Social Studies
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From the first days where the Greeks and Romans first brought light to Europe, Medieval villages and kingdoms under feudalism, to the warring blood and glory of Napoleon and the World Wars... Social Studies, with its vast expanses in historical events and knowledge, provides students with records of battles and monarchies and military tanks so brilliantly complex. However, one might find Social Studies excruciatingly repetitive and difficult to memorize. Then comes the ultimate question: why do we need to learn these events in the first place when all that has already happened years before our parents and grandparents were even born?
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The point of learning history has two reasons so important that provides us with knowledge to be aware of the patterns, politics, and nuances of our current, and past society.
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The first reason — knowing what had happened to this world before us provides the origins all the culture and current diplomatic relations arise from. What had happened in the Middle Ages and the Napoleonic Era still has an impact till this day, including subtle culture shifts, long-standing feuds between countries, and the rise of new political systems from old ones.
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And the second reason — is to learn from history and avoid repeating previous mistakes, knowing what is real, what is right, and what is wrong.
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The winners of history are taught the evils and wrongdoings of fascists and communists towards themselves; the defeated are taught the evils and wrongdoings of their ancestors to avoid the same mistake happening again with fascism and communism. Downplaying history will only repeat the process over and over again until society descends into a dystopia where the powerful manipulate their way with textbook tactics the public is all too blind to see. This is why media control is key in a non-democratic nation; if the public can continue cheering for their nation without acknowledging its crimes they will never break free from the government's control and repeating tactics. Social Studies train critical thinking to not fall for what had been done, and know what shouldn't be done. Through learning history, it brings out the information, context, and critical thinking skills for students to analyze current events, another huge part in the Social Studies curriculum.
Socials: The Importance of History
Articles
Paying Attention to Current Events
Imagine a situation like this.
"Your Current Events presentation is due tomorrow!" Your teacher announces, as you frantically panic over your half-finished script. And at that moment, you couldn't help but think dejectedly, "Why do we always have to do Current Events? News are always so uninteresting..."​​​​
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Now, it's the big 2025. Trump kicks in, and the entire world is in turmoil. Trump's fascist tendencies are being increasingly obvious, far-right parties looming over Europe and Japan, and increasing political tensions where one could not simply be ignorant of. Trump slaps tariffs upon tariffs, threatening to take Canada and Greenland; tensions between countries are as high as ever, as the world starts to retaliate against Trump, along with various new issues arising with the anti-China stance of the new Japanese Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, clashing with the Chinese government.
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What does this situation imply? The world's politics is as unstable as ever, and before anything terrible happens, we need to be aware of our conscience, to know the situations locally and globally. With the threat of tariffs still looming over Canada, we had to make our judgements and plans, know which politicians are doing things for our good, and look out for signs that other politicians will only push us to turmoil... It all seems deeply opinionated, but it's through paying attention to Current Events that we would be able to develop our own opinions and determine what's right or wrong.
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Politics aside, the current issues in our society also needs your attention—whether it be a housing crisis, economic changes, or disasters such as fires and earthquakes. Most of the time, local news will directly impact you, and though International ones will seem unimportant to your life, it will still make an impact one way or another in the current world's complex connections and issues.
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To sum up, not only does paying attention to current events enhance one's critical thinking skills, it also provides a good background context to the things happening within and around the environment ad world, whether it be politics, disasters, or various current issues.
Socials Gallery
A map of Canada, our country, in the form of a globe.
A book about nations covered in Social Studies.
Ms. Cheng's classroom, where Humanities is taught.