Becca’s GED Social Studies Blog

I’ve been talking a lot about government and stuff, but the best part of social studies to me is the history. I mean, learning about all the people and places… and we’ve all got history all around us. We’ve all got family backgrounds… and you  can learn a lot of history just by talking to your parents and grandparents about things that happened in their lifetime. That’s called an “oral history,” and it’s actually something real historians do a lot. (Read on …)

Okay, last time I talked about the Constitution. That’s one of the big, important documents in American government that is likely to be on the GED test somewhere! Well, one of the most important parts of the Constitution is the Bill of Rights. That’s the first ten Amendments to the Constitution…added at the end. They’re a pretty big deal, so let’s talk about them. Here’s what the amendments say, in simple language: (Read on …)

Hi there! Last time, I talked a little bit about the Declaration of Independence…and there’s a question on the Declaration of Independence in Maria’s blog too. She mentions it, but she doesn’t really talk about what it is. I think the two most important documents in U.S. history are the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, and sometimes people don’t really understand what they are and which is which. So, I thought I’d talk about it. (Read on …)

Hey, everyone! The GED social studies test has questions on it from important documents in American history. That means, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and major Supreme Court cases. Now, I don’t know about you, but all that stuff is hard to get! But I figured out that it’s not really that hard to understand the ideas…just the language is hard. Here’s an example: The Declaration of Independence. That was written when the American colonies wanted to make their own country…the U.S. (Read on …)

How’s the GED studying goin’? Last time, I gave you a GED question about a political cartoon. It’s important to remember that the GED test is about understanding pictures and things, also… I mean, you have to do a lot of reading, but you also have to look at things. Like political cartoons. So, here was the practice question I gave you: (Read on …)

Last time, I gave you a practice question to answer. Remember this? (Read on …)

I don’t know why, but the GED test social studies section seems hard to a lot of people. I guess it’s because there’s so much history, and economics, and geography in the whole world. And people ask me, what does looking into local history help? Who knows what’s going to be on the test!

And maybe there’ll be stuff about Spain three hundred years ago or something, but the most important thing is figuring out how to think about what you’re reading. That’s why I say, read about anything that interests you! Because you’re learning to read about stuff, learning to learn new information. That’s the most important thing for the GED social science test.

It’s like how I was interested to read about Clara Barton. As I said, you can read about her at: http://www.civilwar.com/content/view/257/53/
Here’s part of what it says about her:

Clara Barton settled in Danville, N.Y., where for several years she was a semi-invalid. In 1877 she wrote a founder of the International Red Cross, offering to lead an American branch of the organization. Thus, at 56 she began a new career.
In 1881 Barton incorporated the American Red Cross, with herself as president. A year later her extraordinary efforts brought about United States ratification of the Geneva Convention. She herself attended conferences of the International Red Cross as the American representative. She was, however, far from bureaucratic in interests. Although wholly individualistic and unlike reformers who worked on programs for social change, she did a great social service as activist and propagandist.

The social studies test might have a reading like that, and probably it’s something you’ve never read about before! Then, there’s a question, and you can probably answer it just by reading the passage carefully. Try it!

Question: According to the information, Clara Barton was most interested in:

1. founding organizations.
2. having an important position.
3. attending conferences.
4. ratifying conventions.
5. social activism.

What do you think?

So, I mentioned how you can learn more about history by meeting people and visiting historic places around where you live. It helps to see how the past affects the present… how places grow and change over time.

One guy I met while I was truckin’ did civil war reenactments, where they go out and dress up and replay battles from the civil war. Not somethin’ I’d want to do, but it’s pretty cool to watch and talk to the people. Maybe there’s a group like that where you live. You can talk to them about what they do and see the costumes… and it’s a lot better than learning about the civil war from books! And you can go and watch and actually see battles from the war.

Every year around the 4th of July, there’s a civil war reenactment at Gettysburg, that’s where there’s a real famous civil war battle. Here’s a web link to some information: http://www.gettysburgreenactment.com

But there are civil war reenactments all over the country. If you get interested in a topic and just start finding out about it, you find all sorts of interesting things. For example, did you know that a civil war nurse named Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross? Think about that… back in 1881, over a hundred years ago, before women could even vote, a woman started this important relief organization that helped people during Hurricane Katrina and all kinds of disasters. Here’s a good place that you can read about her: http://www.civilwar.com/content/view/257/53/

So, what interests you about the civil war? How did it change the place you live or affect your family?

Hey! In my last post, I asked some questions about California missions. Here’s my best shot at answering them…

How do you think local Indians felt about the California missions?

One of the links I posted last time said the missions wanted to “train them for life in a European colonial society.” It also said, “Conversion was seldom an entirely voluntary process.” That sounds like the Spanish came and started pushing the California Indians around, right? If I lived somewhere and people from a different country came and started building mission towns, I might be kind of mad. I mean, the Spanish were taking the land where the Native Americans lived. And they already had their own religion. I mean, I don’t want someone coming to my door and trying to change my religion. I learned that Native Americans helped build the missions. Then the Mission Indians had to live at the missions and learn to be Catholic. I bet they didn’t like that too much. I know I wouldn’t!

Why was it important for Spain to build missions on the coast?

It seems like Spain wanted a few things. Everyone who came to California came by boat. That means having missions on the coast was important. It showed that Spain already owned the land, and it gave them towns to trade with ships. Then, it gave them a way to control the local native Californians by making them “Mission Indians,” who lived in the missions and learned to be Catholics. All this sounds like it’s about control. Spain wanted to control California, and the best way was to make missions all along the coast.

That’s what I think. What do you think? And let me know about any interesting places and people nearby you!

Did you know….GED Academy students say social studies is the second hardest GED topic after math? I guess I was sort of surprised, cuz the way I see it, social studies is all about people.

I know, I know, someone says “history” and you just turn it off. I hated social studies in school. All that memorizing stuff and dates and names. But it really is about people, how they act, and what they do. And the GED social studies isn’t really about memorizing things, that’s what’s good about it.

One of the things I like most in life is meeting people, talking to people. It’s all learning about people! So, I thought I’d work on social studies in my blog… learning about people.

Here’s a great idea for social studies. Find a local place near you with some history about where you are, and go visit it. Take your kids. Maybe you’ll learn something new about where you live.

I’ve been all over the U.S. driving my truck, and I like to find out about different places. When I’m in California, one thing I always look for is missions. I’ve been to a few of them.

California missions go all the way back to 1769, and they were started by Catholic priests from Spain. Did you know Spain used to own California? It’s true. And it explains all those Spanish names, right? “Los Angeles” means “the angels,” and “San Francisco” means “Saint Francis.” Of course, back then, the Spanish didn’t care that there were already Indians on the land. King Charles of Spain wanted the land for Spain. So, he had missions put on the coast to create towns and to convert Indians to be Roman Catholics. Each mission was a day’s walk from the next one, so it covered the whole coast. Each mission has a central square, a church, and a bell tower–tall enough so you could see it from all around back then.

The important thing is to think about what information about missions means, to ask questions. So, I’m going to ask some questions, and I’ll go back and give my best answers to them in my next post. You can let me know what you think by adding comments.

• How do you think local Indians felt about the California missions?
• Why was it important for Spain to build missions on the coast?

The best way to find out more about a California mission is to visit one, if you ask me! But, not everyone is in California. Here’s some more information about California missions on the web.

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cbhtml/cbmissio.html

http://www.calgold.com/missions/

http://www.ca-missions.org/links.html

So, what interesting places are near you? What can you find out about where you live? Let me know what you find out by posting a comment, and maybe I’ll write some about the interesting places where you live.