Seems like the same old dilemma: forced to follow a regular technique in an irrelevant context and being expected to learn a methodology from doing that. If the challenge isn't there, how will the rote methodology even stick? There should be a rational criteria to when taking notes is appropriate, playing transcriptionist is a poor use of effort.
I still remember my junior year of high school and explaining to the psych teacher (yeah a public hs with a psych class) that I wouldn't be doing the notebook and would accept whatever outcome that has on my grades. But for me, as a likely dysgraphic, transcribing would undermine my active learning.
Maybe he can explore some other note-taking methods that suit him. Social studies has lots of opportunities to see connections between different things, and he could try something like mind-mapping to expound on the material and project other interesting connections or topics he could explore better to support the skeletal (in that he mostly already knows it) content in the class. If writing itself isn't a barrier, he could use that question -> notes technique for a similar outcome.
