Maryland State Content Standards: Social Studies.

N

161

Academic Standards; Anthropology; Economics; Elementary Secondary Education; Geography; History; Learning Processes; Political Science; Public Schools; Social Studies; Sociology; State Standards; Student Educational Objectives; Thinking Skills

Social studies should be viewed as a major subject matter area in kindergarten through eighth grade, and in specific courses in high school. Students should develop the knowledge and skills to understand and cope with change, resolve conflict, analyze issues, and appreciate diversity in a representative democracy. By the time Maryland students graduate from high school, they will have studied their fellow citizens, peoples of the world, and themselves through the following learning perspectives: (1) the spatial perspective (how people locate themselves in the world with respect to their interaction with the natural environment); (2) the chronological perspective (the causes and consequences of events); (3) the individual perspective (how individuals make decisions to meet their personal needs); (4) the organizational perspective (how people organize themselves into groups to meet their collective needs); and (5) the comparative perspective (how individuals, groups, societies, and cultures are similar and different throughout the world). In order to facilitate this learning process, students will draw from a number of disciplines that make up the subject matter of the social studies. This subject matter includes history, geography, economics, political science, sociology, and anthropology. The study of the five perspectives allows for understandings to develop in an integrated way across these disciplines, enabling both a broad and deep understanding of people. (BT)

2001

ED443761