Social studies education helps students understand the world they live in, so they can make informed decisions about issues affecting them, especially when they grow older. Through social studies, students develop historical thinking and literacy as a way of navigating our world. Social studies is a discipline that includes humanities such as geography, history, and political science. ... “The primary purpose of social studies is to help young people make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world.”