Variances in Social Studies

I would like to say that because of how broad the Social Studies field is, and because of the amount of disciplines that fall into its confines, that teachers present Social Studies using a variety of methods to really engage their students. From my experience, what usually happens is quite the opposite. The majority of my teachers that have taught history (which I will only focus on because of its emphasis in high school) relied heavily on the textbook and the memorization of facts which were often written on the board. I, who personally loves history, would be devastated by the lack of activities and discussion in my classroom. I distinctly remember one teacher who would maybe teach three days out of the week. The other days he would put up sample questions from previous SOL tests on the board, to make sure we would be able to pass the test. After we reviewd this for about five minutes he would tell jokes for the the remainder of the period because I think his true passion in life was to be a comedian. In any case, this seemed to be the trend of teachers I got. They didn't care if we really learned, only if we passed the standardized tests and had no other objectives than to make students memorize facts.
I have noticed in my college courses that there has been, what seems to be a national trend, steering new teachers away from fact-based learning in Social Studies. Social Studies is field with a lot of depth and with a lot of opportunities. Teachers are now being taught to make an effort to incorporate as many of the disciplines they can into S.S. because they all intertwine and it makes it easier for students to make connections. The textbook is not to play a key role anymore. Other sources are being brought in. Regular non-fiction books, newspapers, documents, movies are playing a major role. Also the experience of both students and teachers seems to be shaping how content is presented. As I am currently being taught in my methods courses, it is possible to incorporate a wide variety of knowledge using a wide variety of methods. There are three types of knowledge which are stressed: didactic which focuses on the learning of facts or base knowledge, reflective which allows students to understand concepts and make connections and affective which gives students the ability to make decisions and take social action. What I had learned in high school was mostly didactive and I've realized what made it less interesting for many students was the lack of reflective and affective goals made by my teachers. I often heard students ask what they had to learn history for. Had the teachers presented the content using all three forms of knowledge students wouldn't have had to ask this.
I would like to believe that anymore teachers are really engaging their students by using a wide varity of methods. Debates, mock court trials, field trips, games, use of secondary sources, are all ways in which Social Studies can be presented, and that is a very very modest list because the options are quite numerous. There are so many elements to S.S. that I believe teachers have a wide range of methods to pick from. Teachers often have to present the material in ways which work for their students, and S.S. definitely gives a lot of options. While I still think the textbook is an important tool in S.S. courses, because students do need base knowledge, I believe many new concepts are being creatively represented in the classroom. I think teachers are trying more than ever to make S.S. interesting for students because the old method, that I had in high school didn't seem to be working.