The main cognitive goal of the Social Studies program at St. Charles is to help our students develop an understanding of the world and the social forces and historical events that have shaped and influenced it. The subject areas included for study are history, geography, economics, sociology, and government. As an important aid to understanding these areas, students at all levels learn the skills of map reading, locating reliable information for resource purposes, and interpreting various kinds of graphs, charts, and data.

We feel it is crucial for our students to learn the meaning and the power of responsible citizenship and the importance of the democratic process. It is part of our mission to teach our students to demonstrate social justice in the world by living the Gospel message of Christ through service to the human community. It becomes of increasingly great importance that our students develop an increasingly meaningful image of their place in human society with its rights and responsibilities. Only with an awareness and understanding of social conditions can they one day work effectively for social justice.

Students in the early grades focus on understanding their immediate community and learning good citizenship, emphasized by service projects, as it applies to their daily lives. Some elementary map skills are also studied. In fourth grade, students concentrate on Indiana History. Skills in map reading and research are further developed. Fifth graders study early settlement of the American continent and the arrival of European explorers and settlers.

There is also a focus within the program on critical thinking and ethics. For example, students study the Church's role in the Spanish Inquisition and discover that the church is as human as its members and that people can abuse power even in the name of God. Students also come to understand that history is the recounting of events from an individual's ("his-story") or culture’s perspective and needs to be analyzed from different points of view to understand the whole story.