.
ReplyDeleteCameron Queen
5th period
I believe that social studies is very important. i think that is our job to lean more about our country. i myself feel i know very little about social studies in general. In my previous years in school i have learned very little about our own government all need. I feel we focus on other places in the world when we need to know more about our own country. In schools we need to start focusing on our on country. I would love to know more about how my government is being run. Also to lean about the history of this country.
ReplyDeleteMcLaren Brieaddy
6th period
I think what this kid is saying is true. I sadly only knew one of the three questions that was asked. Although i do think teachers should spend more time on the U.S.A then all of the other countries. We should know about our country first before we start learning about others. I do think that it is important that we learn about other countries. I think this because if you want to travel to some place but don't know anything about it you might have the chance of catching some type of disease or other things that might cause problems. Citizens should learn about thier past and present.
ReplyDeleteCourtney Hutchins
6th period
That makes me want to go out in the middle of town and just yell all of the info that the high school kid said that most people don't know. Do people know who settled first in the new world, or what the name of the settlement was. Social studies is the class that kids think they can not pay attention in class and make a good grade but its not that easy, you got to work for it so you can know all the things about America so you can run for congress ,or president ,or some government job and know what you're doing. Our countries history lets us learn and learn to deal with our mistakes and fix them. Think about all the lives lost in WWII most people don't know that they where fighting for our rights. Social studies is very important to me and I hope it is to others.
ReplyDeleteLuke Harbour
6th Period
I think that Social Studies is very important. Some people that dont even know who our vice president is,and that is just sad. They need to catch up and start learning about our country. Some people dont bother to listen in class which does not help them at all. Most of the things that teachers say are important, they dont say things just for the fun of it. Even adults learn things every day. The mistakes that people make are going to be the ones we learn from tommorow.
ReplyDeleteYes, Social Studies is very important and needs to be to better taught in school. I didn’t know one answer to any of the questions that were asked and that is pretty sad. I really want to learn more about the United States government and history. I feel like I hardly know anything about it! We are citizens of this country but we don’t know anything about it! I think that’s messed up and we should definitely be embarrassed by that! We need to pay attention in school and study on our own about our country so this won’t be a problem anymore! We all learn about foreign countries but why haven’t we started learning about our own country?
ReplyDeleteYes, Social Studies is very important and needs to be to better taught in school. I didn’t know one answer to any of the questions that were asked and that is pretty sad. I really want to learn more about the United States government and history. I feel like I hardly know anything about it! We are citizens of this country but we don’t know anything about it! I think that’s messed up and we should definitely be embarrassed by that! We need to pay attention in school and study on our own about our country so this won’t be a problem anymore! We all learn about foreign countries but why haven’t we started learning about our own country?
ReplyDeleteRobert Eskridge
2nd period
Social Studies is ssoooo important! We all really should pay more attention in class. Last year, my Social Studies teacher didb't teach us anything. She made it WAY too easy for us!No one really paid any attention in class, eitheir. I think that one day, we'll all say, "Oh, yeah! I remember that from seventh grade!"
ReplyDeleteerica zeballos 6th period
I think Social Studies is important because it effects the future like when your voting ,you need to know who's the vice president and president.I know that alot of people don't like Social Studies but like how my parents always say "Whatever you learn in school your going to need it for the future " . Besides I didn't know that the Chief Justice of The Supreme Court was John Roberts Jr.You can learn different things by listening and paying attention in Social Studies.
ReplyDeleteEmily Wong 3rd period
I think this ia a fairly acurate artical. I mean, it's true we don't learn about our own country at all, we're too busy learning about other places that mean nothing to us in our future. I for one, think we should spend less time on Iraq and Iran and more time on North Dakota and Kansas. It would be really nice to learn about our country's history. Our past can teach us about our future. There are many great people in our country's past that can teach a lesson to today's students.
ReplyDeleteI think it is sad that imigrants know more about our country than we do. I also think social studies is one of the most important things you will need in your adult life aside from math and english.not knowing social studies is part the school systems fault and part our fault.Americans should not just know about america but the world they live in.Social studies should be more important to people and not be put last all the time.
ReplyDeleteEmily Lackey
5th period
This article really opened my eyes to the problems that are going on with the knowledge of our nation. I think some of the problems are that teacher have to teach lessons relating to other countries instead of our own. I think 5th grade was the year we actually did any work with America but not many people can still remember those lessons. I beleive we should learn about American history more than China or somewhere else because we live here and not there. I am not stating that it is not important to learn about those place im just saying that they should not be our first priorities. Another problem is with our school systems and how far behind we are compared to other countries.
ReplyDeleteIt is really sad that most people don't know there are 50 states or anything about Social Studies! In 5th grade I finally learned about the Revolutionary war. I would love to learn about how the U.S. and how it works. I mean I would like to learn about Africa and all the other stuff too but why don't we learn about the economy and how the U.S. works because we all live in the U.S. so we need to know a lot about it so we can be sucessful.
