Over the past 20 years, social studies have diminished in traditional K-12 education. Initially, the priority was only math and reading. As STEM gained importance, the need for engineers to work with new emerging technology rocketed through schools. Science was embraced by curriculum writers and awash with state money. All the while, social studies sat on the back burner, and its time was chipped away for advisory, meetings, extra math time, etc.

This neglect of social studies left a generation of people with no knowledge of their past, their government systems, and the incredibly diverse cultures around them. Meanwhile, passionate history-loving educators have innovated and adapted to being neglected. They individually created ways to update the curriculum by struggling to cover hundreds of years of unique cultures in a single year because the standards are outdated.

For the past 15 years, I have taught civics with incredible passion. I am a true believer that power lies in the people and people must know the systems to utilize the full breadth of their power. Since social studies have been neglected for my entire teaching career, I have had more opportunities for innovation and change than most teachers in subjects that…