Civic Education and the Decision-Making Process
ocial studies educators in the past S decade have gradually become aware of the centrality of decision making as a method of teaching and as a vital skill outcome of civic education in schools. If social studies is to be more than mere repetition of facts and the mastery of meager information-processing skills, i t demands students and teachers capable of advocating positions, making choices, and accepting likely consequences of action taken. The middle school social studies curriculum is replete with opportunities for teachers and their students to study critically the decisions made by others in history and to examine the difficulties in making reasonable decisions about the many contemporary problems at home and abroad. Students will profit from the examination of school and community problems, using an active decision-