I believe social studies is an important subject for understanding our modern world, and for improving it as we move forward. History is the background story that explains why the modern world is this way. Thus, the main question is always "Why?": Why did Eurasia develop faster than North America? Why are there so many variations of Christianity? As such, when we look at history another big why is "Why is this group/person/event important?" Who cares about the Crusades, or the Battle of Tours? Why do we need to learn this? But as one studies history, one can start to see similarities to today and patterns that can help us in our modern world. Though our world is much different from what it once was we can still learn from past mistakes and make our current world a better place by learning from them.