-over the imports and exports of Nicaragua, which you were supposed to learn for one of your social-studies classes.

At school, in my social-studies classes, I'm learning about a condition known as "poverty," which mainly exists, my textbooks indicate, in two obscure locations: "Appalachia" and "the ghetto."

The West Virginia Education Department published a handbook last year showing teachers how to expose students to foods from around the world in social-studies classes.

And in their social-studies classes, while learning of the Revenue Cutter Service that preceded the modern Coast Guard, they discovered Hell Roaring Mike.

Geoffrey Cabat, an assistant principal at Seward Park High School on Manhattan's Lower East Side, is one of many educators whose social-studies classes have already participated in the program.

That meant, says one unenthusiastic parent, that four times a week her child missed her regular science and social-studies classes and was required to make up the work and get the assignments on her own.

Our students visited the van during their regular social-studies class and returned for nearly a full day of instruction.

Reporters were not allowed to sit in on the social-studies class, and two uniformed police officers were assigned to keep the reporters restricted to a small room near the high school gymnasium.

Mr. Blachor said the center would provide training for teachers and social-studies classes for students.

Last weekend, Mr. Oechsner led his social-studies classes on their regular Saturday walk, this time hiking from Ossining to Tarrytown above the aqueduct.