ReplyDeleteI think it is sad that people don't even know how many stars are on the American flag but they know more about Sponge Bob than they do their own country. I am looking forward to learning more about my country and the world around us.
ReplyDeleteIn 4th grade we learned about our state of North Carolina. We spent the whole year learning interesting facts about our state. We also took a field trip to the state capitol. I am very interested in our state and local govenment because of what I learned in 4th grade.
I wish the our teacher's would find way to make learning about our country fun. We all have a responsiblity to understand the country we live in. If we don't there will not be leaders in the future.
I find it extremely embarrassing to this country that students in America don't know that there are 50 states in this nation. In other countries students most likely know the basics of their nations while many students in our country don't know the basics of our nation. Social Studies teachers should be teaching everything about the United States there is to know. Students should be learning about the U.S when they are at a young age learning more and more every year. Finding out now that people in high school don’t know there 50 states mean this country is slowly becoming less intelligent. What I have learned from this paragraph I have just read is that students and teachers should be working harder and harder on what they are trying to do every class period.
ReplyDeleteBrandon Latimer
6th period
I think social studies is very important and that it should not be as easy as it was in kindergarden and it should be at a challening level for 7th grade students.I honestly dont understand how people can not think social studies is interesting.I think we need social studies and that it is impotant to have in peoples everyday lives.If you dotn know any history why would you go anywhere with historic meaning because you wouldnt know the history and it wouldnt be as cool to you as it would be knowing the history of it.Such as the great wall of china to go and see that would be amazing to me but it wouldnt be as amazing to a person who dosnt know anyhting about it.And once again i think social studies is a very imopotant subject to know and learn at a challenging level
ReplyDeleteHannah Mize
6th period
I agree that we as Americans do not know as much as the immigrants in our country. I did not know some of those questions and im sure others didn't either. I like Social Studies and I think it is very important to learn. I think it is interesting to learn how our country was started and important. Social Studies could be of use when you go to college and even when you get a job so I personally think Social Studies is as important as math and science. Social Studies is not all about our country either, if you go on vacation social studies could teach you the behavior of that countries residents. I have learned very many things from Social Studies and I think they should still teach it in all schools and treat it as an equal.
ReplyDeleteWow reading the article Is Social studies important really made me think out side the box. Social studies in my opinion is the study of us, were we live, what we do! Now that I think about it social studies is just as important as all those other subjects! It is just sad when high schoolers dont know there is 50 states in the USA. I mean come on people use your brain. I belive Charlie Jhones is apsolutly correct! No it is not always our falt, it is sometimes the teachers falt. No we should not always get blaimed. But yes we should give an effert and at least try to learn about social studies. It is important so we can say we are americans and we know about our country.
ReplyDeleteKenna Osenga
I strongly agree with what he is saying throughout this article. Though I do believe that even if teachers lack on teaching enough social studies, if kids really did care about it, they would study it themselves and take free time to inform themselves of our history. And as they say, history does infact repeat itself occasionally. I think it is not stressed enough that social studies is used every single day, just as much as math, science, and language arts. Social studies IS indeed important!
ReplyDeleteI think it is really crazy not to know a single thing about social studies. In fact social studies is one of my favorite subjects. I think it is important to know about your landscape and the history of where you live. This could come in handy if you have vistors. You can let them know how cool your city or town really is by showing them monuments or telling cool stories that other people might not know about. You can learn this stuff by taking field trips or vacations to a historical setting of an exciting event. Social studies is not boring. It's fun if you learn more about things on your own. That way you can relate to them in class. Learning social studies can teach us alot about ourselves.
ReplyDeleteCaleb Kirk
5th period
Is Social Studies Important?
ReplyDeleteYes I think that Social Studies is important. I agree partialy with what he said. Some teachers do teach about the History of our Nation. It might not be as exact or detailed as it could be, but they are still teaching it. Some others do not teach it and I think they should teach it and we should know it. Like he said, we are probably going to be the ones running the country when we are older. So if we do not know the basic facts about our Nation’s History, then how are we going to be able to run the country successfully. When I was in the 5th grade I our teacher did a good job teaching us all of this information. It was my favorite subject that year.
I also must say that i definitely think social studies is important! It is a class that must be taught to students.
ReplyDeleteI think it is very sad that so many people dont know that much about America. It is crazy that immigrants know more about our goverment and country than an american citizan. I believe we need change about how our curriculum works around social studies. I trust our teachers and or students to change this problem in our great nation. I just hope that we change this ginormus problem when my children are going in to school so they get the proper education that they deserve. So when they graduate high school they will know where America is and will also know if Wyoming is part of North America. 6th
ReplyDeleteCaitlin Smith fifth peroid
ReplyDeleteAs I read the artical i was very suprised at the lack of knowlege students have about there country. I believe that the schools are very much at fault for this. Reading this artical worries me about who we will have running our goverment in the future. Hopefully our social studies education will become better.
