The curriculum framework of history-social science for kindergarten through
grade twelve is an effort to strengthen education system by building on the
best practices contained within previous frameworks. The revised framework
focuses on the chronological study of history. Placed in its geographic
setting, history establishes human activities in time and place. History
and geography are the two great integrative studies of the field. While
exploring the past and present, students should recognize that events and
changes occur in a specific time and place, that historical change has both
causes and effects and life is bounded by the constraints of place.
"History and geography are the two great integrative studies of the field
[of social studies]..".Throughout this curriculum, the importance of the
variables of time and place, when and where, history and geography, is
stressed repeatedly". (John J. Patrick, Geography in US History: A
Teacher's Guide, Bloomington, IN: Agency for Instructional Technology,
1991)
The curriculum framework is planned as both an integrated and correlated
approach to the teaching of history-social science. The teacher is expected
to integrate the teaching of history with the other humanities and the
social science disciplines. In order to achieve correlation across
subjects, the teachers are also expected to work with teachers from other
fields like the language arts, science and the visual and performing arts.
Within the context of this framework, history is broadly interpreted to
include not only the political, economic and social arrangements of a given
society but also its beliefs, religions, culture, arts, architecture, law,
literature, sciences and technology. This framework stresses on the
importance of history as a well told story. Unlike the old convention,
history sho...