In this article, the author discusses how it is more important than ever for today's students to excel in social studies. This excellence can occur when every student in grades K-12 has equal access to deep, engaging, thoughtful social studies instruction on a daily basis. With social studies excellence, teachers broaden their students' horizons, deepen their understanding of the past and present, and help ready them for the challenges of the new millennium. To help students, the author suggests that teachers must have a profound and continually growing knowledge of the disciplines that they teach, the types of challenges the future holds for their students, and how they can meet these challenges. (Contains 1 note.)