SOCIAL STUDIES
Part Three: "The New Social Studies"
The times, they are a changin’
---Bob Dylan
It might be argued that the decades of the 1950’s and 1960’s would impact the teaching of social studies more than at any other time. The advent of television would bring the cultural shocks of assassinations, the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War to Americans in a new way, unthinkable in decades before. Students who watched live reports of these events in the evening, often brought tough questions to teachers the next morning. So it was that the teaching of Social Studies changed throughout the nation. Federal Legislation changed as well.
The National Defense Education Act was again amended in 1964. NCSS launched another concerted effort to have Social Studies included. The words “which have led to an insufficient proportion of our population educated in science, mathematics, and modern language and trained in technology” were deleted in the amended Act, as was the reference to giving preference in student loans to those preparing to teach and those with superior capacity in mathematics, science, engineering, or a modern foreign language. Aid was now available for equipment and materials to be used in the instruction of an expanded list of subjects: “science, mathematics, history, civics, geography, modern foreign language, English or reading in public elementary or secondary schools.” The history of the Social Studies Department at the Malcolm Price Laboratory School mirrored those changes, of course.
Discussion of current events, which had always been a tenet of Social Studies instruction, now became a prominent undertaking. This was seen in new Social Studies courses being offered at MPLS, including “A Study of Culture” in 7th Grade; “Ways Culture Changes” in 8th grade; “Urban Cultures” in 9th grade; and high school electives in Psychology, Sociology, Global Insights, Modern Problems, Comparative Political Systems, and Foreign Studies. (NCA Evaluation Reports, 1960-75 and NUHS Student Handbooks, 1960-1980.) NUHS yearbooks from that time also show the first foreign exchange students from other countries.
The freedom to create and develop new course offerings was seen in a unique and personal way by Professor Leonard (“Len”) Froyen, who came to NUHS in 1960. The following excerpt from his book, Gratitude, is especially interesting:
In 1959 Don Adams, a longtime friend, told me how I could change my life by pivoting from what I was currently doing. He pointed me toward a teaching job that would begin a new career. As a social studies major with an emphasis on American history, I was hired to teach World History at UNI’s Malcolm Price Laboratory School.
I was only marginally prepared for this position. One of my responsibilities would entail providing and supervising field experiences for future teachers. To this day, I gratefully esteem Corinne Harper and Mabel Brown, two teachers in the department who graciously welcomed me there and became sources of emotional and professional support. They stood as pillars of strength and beacons of hope between July and September, when I began preparing to teach at the Laboratory School.
I began by deciding to adapt and adopt a project method approach to actively engage students in their own learning.... The immediate and impressive success of this approach inspired me to propose a Saturday morning seminar, The Growth of a City: Chicago.
Lucille Anderson, Mabel Brown, Corinne Harper,
Florence Kasiske, Leonard Froyen
1959 Social Studies Department
A dozen students took a chance on this extra day of school twice a month. Plans were made to visit Chicago as a culminating activity for our study of the city.…
We had made all the arrangements to board a train and leave for Chicago. Parents brought their children to the train depot in Waterloo about a dozen miles from Cedar Falls to begin our odyssey…. We were finally being transported to an excursion beyond the walls of a Saturday morning class….
While we were in Chicago there was a huge snow storm in Waterloo. We were unaware of it when we departed Chicago. Good thing, it would have been a distraction and would have made our destination less appealing. There was so much to talk about as we made our trip homeward.
We arrived at the train depot at 10 PM Friday night.…We were shocked to observe piles of snow as far as we could see. Parents were standing outside bundled in hats and coats and holding piles of outer garments for their children…. My wife and I imagined our car being impacted with snow. We began to make arrangements to accompany a student in their parents’ vehicle back to Cedar Falls... a pair of parents volunteered to take us to our car parked on a side street…. Students from my classes had cleared away the snow from the car including several feet in front and behind making it easy for us to navigate our way to freedom. We celebrated.
Another celebration ensued when I returned to school after a weekend speculating about who organized and executed this most desirable and appreciated event.... I could tell as they entered the room, they seemed to know what had happened…. A little story was becoming a big story as small glimmers and sly expressions were trying to keep a secret….The pleasure of it all could not be disguised in their eyes and or in small gestures of wonder….
I began by saying, “I am feeling different today about the way you entered the room today. There was something suspicious about your appearances. You couldn't hide your delight with yourselves and me. This is as it should be. You participated in a grand gesture of kindness and thoughtfulness.”… Well, of course, this is not exactly what I said. I do remember the energy in the classroom that day. It was more than my youth and idealism. It was more than the work I had been given to do. The exhilarating purpose was in the escalating molecules in the air, like molecules dancing across my mind and feeling my spirit. I am reminded how I love, and actually [sic] doing what I love every day to come. I got out of bed and made my way to the entrance of Price Laboratory School.
