Mr. Gallagher's Classroom

Facing History and Ourselves

Course Description:

In order to promote greater awareness of the societal issues students will face in today’s world, this course will examine bias, racism, and prejudice in a historical context. Through their study of intolerance, genocide, and the Holocaust, students will be able to make the fundamental correlation between history and the moral and ethical choices they are forced to make on a daily basis in their own lives. Now, more than ever, we live and work in an interdependent global community. This course seeks to provide students with a greater awareness of the diversity of that community, their place in society and their responsibility to it. We will also look at structure and rationale for our democratic form of government and the role we can play as individuals in that democracy. The instructor will use a wide range of academic research, film, guest speakers, projects, and class discussion to achieve the goals of the course.

Scope and Sequence:

I. Identity - Identity is the introductory unit of the Facing History course. The focus for the unit is on how both individual and national identities are formed, as well as how these identities influence behavior and decision-making.

II. Membership - The second unit focuses on the processes of the national and collective identity that help people connect but also contribute to misunderstanding, stereotyping and conflict. Students learn that the way a nation defines itself affects the choices it makes, including the choice to exclude those who do not fit a nation's concept of itself. They will see that membership can be a tool for constructive and destructive purposes.

III. History - This unit examines the primary historical case study of the Holocaust and Human Behavior, as well as other instances of intolerance, mass violence and genocide, in each case exploring the small steps that led to these difficult periods in history. By focusing on these histories, students will grasp the complexities of the past, while also connecting it to their lives today.

IV. Judgment, Memory & Legacy - As students confront the terrible human atrocities of the Holocaust and other historical case studies, they will explore the meaning of concepts such as guilt, responsibility, and judgment and what those concepts mean in our world today. Students will also discover that one way of taking responsibility for the past is to preserve its memory. They will explore the importance of monuments and memorials as communal gestures of remembering, of acknowledging injustice, and of honoring individuals and groups who have suffered.

v. Choosing To Participate - This unit focuses on how understanding the past can connect with the issues of today. Contemporary stories show how history is made every day by ordinary human beings. Students will begin to understand that they also have the power to change the course of history through their own individual actions. They will explore what it means to be a citizen in a democracy, to exercise ones rights and responsibilities in the service of a more humane and compassionate world.

IMPORTANT LINKS OF INTEREST

Mr. Gallagher's Blog. Go here to create your posts and to read the great essays written by students who have taken the course. http://mrgallaghersblog.blogspot.com/

National Facing History website: http://www.facinghistory.org/campus/reslib.nsf/

Facing History website for Boston Latin students: http://www.learntoquestion.com/jumpsite/

Facing History Tribute to Sheldon Seevak who started program at Boston Latin: http://www.facinghistory.org/campus/reslib.nsf/all/9ADCD8C15EA4976D8525733E0063B5F5?Opendocument

Boston Latin website: http://www.bls.org/

Website used by Boston Latin teachers: http://teacherweb.com/index.html

What is Civic Agency?

Research has shown that when students have a moral, intellectual, and emotional connection to the course content, then the students can achieve "civic agency." Civic Agency is the ability to look at events in the context of when they happened, not through the lens of today. By the end of the Facing History and Ourselves course, I can literally put my students on the streets of Berlin in Nazi Germany and they completely understand how and why the Nazis were so successful in creating the Third Reich. They understand how young Storm Troopers were able to go into Poland in 1939 and commit the most outrageous acts again humanity that the world has ever seen. Most importantly, my students know and understand why it must never be allowed to happen again. That to be a by-stander is to allow and enable the bully to inflict pain and suffering upon another person.

The Background

Facing History and Ourselves is a program that was created 32 years ago by Margot Stern Strom at Brookline Middle School. She was an adventurous eighth-grade teacher who decided to challenge the system, herself, and her students. From its humble beginnings, the Facing History and Ourselves program is now taught in more than 120 countries, with more than 25,000 trained educators reaching about 1.8 million students annually. The success of the institute is described by Strom as a combination of many elements: “It is an incubator of good teaching, a book publisher, a place where adults reflect on and discuss their teaching, and a way of connecting people within schools, within communities, and across time". It was taught for the first time at Westborough High School by Mr. Greg Gallagher in the fall of 2008. The course is being offered as a semester senior elective. There are currently two classes being offered each semester. Given the success of the course - it is anticipated that the course will be offered as an elective to juniors this year.