Social Study Class Reform

The Social Studies are very crucial series of subjects from which students can develop their understanding of the relationship to their society, their heritage, their history. Objective of those classes are that one can acquire knowledge as to how to look upon their country with patriotism; how his/her motherland has evolved throughout two centuries; and how he/she deals with the whole world. Franklin High School has provided good Social Study classes which I truly enjoy. However, I think its Social Studies classes have not fulfilled these goals. Therefore, I would like to make some suggestions which, in my view, would make Social Studies classes at Franklin High School more effective and competitive than those offered by other schools, whether public or private.

Many students know very little about the outside world beyond their own country, and they do not even bother to explore. It is so saddening because, as citizens of the most powerful and leading country of the world, we should have more knowledge about other countries that are in the world we lead. After all, many citizens in our nation are from so many of the countries. Given the situation that we should have geography lesson at some points, I suggest that any Social Studies classes give a one day geography session each month. It would be so beneficial because students would be inculcated with geography knowledge without conflicting with their schedules. Besides, students will become interested in that one day session, since it would be refreshing, breaking from those routines of government or history study. In addition, when they study geography, they will learn some cultural aspects of other countries together, so it would help fulfill the objective of learning about the outside world.

Relating oneself to the outside world would be hard since the outside world is so intangible, but relating oneself to the American society is far easier. Connecting to internet could bring infinite amounts of information to students, so that they can be educated on current world issues. Instead, many students put most of their precious time on the internet into entertainment and games. So, unfortunately, they ignore one of the most improper uses of the internet, providing useful news as soon as it happened. Therefore, my second suggestion is to mandate students to read weekly, and if possible, write a summary and a personal thought about that article.
In 21st century, the computer and printer are already prevalent among American families. Why do we not make a better use of it, a more educational and significant use, which many parents may think is good and eventually support it. This suggestion has many advantages which are that more people will be educated; it helps clubs, such as model UN, Republican Club, and Public Issue Club, to recruit members once everyone becomes engaged into public issues; encouraging a reading habit; making social study classes more enjoyable; and, finally, improving their writing by requiring them to write more, which is a helpful step toward better penmanship. In addition, I want to suggest that Model UN and Model Congress, which are only offered to GT kids, should be open to any students, no matter what classes they are taking and what grade they are in when students become more active in Social Study classes. The only-to-GT-kid program will eventually incite students’ unhappiness, since they are not given an opportunity to show off their abilities which proves no difference against those GT kids. This idea has virtually no, or few, significant disadvantages to students; but it has a big effect on teachers, since they need to grade more papers than they did before. However, I think it is workable since students will benefit exponentially, and teaching students responsibly is an integral part of this suggestion

Accompanied with the news-summary suggestion, I suggest there will be a current issue discussion, in which students can express their opinion on news they read the day before, and it should be held twice a week which replaced those soporific and repetitive drills, which always ask what students learned the day before. Discussion will be far more interesting and motivating where students would automatically start debating, which is what Social Study classes intend students to do. It would also exercise their brains toward readiness for learning after discussion. From debating, they would find their stances on the society and pride themselves on the ability to bravely speak out their true thought about some issues. Many students who do not care about how the society works will enjoy twice-weekly discussion, and then they start debating with friends, family than talking useless junks in their leisure time.

My intention is clear after I present my suggestion. I sense that students participate so little in their Social Study class but so much to entertainment and luxuries. I feel it is not right that students do not absorb as much knowledge as they can when they are in brightest stage in their life. Franklin High School always competes with other schools within Baltimore county, no matter public or private. By increasing workload on students, whose time was wasted only on entertainment, they will have a better timetable for themselves and exert their intelligence to its best, and eventually beat every school academically in this county social-study-wise.