1966 Social Studies Department
Barbara Bridges, Corinne Harper, John Finnessy, Ferdinand Riechmann, Donovan Hofsommer, James Hantula
The makeup of the Social Studies Department was growing and changing significantly, too. Between 1965 and 1985 the faculty welcomed many new faculty. Key among the new faces were Donald Scovel, Ferdinand Riechmann, James Hantula, Stephen Rose, Jeffrey Blaga, Philip Nelson, and Robert O’Brien. All were “Baby Boomers” raised in 1950’s elementary classrooms and forever marked by the events of the 1960’s in high school and college.
Hantula would soon become the most decorated scholar and writer in the annals of NUHS Social Studies. Over the course of his 32-year tenure, Hantula would author several books and over 135 articles, reviews and commentaries published in national journals such as Social Education, The Social Studies, Creative Teacher, and Iowa Geographer.
In addition, Hantula created two new courses titled “Global Insights” and “Foreign Studies.” He also directed the very popular Model United Nations Program, founded at ISTC in 1927, the same year it was founded nationally as a Model League of Nations Program. In addition, his scholarship led to the NUHS faculty becoming deeply involved in the Iowa Geographic Alliance, which he co-coordinated along with Murray Austin of the UNI Department of Geography.
An International Relations Club was formed as well during this time. While there is no direct evidence, this new interest in the world may have prompted World Languages Departments to begin school sponsored exchanges which allowed NUHS students to make annual trips to France and later to Canada, Russia, Ukraine, and Chile.
Throughout these years, the Social Studies faculty became increasingly involved in working with the Iowa Council for the Social Studies, and authoring works for and giving presentations for the ICSS as well as the NCSS. In addition, a significant number of the faculty seemed to make a gradual transition from lecture-based high school classes to student-centered instruction. This was strongly influenced by the leadership of chair Donald Scovel.
One of the social studies faculty at the time, Philip Nelson, remembered the change in tone of “The New Social Studies.” My first teaching job was at Abraham Lincoln HS in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The Council Bluffs high schools were a primary center for UNI student teachers. After several visits to my classes, a UNI administrator actually recruited me to come to MPLS because he was impressed by the climate of learning in my classroom.
Don Scovel, the Social Studies Department Chair, really encouraged innovation in our classrooms and the development of student-centered activities. I tried to put into place several student-led simulations in my history classes, where students took the role of Revolutionary War rebels or loyalists or State Senators debating the causes of the Civil War. Later I created “Middleburg,” a semester-long simulation in 8th grade social studies focusing on local government. With my colleagues Jeff Blaga and Steve Rose, I also tried to be active in service to the Iowa Council for the Social Studies. I recall serving on over 40 visits to Iowa schools to assist the Council in modernizing other schools’ social studies curricula.
Jeffrey Blaga, the chair of the Department from 1978-84, had similar memories:
 | Social Studies at Price Lab provided students with a full and vibrant K-12 experience. There was always a premium put on the faculty to be professionally involved in their areas of expertise, allowing students to receive first rate instruction in their classes. A number of K-12 faculty were co-authors of the MacMillan social studies basal program used in classrooms throughout the United States. Our faculty also served as team advisors for Lab School students who participated in numerous co-curricular programs, such as Model UN, Model OAS, Constitution Bowl, and a host of others. |
We held large-scale events, such as a schoolwide, three-day, Political Awareness Program where candidates, speakers, and others presented to the student body, all around the 1980 presidential election. We also held large-scale events for different speakers, such as one featuring released Iranian hostage and Iowa native, Kathryn Koob. Our faculty pursued research that would enhance the classroom experience, as well as day-long weekend bus trips for any UNI faculty to museums and other significant places in Iowa City, Chicago, and elsewhere.
Teaching at the Lab School was an absolute delight: emphasis on academics, collegiality throughout the building and UNI campus, working with student teachers and field experience students who were full of ideas and enthusiasm; and, above all, a supportive community. Contributions and involvement beyond the Lab School were emphasized and supported by administrators, like James Albrecht, Jerry Duea, and in particular, Ross Nielsen. We, as educators, were encouraged to be involved in professional endeavors throughout Iowa, the United States, and some foreign nations. I still reflect fondly on my years as part of the Price Lab School faculty.
Model United Nations, 1967
Lillian Marks, who served for many years as the Social Studies Department Secretary noted with some amusement that Hantula would greet her nearly every Monday morning with a section of a manuscript typed the previous week by her. He would show her new scribbled edits for a rewrite as well as newly added information for the work in progress. Hantula and all the members of the department owed her a great debt for her work and her commitment.
