The Expanding Environments Sequence in Elementary Social Studies: The Origins

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines the historical development of the expanding environments sequence in the elementary social studies curriculum. In this sequence, the child's study of the world begins with the home and family in the first grade and proceeds to the neighborhood, the community, the state, the nation, regions of nearby nations, and the world. The findings indicate that this curriculum sequence originated in the writings of Charles A. McMurry, a prominent American Herbartian, and is derived from a combination of the three distinguishing features of Herbartianism, apperception, concentration centers, and, more importantly, the culture epochs theory of child growth and development, the obsolete, thoroughly discredited nineteenth century idea that the growth of the child recapitulates the cultural history of the race. The origins of expanding environments should be sufficient reason for considering other models as a basis for elementary social studies.