The assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, by rioters protesting the certification of the 2020 presidential election sent shock waves through the nation. Alysha Butler-Arnold suggests that teachers should take the opportunity to compare this event with occasions in U.S. history when white rioters used violence to contest elections in which the votes of African Americans were decisive. In her view, it is important to examine the bigotry underlying the riot of January 6 so that our country can “come closer to being a true democracy for all its citizens.” A distinctive feature of the…

NCSS Articles of Incorporation (1939) As Amended (1964) We, the undersigned, Howard C. Hill, John R. Davey, and Rolla M. Tryon, citizens of the United States, propose to form a corporation under an Act of the General Assembly of the State of Illinois, entitled, 'An Act Concerning Corporations,' approved April 18, 1872, and all Acts amendatory thereof; and for the purpose of such organization we hereby state as follows, to-wit: The name of such corporation is NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE SOCIAL STUDIES. The purpose of the corporation is to promote the study of the problems of teaching the…

John Haefner was NCSS President over 40 years ago, in 1953-farther back in time than any other current NCSS member who has served as President. In this interview, he shares his reflections on social studies education then and now, and on the constant challenges facing NCSS. The interview was conducted for Social Education by Mary Hepburn in November 1994. A former student of Dr. Haefner, Dr. Hepburn is professor of social science education and head of the Citizen Education Division at the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia, Athens. Mary Hepburn: John Haefner, I…

Novelist James Michener may well be the best-known public figure to have been a member of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). He began his teaching and educational career in 1929 as an English teacher, but he soon switched to teaching social studies. Michener taught in two private schools (at The George School in southeastern Pennsylvania, he participated in the Eight-Year Study of the Progressive Education Association) and then studied in Europe. In 1937, Michener accepted an appointment at College High School, the laboratory school for the Colorado State College of…

As the results of state and national standards-setting projects1 become clear, there will be a rush to review them. If sessions during the 1994 National Council for Social Studies annual conference in Phoenix are any indication, however, those reviews will be mixed at best. I am certainly not sanguine about these efforts. The potential for nightmares is real. But the possibilities of authentic and substantive change cannot be ignored. The Nightmares Let me begin with three nightmares. In a chapter titled "Autonomy and Obligation," Lee Shulman (1983) describes the assorted horrors of…

NCSS confronted several key challenges in the period from 1982 to 1995. At a time when dramatic changes were taking place in the world and a new political climate in the United States was raising questions about the future of social studies education, NCSS was called on to serve as a voice for social studies teachers on major educational and other issues. After a number of past efforts to clarify the definition of social studies and articulate the requirements of social studies programs, NCSS reached a milestone with its publication of Expectations of Excellence: Curriculum Standards for…

Four themes seem to highlight the activities of NCSS members who made special efforts to further the professionalization of the social studies field from 1968 to 1982. During this period, members of NCSS worked (1) to constitute a more professional organization, (2) to establish the hallmarks of a profession for the field of social studies, (3) to find and exercise a professional voice on social studies-related issues, and (4) ultimately to forge a professional identity for social studies educators. Building A More Professional Organization From 1968 to 1982, NCSS members endeavored to…

Tumultuous domestic and international events rocked the United States between 1947 and 1968. The bright hopes for peace that emerged from the ashes of World War II collapsed under the glacial pressures of an increasingly frigid cold war. The proliferation of new nations created unparalleled opportunities and dangers as the U.S. and U.S.S.R. competed for global power, and occasionally strayed across the boundary between cold and hot war. Conflict and stresses characterized the domestic environment, as rabid anti-Communism, the civil rights movement, and opposition to the war in Vietnam tore…

As the United States struggled through the Great Depression, and inevitable conflict in Europe began to surface, American schooling remained resilient. The economic crisis brought about by the Great Depression and the political and ideological crises brought about by World War II inevitably brought change into the nation's schools - in curriculum, in organization, even in a shortage of teachers. Especially in the social studies, the Second World War was likely the catalyst for major and rapid changes in curriculum in the schools (Davis 1981; Nelson 1986; Jones 1990; Garrett 1990; and Field…