Social Studies & Civics
Who makes the rule, who enforces it, and what can you do when the system gets something wrong? Understanding history and government matters because adults must navigate institutions, not simply memorize how they're supposed to work.
Civics, Systems, and News Literacy for Young Adults
The Floor names what young adults must understand about civic life. The wider domain also includes history, geography, cultural knowledge, public reasoning, and participation.
What young adults should be able to do by 18 · The formal Floor: Domain 4
The Floor for This Domain
The non-negotiable minimum. This is the contract, not the menu — what a floor-complete 18-year-old must actually be able to do.
- Explain how power works—who has it, how it's gained, how it's kept, how it's lost—across different systems (democracies, authoritarian states, corporations, communities)
- Navigate the civic structures that affect them: how to vote, how laws get made, how courts work, what rights they have, and where those rights differ by country
- Understand enough history to recognize patterns—why empires rise and fall, how movements gain traction, what conditions lead to conflict or cooperation
- Place themselves in historical and cultural context: know where they come from (U.S., Philippines, Ireland) and what shaped those places
- Read the news critically—identify bias, check sources, notice what's missing, hold multiple accounts of the same event at once
- Understand that "the way we do it" is not "the way it has to be"—systems are human-made, have tradeoffs, and can be changed
- Demonstrate sufficient civic knowledge to pass a rigorous civics exam
Not on the Floor
- Memorized dates and names
- Comprehensive coverage of all world history
- Patriotic narratives or their opposites
- Academic historiography
The Broader Map
The fuller landscape this domain engages over time. Inclusion here does not by itself make a competency mandatory.
Core Outcomes
- Grasp major historical narratives & civic structures
- Engage with diverse cultures & worldviews
- Apply historical thinking to current events
Key Competencies
- U.S. civics (local–state–federal)
- Law & rights (personal, business, civic, international)
- Global & regional history
- Cultural awareness through travel & literature
- World religions & belief systems
- Geography & global interconnections
- Cause–context–consequence analysis
- Media, civic interpretation, memory & historical revisionism
- Political systems, institutions & change over time
- Power structures, colonization, resistance & how power is gained, used and challenged
- Philippines & Ireland history / cultural fluency (family heritage)
- Community engagement & service
Evidence Examples
travel journals, debate clips, service reflections, mapping projects, etc.
How It Builds
Mixed-runway domain. Understanding that rules exist and differ: early. Understanding power, systems, history patterns: builds over time. The framework for thinking about society develops across childhood.
Written for adults: developmental signals are prompts to investigate, not diagnoses or verdicts.
Early Childhood (18 months – 5 years)
On track
- Understands that rules exist
- Beginning to understand fairness (even if 'not fair!' is the main expression)
- Knows they belong to family, community, groups
- Curious about different places and people
- Beginning to understand 'long ago' vs. now
- Asks questions about why things are the way they are
Worth investigating
- No concept that rules exist
- No sense of belonging to any group
- No curiosity about the world beyond immediate environment
What's building: Rule awareness. Fairness intuition. Group belonging. Curiosity about difference.
Middle Childhood (6 – 9 years)
On track
- Understands nested communities they belong to
- Knows basic geography (continents, major countries, where they live)
- Can follow simple historical narratives
- Understands rules differ by place and context
- Understands 'fair' doesn't always mean 'equal'
- Curious about how other people live
- Beginning to understand that things were different in the past
- Curious about family heritage (Philippines, Ireland, U.S.)
Worth investigating
- No concept of community beyond self
- Cannot understand that rules differ anywhere
- No curiosity about other people, places, or times
What's building: Community understanding. Geographic awareness. Historical sense. Fairness reasoning.
Late Childhood / Early Adolescence (10 – 13 years)
On track
- Understands how basic civic structures work (who makes laws, how voting works)
- Grasps historical cause-and-effect; why things happened
- Understands different cultures organize society differently
- Knows their own cultural context (U.S., Philippines, Ireland basics)
- Can read news critically; identifies bias
- Understands that systems are made by people and can change
- Beginning to understand power: who has it, how it works
Worth investigating
- No understanding of any civic structure
- No sense of historical causation
- Believes everything in news/media without question
- No awareness of own cultural/historical context
What's building: Systems thinking. Historical reasoning. Media literacy. Cultural self-awareness.
Adolescence (14 – 18 years)
On track
- Explains how power works across systems (democracies, corporations, communities)
- Navigates civic structures: voting, laws, courts, rights
- Knows their rights—and where they differ by country
- Can compare civic structures in 2+ countries they're connected to (U.S., Philippines, Ireland)
- Recognizes historical patterns: rise/fall, movements, conflict, cooperation
- Places themselves in historical and cultural context
- Reads news critically: bias, sources, what's missing
- Understands systems are human-made, have tradeoffs, can change
Worth investigating
- Cannot explain how any civic system works
- No concept of rights or how to exercise them
- Cannot read news with any critical lens
- No historical framework for understanding current events
What's building: Civic competence. Power literacy. Cross-country comparison. Critical news reading.