ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author talks about Alan Sears's response to John K. Lee and Kathy Swan's commentary. The author wants to begin by thanking Lee and Swan for an interesting response to the common question that stimulated my thinking in a number of areas. He found himself agreeing with most of their central points, in particular, their argument that "inquiry is the glue that holds the disciplines together" in the area of social studies. Lee and Swan make the point that the pressure on social education created by the push for Common Core Standards made collaboration between and among disparate groups possible where it had not been before. Reading Lee and Swan's article, the author was struck by the common conclusion that social studies and history share a commitment to fostering the kind of inquiry essential to effective democratic citizenship.
