Soetoro-Ng Defends Social Studies From Cuts

UPDATED 6/30/11 4:20 p.m.

For Maya Soetoro-Ng, the social studies debate in Hawaii isn't about student choice and electives. It's about democracy.

"What we value most as a society is reflected in what we mandate," writes the author, co-founder of Our Public School and education advocate in her letter opposing the Hawaii Department of Education's plan to reduce the number of social studies credits required for graduation.

"Americans love the idea of freedom and have fought and sacrificed in its name again and again, yet without showing students past struggles for human dignity as well as current avenues of political action, students neither appreciate the freedoms they have nor understand how to utilize individual freedom for the greater good."

While it is valuable for students to have elective courses that allow them to shape their high school experience, they also need structure and guidance, writes President Barack Obama's sister.

The revised graduation requirements would reduce the number of social studies credits from four to three, and increase the number of elective courses. If approved, the new requirements would be effective as soon as next year for incoming ninth-graders — the class of 2016.

In the last two weeks, the board and the Department of Education have heard strong public outcry against the reduction in social studies requirements in particular.

Soetoro-Ng was among more than 130 people to submit testimony to the Board of Education's Student Achievement Committee regarding the proposal.

But she did not stop with her testimony to the board. She finds the matter so important that she wrote a two-page document outlining her concerns. The full text of her letter is below.

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