ABSTRACT
The social studies should help students attain the skills needed to recognize and solve human problems, analyze and clarify values, and make sound, reflective decisions that will contribute to the perpetuation and improvement of their communities, nation, and world. My perception of the proper goal for the social studies resulted largely from a realization that citizens – students, homemakers, factory workers, businesspersons, labor leaders, politicians, welfare recipients, and all others – must each day make personal and public decisions that will affect their lives and their community, nation, and world. These are the kinds of nagging decision-problems with which citizens must often deal:
Should I take the job at Tony’s or at Bell’s? Should we buy a house, a condominium, or continue to rent? Should we stop fertilizing our lawn so that more fertilizer will be available
for crops? Would Taylor be a better member of Congress than Kitano? Should I vote for or against the school bond issue? Should I become active in the Anti-Nuclear Weapons League?