Caitlin Smith fifth peroid
I think that social studies is very important and kids barely know anything about our country. Honestly I didn't know the answer to most of the questions in the story. I agree with the guy that wrote this that it might not be our fault. In elementary school we were barely taught social studies and when we were, it was about other countries and continents. It almost took a back seat to other subjects. Maybe thge government will consider this story and pass a few laws so we can learn more about our country. This is why social studies is very important.
ReplyDeleteJacob Bunting
5th period
I believe that it is very important to learn about social studies after reading this article. It was very alarming to me that people in our nation, or in their own homeland knew less than an immigrant just comming to our country. It is also true that we are pushed harder in math, science, and english than we are in social studies. I think that having a well rounded knowledge of our world is very much needed in today's society. I myself, do not have a problem with social studies, but to those who do, they should think about their future and how not knowing social studies would effect them later in life.
ReplyDeleteIn this article I learned that Social Studies is much more important than I thought. I am surprised that so little people knew who Joe Biden was. I also think that Social Studies should not be the class that gets taken out when there is something else to do. I also agree with Tim in that there should be EOG's in Social Studies. I think that Social Studies teachers should focus more on American history becaue that's where we live.
ReplyDeleteReading this journal entry makes me realize how important social studies is and how little I know about it. I hope that I don't mature into an adult without learning great information about our country. We were not taught much about social studies until I went to sixth grade, and even then I didn't know that much about everything. In the future I hope that I will learn all that I can about social studies so that I have that great knowledge for my future life. I think that social studies isn't that much fun but it is valuable information that you need to know in order to get along well in the future. I have learned that social studies is important by reading this essay and I will try my best to soak up all of the knowledge that I can.
ReplyDeleteIt is stunning to know that this is actually true. I used to LOVE learning about the presidents and U.S. history,but know I find it harder to learn about it because it isn't taught as much as other subjects. I think that the kids that know these things should help tutor kids that have trouble with this subject. Yes, I do think that the teachers that have their college degrees should be doing more to help. But I think 90 percent is on the kids. You aren't going to learn anything if you don't focus, study, or understand (might be your fault for not saying something if you don't understand). After all they aren't the ones learning are they??? WE ARE!!!
ReplyDeleteSpencer Richardson
5th Period
I think that people need social studies because you would see other places and how they live. You also need to know about your culture and there culture. Social studies helps you see how people live around the world and the history that made them into what they are today. Geography is interesting and informative on weather, food, jobs and cost of living.
ReplyDeleteNoah M Baker
There are millions over reasons why social studies is really important. For one reason half the people I know don't even know who our vice president is. Throughout elemntry school I learned almost nothing about our country. Last year I had to gang out a lot of ground from what I didn't learn before it. Without scocial studies I would not know one single thing about our contry. I can already tell that this year Social Studies will get one step more important into our future. Without Social Studies people would not know the differnce from u.s.a. and china. I think that Social Studies is the door to our furture. Do you know why Social Studies is so important.
ReplyDeleteRYAN BULLARD
ReplyDeleteIt is important to know about our country's history because that lets us know how the government works. We need to know who we are voting for and how much power they have over us. Social studies is as important as your three other main classes because it helps you understand historical events. Social studies helps us know how our country came to be.
Reading this poem and watching the video really opended my eyes to what happened in Rawanda. What happened was an extreme tragedy that could have been prevented. The speaker that I was lucky enough to hear had a remarkably eye opening story. What suprised me most about him was that he showed barely any emotion while telling his story. Knowing that no one stepped in to end violence in Rawanda scares me, I do not want this to happen again, therefore the U.N should have a better plan in case another genicide occurs.
ReplyDeleteI agree with him but I also disagree I would say I disagree because maybe those kids that didn’t know about any of the things didn’t listen in school. I personally would not blame the teachers because its not always there fault but in other cases it is. Maybe some teachers don’t care if you know these things and a lot of people in this country don’t really care who our vice president is because I don’t care so I see other peoples points of view as well. I agree though because some teachers don’t deserve to be teachers because they don’t share new information to there students. I am glad that this guy said what he said so he can influence teachers and other students about what was learned.
ReplyDelete1.My dog.
ReplyDeleteShe the only dog i have right now
2.My family.
The my family duh
3.My first pro skateboard.
Its very special because i got it from my family in NJ
4.My dogs ashes.
She is the dog i had sins i was born
5.My locrosse stuff
I just got it.
6.Mashedy(knife)
I need for pretection.
7.Food
I need it to live.
8.Shelter
I also need that to live.
9.Love
From my family beacause I love them.
10.Water that's the last thing I need for survival.