Lower School students are challenged to ask questions that expand their understanding of the world through the social studies curriculum. Our youngest students learn about themselves and others as well as our immediate surroundings. In kindergarten they ask, "What makes our families the same or different?" In first grade, "How can we be productive members of The Cathedral School and broader community?" By second grade, "How do various cultural communities come together to form New York City?" As students grow older, knowledge of the past helps to build a well-grounded understanding of the present. By considering, debating, and challenging the events, assumptions, and perspectives of past peoples and cultures, students develop their sense of citizenship and civic responsibility. Third graders ask, "How did the arrival of Europeans affect the native peoples who were living in what is now New York City?" Fourth graders wonder, "Does our constitution offer too many freedoms or too few?" The social studies curriculum also teaches a number of specific research skills, such as finding and considering primary sources and using an index, while fostering an understanding of ourselves and others through hands-on projects, interactive activities such as role-playing, and collaborating on group projects.