Who decides when children are ready to talk about hard issues? At what point are our students willing and able to become critical consumers of society? To develop as critical thinkers and instrumental players in the transformation of our future society, young citizens need to participate in authentic activities that will foster critical thinking skills early in their academic careers. In my combined second-and-third grade classroom, I have been systematically implementing various strategies to create what I call a Socratic classroom.

Stephen J. Thornton Despite the striking growth in the social, political, legal, and media presence of gays in American life, few social studies materials treat gay history or issues substantively. 231 Dateline

Keith C. Barton and Linda S. Levstik The authors argue that encouraging history students to analyze and interpret information helps prepare young people for participation in a pluralist democracy.  

The lesson presented in this article offers an expansive view of Black history, which moves beyond the limited focus on slavery, reconstruction, and the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

How can we safeguard the records of our history in an ever changing digital landscape?

Our students will understand the principles of inquiry better by examining their own reactions to the pandemic.

Studying the nineteenth-century educator and civil rights leader Octavius Catto can help students move beyond the simplistic U.S. narrative of racial progress to a more complex understanding of race and resistance in America.   

Civic education may have been pushed to the margins in schools, but children are doing civics all the time as they negotiate relationships and address problems on the playground, in the cafeteria, and in the hallways.

Sarah Witham Bednarz, Gillian Acheson, and Robert S. Bednarz Maps are essential learning tools, but they represent varying points of view; so teaching about maps must go hand-in-hand when teaching with maps.  

These four documentary films can engage students in historical thinking, expand their capacity for empathy, and hone discussion and writing skills.