Noting a current trend to remove social studies education from the first through third grades, the author's review of literature reveals that early learning lays the foundation for political socialization. Weissburg (1974) suggests that three models account for different types of socialization at different stages of life. Early political learning (primacy) establishes an individual's broad but basic political identity, loyalties, and ideologies. Later learning in the intermediate (later childhood and adolescence) and recency (experiences close in time to adulthood) stages consist of specific learnings of political information and attitudes, partisan preferences, and political participation. Learning during the latter stages tends to fit into the relatively stable core established during primacy. In the social studies curriculum, young children receive systematic "unhidden" political socialization; it is the part of the curriculum where the basics of political identity are shaped directly and overtly in the direction of democratic citizenship. Thus, the removal of social studies from the early grades would have an effect on how children are inducted into the political culture of this nation. (Author/KC)