Hamilton College will host a free one-day conference for area middle school and high school social studies teachers on Thursday, May 2, from 9 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. in the Bristol Campus Center. The focus of the conference will be the National History Standards for U.S. history and what they mean to social studies teachers in the Mohawk Valley.

The Standards were prepared as a part of the Goals 2000 Project, funded by the Department of Education and the National Endowment for The Humanities. Since their completion in 1994, the Standards have been emersed in controversy. National figures such as Lynn Cheney and Rush Limbaugh emphatically condemn them, whereas scores of nationally and internationally prominent educators enthusiastically support the Standards.

The conference will feature discussions, workshops and explanations by educators who worked on the Standards. Featured speakers include Hamilton's James S. Sherman Professor of Government, Dr. David Paris; Claire Deloria, an adjunct instructor at Le Moyne College and member of the N.Y.S. Curriculum and Assessment Committee for Social Studies; Dr. William Everdell, dean of humanities at Saint Ann's School and Dr. John Pyne, the humanities supervisor at West Milford High School (N.J.) and member of the U.S. History Focus Group for National History Standards.

The event is funded by a grant from the Organization of American Historians' Fund for American History, the Rockefeller Foundation and Hamilton College.