understanding of other cultures, and other people seems to be more critical than ever. In addition to learning about other countries and cultures, children need to learn early about the ways in which countries and people are connected. This includes an understanding of history and economics. It's not that children will learn all about world history or even all about the history of their own country and certainly not that they will learn all about economic theory. However, they can begin to learn some basics. We can think of this learning as "social science readiness."