Social Studies in Today's Schools

The need to create a new social studies course is mandated by cardinal changes in the country—by the desire to resurrect Russian statehood and overcome the "image of the enemy" in relations with other states; by substantial changes in the social sciences and opportunities that have opened up to explore the diversity of worldview positions, by perestroika in the sphere of education, designed to make it more humane and to shape citizens who are integrated into contemporary society and desirous of improving it; and by educators' and school students' vigorous rejection of the old content of the social disciplines. The old content deprived students of the opportunity to become properly acquainted with the multicolored picture of contemporary life in the country and the world; it failed to foster the correct orientation under rapidly changing circumstances and realization of one's own place in them.