What should they miss?

I just read Traci's post about special education students being required to miss the social studies time in their classroom to focus on language arts and math. I agree with Traci and think this is so sad. I have always loved history and social studies. I believe that by not teaching those subjects, we do our students, and ourselves a big disservice. How many high school students can explain how our government actually works? Not many. How many know how important the right to vote is? Not many. These are the people who will be responsible for our country in the future. I believe that part of their apathy towards social studies comes from the message, either spoken or inherent, from their elementary school experience, that social studies is not important, "because it is not tested".

I hope that we as new teachers can help change that attitude, and show how important social studies is for the future of our country.