ABSTRACT
If we accept a definition of social studies as simply ‘the study of a given society’, the study to include the past, the present and speculations and hypothesis about the future of the institutions and systems of that society, the importance is obvious. It is particularly important that slow learners who so often are on the periphery of our society should be drawn into a fuller understanding of the way it functions. Pupils very often groan at the mention of History, Geography, Economics. They question, quite rightly, the relevance of knowing the succession of kings after Henry VIII. Why does a factory worker need to know the topography of South Africa, or a shop assistant the international balance of payments? They don’t! The teacher’s time would be better spent in adjusting the curriculum rather than justifying it. In general, the two criteria which should be used when designing a social studies programme are:
1) To cater to the present interest and needs of the individual pupils and 2) To prepare the pupils to meet the future problems that will face them as adults. Accepting these as valid criteria, then the following, as outlined by Scott Brown, a remedial teacher of some experience,
should prove useful: 1) To provide materials that are people-centred. Abstract situations should be reduced to human dimensions. Materials and
methods should be structured so that slow learners deal with human behaviour from which they can then abstract concepts and generalisations.
