Most eighth-grade social-studies classes cover key topics in United States history, and while contemporary lesson plans focus less on the memorization of names and dates than they once did, there are still plenty of facts for students to absorb. Teachers ask your grandchildren to study and offer opinions on topics such as the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution, the Constitutional Convention and the Federalist Papers; the Civil War; the Great Depression; the two World Wars; the Cold War; and the civil rights movement. Students examine the structure and function of the U.S. government, and the evolution of civil rights here, by studying landmark Supreme Court cases like
Dred Scott vs. Sanford and
Brown vs. Board of Education. They also look at ethical issues such as the government's historic treatment of Native Americans, African Americans, and immigrants from around the world. Throughout the year, eighth-graders develop their research and writing skills to prepare for the larger projects they'll be asked to complete in high school.
How Far Have We Come? As eighth-graders discuss the Civil War and the civil rights movement, it's only natural for them to wonder if the U.S. has come far enough toward equality for all citizens. Good teachers will challenge students to examine critically their own biases and those of others in their community, and to ask whether our laws do enough to protect all citizens, or whether we can ever make laws that erase bigotry. You can help grandchildren with these questions by sharing your own experiences as a witness to, or victim of discrimination in the U.S.
• Teachers, textbook writers, and eighth-graders with social-studies papers due all rely on primary sources that can help demonstrate the actual viewpoints of people who lived during a given period of history. For an extensive selection of primary-source documents, encourage your grandchildren to
click here.
• James McPherson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning
Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford University, 2003) is a single-volume work covering everything you or your grandchildren might want to know about the Civil War and the economic, political, and social forces that drove it.
• History textbooks once portrayed men as the dominant shapers of history. But today women are being recognized for their many contributions. Your grandchildren can learn about some of these women, and discover ideas for research projects in Cokie Roberts's books,
Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation (Harper Perennial, 2005) and
Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation (William Morrow, 2008).
Not Just Folks. American folk art can be a treasure trove of information about our country's history. Take your grandchildren to a folk art museum, or visit the
American Folk Art Museum website with them, and examine the different types of art together. Ask your grandchildren what they think the pieces say about the people who created them and the communities they came from.
Hindsight Is 20/20. When reading about historical events it’s often easy to judge the rightness or wrongness of certain beliefs or strategies. But things were almost never so clear at the time. Talk with your grandchildren about a period of history you lived through, perhaps the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, or the Watergate scandal, and explain to them how, at the time, there was vigorous debate about steps that now seem obviously right or wrong, and great doubt about how things would turn out. Encourage them to think of a contemporary crisis and to imagine how future generations will look back on it.
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