The class I am observing is an 8th grade US History class and a 9th grade Geography class.  Because of this, the teacher focuses solely on the Social Study standards found here:

https://www.uen.org/core/socialstudies/

Currently, the teacher has just finished teaching about the American Revolution and is now discussing political parties.  She is teaching from U.S. I Standard 5.1: Students will use evidence to document the development and evolution of the American political party system and explain the historic and current roles of political parties. 

During the last class, the teacher discussed the retirement of George Washington and rise of the two party system.  Mrs. Cragun read us some of the points from Washington's Farewell Address.  We specifically discussed the rise of the two parties, the Democratic-Republicans and the Federalists during this time period.  Mrs. Cragun even mentioned that this speech is still read every President's Day in the Senate, continuing a tradition started in 1896.  In my observation, Mrs. Cragun is doing a good job of teaching to the standards.

Social Studies is required for 8th and 9th, and then again in high school.  I think it is important that the students and future leaders of this country learn about where the government came from and the particulars of various reform movements throughout the years.  These classes will give them a good foundation for many of their other classes an help them analyze their own beliefs.  I think it is especially important that students are learning to critique, compare and analyze since they get a lot of their information from the internet and more specifically, social media.  They need to know how and when to challenge things that they hear.

There are a few refugees in the class.  I often wonder how they feel about the curriculum.  It must be hard for them to be getting used to our country and then have to study the history as well.