Social Studies Department 1974
Corinne Harper, Donald Scovel, Ferdinand Riechmann (Chair)
Philip Nelson, James Hantula
Blaga, Nelson and Rose co-authored an article about their special election year activity (1980) highlighted in the NCSS publication, Social Education. The article, titled, “The Talk at Home Has Been Politics,” focused on student apathy in the decade of the 1970’s and what MPLS Social Studies Department was doing about it to bring about a new interest in student action akin to what faculty members remembered from the 60’s. School and community reaction was highly positive, resulting in numerous articles, opinion pieces and letters to the editor in Cedar Falls and Waterloo newspapers.
Model UN 1981
1985 Social Studies Department
Stephen Rose, Chair;
Ferdinand Reichmann; James Hantula; Philip Nelson; Robert O’Brien
Since MPLS was a PK-12 school, Social Studies was also emphasized throughout the elementary and middle school. Lynn Nielsen, Elementary faculty member, was a major contributor and leader in social studies education at MPLS. He was active in the ICSS and was a co-author of Iowa Past to Present, along with Dorothy Schwieder and Thomas Morain, first published in 1989. The text would be a key educational resource for MPLS Middle School teachers in years to come.
Nielsen’s work was just one part of the faculty’s many collaborative initiatives in Social Studies during these years. Nielsen collaborated with Judith Finkelstein, a member of the Lab School Elementary and Early Childhood faculty, on a 1985 article for Social Studies for the nation’s upcoming 200th birthday celebration. They called it “Celebrating a Centennial: An Approach to Teaching Historical Concepts to Young Children.” The two joined with colleague Argelia Colon de Hawley for a 1987 article in Hispania, “Opening a Window on the World.” This article offered practical ways to answer a teacher’s question: “How can my teaching show the world to my students, and to my community?”
The same year, Finkelstein penned with Virginia A. Atwood an article for Social Education, the journal of the NCSS, titled “The Status of Social Studies in the Kindergarten: A Research Report” which was reprinted the next year by The Education Digest as “How Kindergartners Are Taught Social Studies.” In 1978, Finkelstein had joined with Lab School Early Childhood colleagues to create a “Patriotic Unit” for grades Pre-K. Its cognitive goals for these 3- to 5-year-olds included: (1) the name and location of the United States; (2) why the Revolutionary War was fought; (3) the purpose of the U.S. Constitution; (4) the names of the founding fathers; (5) how life during the colonial era has influenced life today; (6) general facts about the presidents; (7) how people choose the U.S. president; (8) the flag as symbol of the United States; (9) how the government issues money and stamps; and (10) the Fourth of July as the nation's birthday.
So active was Finkelstein that she was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Council for the Social Studies. She served for four years (1985-1989) and made countless presentations at National, Regional, and State meetings telling of our Social Studies program.
Lab School fourth grade teacher Max Hosier added his own supportive role. Lynn Nielsen, in fact, had been one of Hosier’s students and credited Hosier with inspiring his interest in elementary teaching–and in social studies:
We studied Australia and the other continents that year. When my classmates and I learned the names of all seven continents we got to go into Max’s office and choose a National Geographic Map—one we were allowed to actually keep. I chose Africa. We also studied Switzerland and read stories about Heidi and her friend Peter. We learned about Swiss watches, about mountains and goats and caves.
Lab School alumna Barbara Severin Lounsberry shares her similar memories of Hosier’s fourth grade class:
He was the first male teacher I had, and I will remember his many kindnesses always. Dr. Hosier loved maps. Pull-down maps were on the blackboard that spanned the whole front of the classroom. But that wasn't enough for Dr. Hosier: he wanted us to have our own maps.
He also wanted us to be “Good Citizens.” Now I realize he was doing civics education. Each week one student was named the class's good citizen—and as a reward was given a large map. I was thrilled when I got mine.
The big treat at the end of the year was the trip to Niagara Cave in Harmony, Minnesota. Along the way, we were treated to history and art. We stopped at Ft. Atkinson to see the territorial fort and in Spillville to see the Bily Brothers' famous carved wooden clocks. I learned that Henry Ford tried to buy one of the clocks from the brothers—but they refused!
Today I still love maps, try to be a good citizen, and I've written on Spillville—and it all comes from Dr. Hosier.
Diane McCarthy took over Hosier’s fourth grade room from 1990 to 2000 and continued the legacy. Her publications reveal her creative student-centered projects:
“Integrating Geography into the Curriculum,” National Association of Laboratory Schools Monograph, 1992.
“World Class Travelers,” The Iowa Council for the Social Studies Journal, 1992.
“Travelmates: Geography for Kids (and Stuffed Pets),” Teaching K-8, 1993.
“The Great Bike Ride Across Iowa,” Teaching K-8, 1997.
Secondary curriculum changes and new course development were also hallmarks of these times. Along with the aforementioned Global Insights and Middleburg, other new high school electives appeared such as Humanities I and II, Current Issues, The 20th Century World, and Law-Related Education. Looking back, it was one of the most exciting and active periods for the Social Studies Department.
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