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After the end of the American Revolution, the new American population was implementing their self-government, which influenced the creation of "social studies". "They encouraged instruction that would promote "moral training, training for citizenship, judgment, and inspiration" (Correia. S, Smith. B, Palmer. J, n.d)
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During this era, although history and geography were recognized as important, people still believe that history should be the dominant "social studies" course taught within schools so they included information on geography within history classes.
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The creation of the first American history textbook was written by John McCulloch, intended for use in the lower grades.
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After only 17 years, there had been an additional 5 textbooks published, which is a great achievement due to the extensive work required to complete a textbook (Correia et. al., n.d)
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Between 1801 and 1860 there were 351 new addition textbooks available to the public which cover topics such as history, which was the most popular and common, U.S history, and English history (Correia et. al., n.d)
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"He also believed that these subjects, with political economy and the law of nature and nations, were essential to achieve the goal of a higher education"(Correia et al., n.d.). Jefferson and many others emphasize the need for history and geography in our education system to "create noble citizens" (Correia et al., n.d.).
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Geography textbooks became very popular, especially within the 1830s. According to the data, during this time period, Woodridges geography textbook was being used within 412 towns, in New York alone (Correia et al, n.d)
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Massachusetts required U.S History curriculum to be taught within schools with 500+ families, and general history must be taught in schools with over 4,000 residents.
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According to Saxe, the foundation of social studies started in Great Britain during the 1830s and quickly spread to the United States (1991).
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Before the 1830s, history would usually only be found within private schools.
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"Throughout the period from about 1850 to about 1910, history, civics, and geography were generally regarded as rather sharply differentiated subjects. No common interest brought them together" (Chapter 5: History among the Social Studies | AHA, 2020).
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The five states include Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Virginia. These legislations were passed before the 1860s but do not have any specific dates associated with when each state passes the legislation, according to the article.
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The creation of the AHA allowed trained historians to influence the school curriculum for the first time.
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The start of the social studies curriculum reform started at the Madison Conference.
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According to Correia et al., between 1893 and 1915, the topics of economics became well-established, government courses transitioned into civics, and sociology was introduced, yet still hard to find within many schools (n.d).
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The American Political Science Association was created to allow the general public to better understand policies, institutions, and political choices that are made.
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The American Sociology Association was created in order to expand the profession of sociology and inspire more scientific data to be collected on sociological subjects. The ASA is a non-profit organization, with a headquarters in Washington D.C..
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According to the American Historical Association, the term "social studies" was first used to describe subjects that stress human relationships. By using this term they can show the interrelations between all subjects within social studies (2020).
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When adding sociology, economics, and civics into the social studies curriculum many people believed that not enough time would be devoted to teaching and learning history (Chapter 5: History among the Social Studies | AHA, 2020).
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The Commission for Reorganization and Reorientation for Secondary Schools was created in order to ensure that our secondary schools were preparing students for higher education and after graduation, they would live purposeful lives as U.S citizens (Kingsley, 1918)
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The NCSS was originally created in partnership with the American Historical Association. this council accepted history and civics as an important aspect of social studies. Many of the founding fathers of this council were college professors (Correia et al., n.d.).
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According to the articles, the National Council for the Social Studies and the American Historical Association had a fairly poor relationship because it was often the "backdoor" of the American Historical Association (Correia et al., n.d.).
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These additions were influenced by the progressive movement. The progressive movement wanted to address industrialization, urbanization, and immigration. During this movement, one of the big ideas was ways that people thought and how societies work as a whole, which are ideals that come from sociology, anthropology and psychology.
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"National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) first published national curriculum standards in 1994. Since then, the social studies standards have been widely and successfully used as a framework for teachers, schools, districts, states, and other nations as a tool for curriculum alignment and development" (National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: Introduction, n.d.).