Social Studies isn’t English Language Arts’ Annoying Relative.
More and more, it seems that educational resources support two core courses: English Language Arts and Mathematics. In my opinion, this is a dangerous trend in education, today. At a time when students must prepare to live within global society, education curriculum and instructional resources are ignoring other critical subjects. As a result, the education industry’s emphasis on chasing vanity metrics tends to narrow curriculum design and implementation.
Investing primarily in “tested” courses, i.e. English Language Arts and Mathematics, because they’re predominantly represented in standardized exams, is a tragic educational blunder. Yes, reading comprehension and computation skills are vital, but they’re not the “be-all and end-all.” If we rely solely on English Language Arts or Math teachers to do the “heavy lifting,” then we’re creating a skewed division of labor. Such an inequitable division creates wedges within a school building at the expense of meaningful interdisciplinary collaboration. Although