The term "social science," which can also be referred to as humanities, usually refers to the relationships that the human society holds with a plethora of different social aspects. Psychology falls into social sciences, as well as anthropology, sociology, economics and political science, which all have an important play in our schools. It is important to understand these different types of social sciences because they tend to dictate how a lot of people think. Women's, gender and sexuality studies also falls under social sciences, since it looks into the relationships that society has with the concepts of gender and sexuality. 

In the TED Talk above, Kate Cottle talks about the humanities. She addresses the important behind sitting in a humanities classroom for hours, since the goal of a humanities class is to help others become better people. She goes over the different life skills people can build off of studying humanities, along with global perspective and work skills, which revolve around better communication and a more inclusive environment to help others become better people.

One of the ways that awareness can be brought into a classroom is by reality pedagogy. This idea was introduced by a man named Christopher Emdin. A professor of science education affiliated with Colombia University, he introduced the idea of reality pedagogies, which he defined as "connecting academic content to what is happening in the world involving students," as well as "making sure that their lives and backgrounds are reflected in the curriculum and in classroom conversations." After the tragedy of 9/11, Emdin had come to an important realization; "I ignored the chaos of the world beyond the classroom because I believed it was my job to just keep on teaching. Looking back now, I realize I was not actually teaching at all." -Emdin. He calls for teachers to employ this "reality pedagogy" since most teachers tend to sit back and do nothing. In the essay that he wrote (embed here), he talks about using these reality pedagogies as a form of teacher protest, to protest the racial injustice and to create a space for students to feel safe and be aware of the problems that are going on in the world.

Social sciences has many different branches, from physiology to anthropology to politics, which each of them covering certain topics that are relevant to today's issues. Universities offer many majors in the field of humanities and social sciences. with the most popular majors including psychology, political science, and economics, demonstrating that students go beyond high school to learn about human relationships in society and how they can be bettered. Incorporating them in a grade school environment is a good way to tie relevant content worldwide into the curriculum and create an environment where students can become active in their social environments. Thanks to how broad the field is, there are many different content areas in which the students are able to do this. 

Christopher Emdin's idea for reality pedagogy was to use it as a form of protest in the classroom for unjust behaviors in the world. Just as how he introduced it to be is how it should be used in the classroom. For starters, making sure that the students themselves know that they are in a safe space is crucial. Tying this with being able to teach them about real-world issues is key to making them aware of what is going on in the world, rather than hiding away from it at school. In his essay, Emdin mentioned that he failed to scold students for targeting the Muslim students after the tragedy at the World Trade Center, instead he just told the students to watch their language and to focus on their work, not coming to the realization that he was allowing racism to occur in his classroom until much later. The goal is to make students aware with this issue and connect it with the curriculum. Back in 2001, Emdin taught in a classroom that he said was a majority of "black and brown students," with these issues being the most relevant to them. Using reality pedagogy in a mixed classroom connects the students to real-world issues and shows them how to co-exist with one another while breaking the boundaries that systemic racism puts down for them.