The Essence, or, What to Walk Away With

If I were to be successful in teaching a year of social studies to an elementary school class, my students would walk away with an understanding of the individuals and groups of people who were the actors in the arenas we studied. By that I mean that they would have felt a human connection with at least some of the people we studied, and understood the motives, goals and results involved. My students would also leave with at least some curiosity about what they didn't learn about the people, places and events we studied, and would take with them some lingering questions for which they would later seek answers, even if it might be in ten or twenty years.