Businesswoman holding earth front of blackboard

The desire for an educated populous began in America before the nation was officially born. As an American colony, Boston Massachusetts would be the first to offer a publicly supported school. In 1635 The Boston Latin School was opened with the primary objective of college preparation for young boys.

In 1647 the Massachusetts Bay Colony General Court made declarations for public schools throughout the colony for the primary purpose of ensuring Puritan children could read the bible as well as educating virtues of family, religion, and community.

Over the last 383 years, education has evolved from the desire for religious literacy to a public system designed to educate the masses in a variety of subjects and for a variety of purposes. However, the core of a social studies education has ebbed and flowed with the needs of the nation.

From a discipline crafted to ensure a fledgling nation survived to a discipline sharpened to create nationalism in a nation torn apart by civil war, social studies has refined its discipline to practice evaluation, analysis, and application of contemporary conditions that shape not just the nation but the world.

As society becomes more complex, the need to integrate multiple perspectives, from multiple fields is necessary. In keeping with the complexity of society, social studies as a discipline will too become more complex. Since no single subject can provide an answer to the multifaceted issues facing a 21^stcentury populous, social studies offer a holistic way to prepare students to view societal issues from an informed viewpoint.

A unique value found in an informed viewpoint is in the practice of historical empathy. Social studies provides the ability to clarify personal beliefs and assertions, and become a learned decision maker in not only matters of democracy but in matters of a democratic world.  Social studies offers the unique perspective and essential responsibility of thinking in terms of the human experience. The discipline of social studies will continue to evolve in step with the nation as We The People continue to unpack what it means to be a civic-minded citizen, a steward of the nation, and a student of human experience. After all, the study of social studies is the study of being human.

And students like the study of being human. When surveyed, students are in favor of a social studies education and students see far-reaching benefits of a social studies education. Benefits which extend past the content area and surface in transferable skills and abilities; such as the ability to form and support opinions, evaluate concepts and ideas, develop critical thinking skills, strengthen reading comprehension, and unearth the true role(s) of an American citizen. However, without social studies, without examining the world through the lens of evidence-based discovery, a student ultimately begins to believe a Google search result is bond.

I can think of no subject area taught which does not have its roots in the broad foundation of the social studies discipline. To have a social studies education is to have a holistic human education cemented into the skill set(s) most desired in the workplace. Success is not measured in singularity, and I can think of no better multidisciplinary education to give to a student than a social studies education.

The promotion of civic aptitude and the installation of socially acceptable values as core features of social studies was vital to the experimental Republic in creating an active citizenry and has remained vital to continue that strong citizenry.