24: Teaching Issues-centered Anthropology, Sociology, and Psychology

The troubles young people experience today in and out of school are shocking. Youth are worried and troubled by an increasing suicide and homicide rate, drug use among their peers, and disintegration of their families (Ingrassia 1993). Ingrassia (1993) also reported that they worry about their peers stealing from them (68 percent), being attacked (46 percent), or threatened with a gun (24 percent).

How hard is it for students to concentrate on their social studies classes when they have such concerns? To what extent do students today experience what Hunt and Metcalf (1968, 26) called “intrapersonal conflict” and are “uncertain as to what to believe or value”? To the extent that students view the resolution of this uncertainty as being within themselves and their immediate social setting, they are experiencing what Mills (1959) called “troubles.” However, students’ troubles transcend themselves to the institutions and culture of their society. For students to better understand their troubles, they must examine these societal issues. As social studies educators with a primary purpose “to help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good” (National Council for the Social Studies [NCSS] 1994, vii), we might ask our students: “To what extent are the troubles of U.S. society influenced by: