Discussion 7: "History Wars"

The "history wars" are between educator’s views of what range of social studies should be taught. Some educators or those in education system hierarchy believe that social studies should be limited to just the most important history themes or historical events where as others believe that social studies should encompass a wider range of themes or history and civics as termed in the chapter. Those that view social studies as requiring more themes believe that it should include such themes that will help the students gain a more personal approach to history. Some examples would be like going beyond to incorporate the immediate local history in addition to the main curriculum. Some implications of technology are that with the Internet becoming more readily available, students will rely and go to the information found on there rather than going to a reference or a book on history. The problem is that many times students are not critical enough to distinguish which data is reliable and which is data is not factual at all.

Some concerns that arise with students’ ready access to information on the Internet is that they might run into some inappropriate sights which depends really on what is being studied but the danger is there. One main concern that probably happens more often is what I was mentioning earlier, which is that many times students may not know how to weed out the good information from that bad. Some students may also be so gullible to believe everything they find on any website. Many students are also shy and may prefer to get their answers on the Internet rather than asking the teacher even though many times it might not be the correct or can be extended further by the teacher.