Wild ideas for what would count as "social studies"

[elegantlion]

I'm brainstorming and my brain just went into a fog. Ds and I had a good discussion tonight, kind of moving the mountain and clearing the air type conversation. So, aside from traditional history courses what might count in the "social studies" category. 

 

So far I have: 

• psychology
• sociology
• anthropology
• archaeology
• geography
• economics
• world religions
• human geography
• history of technology
• history of a specific country or time period (we have a history of WWI -WWII planned for next year)
• mythology
• Big History Project
• World Revolutions
• Military HIstory
• History of Weapons
• History of the future  (what people have predicted about the future)
• Biographies (pick several to study with a uniting theme)
• history of flight

[Chrysalis Academy]

History of ideas?  Like say, Enlightenment, Modernism, Post-Modernism?

 

History of Science? 

 

There's a really cool Coursera class just started, called How to Change the World.  Does that count?  I've been kind of trying to figure out where it would fit in . . . 

[dragons in the flower bed]

From the handbook of an umbrella school:

 

agricultural management

agricultural and environmental issues

antiques

baseball and society

career development

business law

community action

consumer research studies

elder care and hospice volunteering

history of _____ [insert basically anything here] _____

personal/small museum/collection curation

law enforcement

office procedures

marriage and family studies

parenting

 

I have an old book meant for elementary age students that is called Create-a-Culture and is pretty much a guide to just that. Students look at every aspect of culture (art, money/trade, geographical influences, historical figures, music, recreation, family structure, and on and on) then design each element anew to make a unique culture. It's social studies for writers, really.

 

[elegantlion]

History of ideas?  Like say, Enlightenment, Modernism, Post-Modernism?

 

History of Science? 

 

There's a really cool Coursera class just started, called How to Change the World.  Does that count?  I've been kind of trying to figure out where it would fit in . . . 

 

How about History of Ideas mom came up with that got vetoed.  :laugh:

 

From the handbook of an umbrella school:

 

 

 

I have an old book meant for elementary age students that is called Create-a-Culture and is pretty much a guide to just that. Students look at every aspect of culture (art, money/trade, geographical influences, historical figures, music, recreation, family structure, and on and on) then design each element anew to make a unique culture. It's social studies for writers, really.

 

Create-a-Culture....um, for the young man that wants to start his own country that might be a good idea.  :coolgleamA:

[bluedarling]

No ideas here.  But I see in your sig "History of Language, Ethics, Phil & Sci of Modern Sci-Fi" and would love to know more about that.

[Corraleno]

Linguistics

World Languages

Language & Culture

Humanities (generally combines elements of history, literature, art, culture, etc)

Political Science

Comparative Government

Contemporary Social Issues

Cognitive Science (you could label it Cognitive Psychology if you're worried it won't count as Social Studies)

Philosophy of Science

 

 

[EndOfOrdinary]

We use a lot of activism in local and national politics. Legally there have to be public comment periods where citizens of any age are allowed to submit either verbal or written testimony about an issue. Following and becoming part of those political movements has morphed into our social studies, but I don't exactly know what title I would give that.

[Nan in Mass]

Send your son to rehab a Japanese temple by himself, living with one old nun who doesn't speak English - Japan Studies.

Send your son to walk from RI to DC with Nipponzan Myohoji monks - Peace Studies.

Send your son to run crow hops across the US from sea to sea with Native Americans - Native American Studies.

My wild is probably a bit too wild for most people.  (These all had reading and writing and public speaking pieces as well as the travel piece.)

 

Create-a-culture would be good for someone who like scifi and fantasy, although I think courses in cultural anthropology and linguistic anthropology would be better.

Archaeology

Physical Anthropology

 

Nan

[elegantlion]

Thank you, all, these help. The stress of the last year has begun to manifest itself in ds. We changing up some things semester to work on skills and take time to heal a bit. It's really hard to see your child struggle with circumstances he had no hand in creating. 

 

In that, my history of language course is being revised. The book was just a bit too much for him at this point. I think the culture idea is the one we will run with. I can incorporate what we've already done, throw my revised ethics class into this category. I'm taking sociology and government this semester at college, so I can throw in aspects of both of those. Add in some more cultural topics like mythology and religion. Make it sem- athropological study of what is culture. 

 

Now to figure out what to call it. "Development of Culture"? Culture studies seems to imply we studied different cultures, this will be more of what defines a culture and picking resources from various areas. Hm...

 

Again, thank you. You all have pushed my brain through the fog. 

 

 

No ideas here.  But I see in your sig "History of Language, Ethics, Phil & Sci of Modern Sci-Fi" and would love to know more about that.

 

I love both of these ideas, both of which we are revising or setting aside for the year. 

 

History of Language uses the book "The Power of Babel" as a spine. I found some study questions online, plus reading a book called "Word, Words, Words" and listening to some lectures on language. Plus we were using The Encyclopedia of Language as a reference source, great book for those interested in language. 

 

The Sci-Fi class was to use 3 books. The Philosophy of Star Trek, The Philosophy of Doctor Who, and the Science of Doctor Who. We made it partially through the Star Trek book, which is essays on various philosophies tied to Star Trek, lots of discussion, lots of watching the show.I didn't have defined assignments except to write essays occasionally and have lots of discussion. I'm really disappointed not to finish this class. We may revisit it in the future or just divide up the books and read them. 

[Nan in Mass]

Couldn't you just call it Intro to Cultural Anthropology?  You could just go lighter on the how-to-work-as-an-anthropologist bit and heavier on the elements-of-a-culture (like a method of distribution of wealth, kinship systems, etc.).

