Today is Teacher Appreciation Day and in many ways, it couldn’t come soon enough. We know it’s been a tough year. Students returned to school amidst the backdrop of Charlottesville in August, the threat to repeal DACA in September, and now, as the school year winds down, we’re ending with marches and walkouts in the aftermath of Parkland.

And though it is hard to see this while we’re all in the thick of navigating tense moments, from where I sit, I see progress. I see hope, because of your good work. You have prepared your students for these rough times.

The past year has warranted a lot of reflection for all of us. It’s left us all asking ourselves, “Where do we go from here?” and “How do we get there?” While we’re still grappling with these questions, there’s one answer I know is clear: The most important element to helping our young people uphold the values of democracy is a strong civic education.

Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Roger Brooks, Facing History’s President and CEO, shares his reflections about how we can study the past to empower young people to make positive choices that can change our future for the better.

Sadly, the Brussels bombings show us that humanity is deeply fractured. Although many of us want to join together and bind wounds, we must also acknowledge that something is very wrong.

The roots of violence and injustice are complex and mired in societal and political specifics around the globe.

Facing History and Ourselves teaches that rigorous study of history can help us make choices for a better future. Each history has its own lessons, but all of them give us a platform from which to ask fundamental questions, in communities and in schools: how did identity impact the choices people made in the past? How do we, today, engage with each other across difference?