The 9-12 social studies curriculum focuses upon information, perspectives, and understandings needed to live responsibly and productively in a democratic society linked with global systems of considerable complexity. Credible social knowledge rests upon a cohesive sense of history and the causal relationships in forming that cohesion. Social studies courses are designed to enable students to acquire such a sense and to thereby think meaningfully about human society in its historical, contemporary, and possible future forms.