If you do this and he vaguely remembers Hamlet, make sure you have him read Shakespeare in the Bush. It's an essay online and great fun!  It would make a great thing to start with because it so throroughily illustrates how two cultures can look at the same story two very different ways and still have the story work out.

 

Nan

[elegantlion]

Couldn't you just call it Intro to Cultural Anthropology?  You could just go lighter on the how-to-work-as-an-anthropologist bit and heavier on the elements-of-a-culture (like a method of distribution of wealth, kinship systems, etc.).

If you do this and he vaguely remembers Hamlet, make sure you have him read Shakespeare in the Bush. It's an essay online and great fun!  It would make a great thing to start with because it so throroughily illustrates how two cultures can look at the same story two very different ways and still have the story work out.

 

Nan

 

Sounds good to me. Thank you. Yes, I'll look for the essay. 

[Corraleno]

Shakespeare in the Bush

 

You could call your course "Intro to Human Culture." If you want a really simple spine, you could try Culture, which is the anthro volume of an unusual McGraw Hill series. The books are pretty light and heavily illustrated — more like a thick magazine — but they still "count" as a spine for college intro courses. (I haven't seen this particular volume, but I have some of the other books in the series.) 

 

You could also just call it Introduction to Anthropology. That usually covers all four subdisciplines: cultural, linguistic, and physical anthropology as well as archaeology, so that would encompass the language stuff and any archaeology you're doing.

[elegantlion]

Shakespeare in the Bush

 

You could call your course "Intro to Human Culture." If you want a really simple spine, you could try Culture, which is the anthro volume of an unusual McGraw Hill series. The books are pretty light and heavily illustrated — more like a thick magazine — but they still "count" as a spine for college intro courses. (I haven't seen this particular volume, but I have some of the other books in the series.) 

 

You could also just call it Introduction to Anthropology. That usually covers all four subdisciplines: cultural, linguistic, and physical anthropology as well as archaeology, so that would encompass the language stuff and any archaeology you're doing.

 

I just ordered a copy of Cultural Anthropology to use as a reference if nothing else. 

 

I'm starting to like this idea. Unfortunately, he's not interested in doing archaeology, although if I can swing it financially, I have a dig this summer I'd like to attend. He'd probably go with me. 

[dragons in the flower bed]

Send your son to rehab a Japanese temple by himself, living with one old nun who doesn't speak English - Japan Studies.

Send your son to walk from RI to DC with Nipponzan Myohoji monks - Peace Studies.

Send your son to run crow hops across the US from sea to sea with Native Americans - Native American Studies.

My wild is probably a bit too wild for most people.

 

Nan, your wild is my kind of social studies. I wish my kids were interested in doing anything like this.

[Nan in Mass]

Nan, your wild is my kind of social studies. I wish my kids were interested in doing anything like this.

 

They weren't always happy once they were doing them.  The trips were very uncomfortable, very scary at times, and very hard work.  As youngest put it last week, "You didn't stop us when we had stupid ideas."  They learned a ton, though, and continued to think up  adventures.  I'm sure some of them really did seem like stupid ideas at times and they wondered why on earth they had thought they wanted to do them.  In almost every case, about a week before they left, they wanted to back out and we wouldn't let them because the arrangements were all made.  It was more obvious that they couldn't back out once the adventure was underway.  Usually, they adjusted to whatever their new life was and it was a serious wrench to leave it and come back home again.  I am always a bit leary of "experiencial learning" because I tend to think that experiencing and learning are often two different things, both valuable.  Someone can tell you that there are Native Americans not far from your home who don't speak English or you can go into a convenience store with an elder and help him buy something.  One way of knowing took much more time to aquire and has stronger feelings associated with it, and the other is a more superficial "knowing".  It is sort of like the depth versus breadth argument.  Sort of.  I've concluded that it is good to do a mix of experiencial (I dislike that word) and academic learning  If you combine the two, you have something very powerful.  It isn't very efficient, though lol.

 

Nan

[dragons in the flower bed]

They weren't always happy once they were doing them.  The trips were very uncomfortable, very scary at times, and very hard work.  As youngest put it last week, "You didn't stop us when we had stupid ideas."  They learned a ton, though, and continued to think up  adventures.

 

Maybe one of my boys will get to doing something as outrageous someday, because I think I take this approach about their lesser crazy ideas (running a Kickstarter for a game idea, starting a band, etc). We were in the grocery store checkout line this week when my eight-year-old said, in his I-am-being-silly voice, "Could I go see the pyramids in Egypt?" and I thought for a moment, then said, "Yes. Shall we price airfare and scheme up a fundraiser?" The checkout girl's eyes got very wide and then she whispered in awe, "I wish you were my mom."

[Nan in Mass]

And when your children are grown up, people will tell you how enterprising and resourceful they are and ask you how you taught them to be like that, and you will say "well..." and wonder whether the person wants the real answer lol.  And there will be times, especially when the phone rings in the middle of the night, when you wonder why on earth you thought it was a good idea to teach them how to turn a crazy idea into reality.

 

Nan

[ColleenInWis]

Interesting thread.  My 18 yo son decided recently that he doesn't want to take a 2nd semester of economics, as we had planned, so I, too, am looking for "social studies" ideas.  I'm planning to focus on video resources--perhaps as much as a video a day, probably watched together--on a variety of topics.  Does anyone remember any threads on the forums that gave ideas for great documentaries, biographies, lectures, etc. on any social studies-related themes?  I will be searching...