Each year, Facing History and Ourselves and Knights and Daughters of Vartan host an annual Armenian Genocide Commemoration Essay Contest. In 2014, the contest asked high school and college students across the United States to respond to the question, “On the threshold of the 100th anniversary, how should the world recognize the Armenian Genocide?” This essay, from Facing History student Elizabeth Ray, took second place. It was reprinted with Elizabeth's permission.
Topics: Student Voices, Online Workshop, Choosing to Participate, Armenian Genocide, Facing History Resources, Teaching, Facing History Together, Genocide/Collective Violence, Facing History and Ourselves, Teaching Resources, History
From over 400 nominations, we selected 20 finalists from around the world for the 2014 Facing History Together Teacher Recognition Contest. Then you voted for the educator whose story and work inspired you most.
Today we are so thrilled to introduce you to our 2014 Facing History Together Teacher Recognition Contest winner Hayden Frederick-Clarke, the founding math teacher at Diploma Plus, a small learning community at Charlestown High School in Boston, Massachusetts. Frederick-Clarke will receive a $5,000 teaching grant to benefit his school and community, and to further his work as a great educator.
Topics: Classrooms, Boston, Contests, Choosing to Participate, Teaching, Schools, Identity, Facing History Together, Upstanders, Facing History and Ourselves, Teachers
Teachers have to create this emotional space where it’s safe, but challenging. Where people can be themselves. Where people can take chances and fail. Where people can tell stories about themselves and reveal things about themselves without risk of derision, without fear of being marginalized. Without safety there is nothing, there is no learning.”
Topics: Classrooms, Choosing to Participate, Events, Safe Schools, Schools, Memphis, Identity, Facing History Together, Upstanders, Facing History and Ourselves, Teachers, Video
Topics: Classrooms, Student Voices, Choosing to Participate, Events, Human Rights, New York, Facing History Together, Upstanders, Facing History and Ourselves, Teachers
Facing History and Ourselves is saddened to note the passing of longtime friend, mentor, and Facing History supporter Dr. Maurice "Ries" Vanderpol. Ries, as his friends and family called him, died on October 19, 2014.
Topics: News, Facing History Together, Holocaust, Facing History and Ourselves, Survivor Testimony, Video
What does it mean to face history in your own community? And how do you teach a history in a community where its legacies are still unfolding?
Topics: Classrooms, Teaching Strategies, Events, Facing History Resources, Safe Schools, Teaching, Schools, Identity, Facing History Together, Race and Membership, Facing History and Ourselves, Teaching Resources, Teachers, Civil Rights, History
Sixteen years ago this month, on the night of October 6, 1998, two young men robbed, kidnapped, and tortured a young man named Matthew Shepard simply because he was gay.
Topics: Classrooms, Film, Bullying and Ostracism, Choosing to Participate, Human Rights, Safe Schools, Identity, Facing History Together, Facing History and Ourselves
For decades, students, parents, volunteers, and community members have been inspired by their Facing History and Ourselves encounters – whether in the classroom, at public and private events in-person or online, or through any of the teachers or alumni who talk about their transformative experiences from bystander to upstander.
Topics: Classrooms, Contests, Choosing to Participate, Teaching, Schools, Facing History Together, Upstanders, Teachers
As any Facing History teacher will tell you, many of our lessons begin with stories of identity. To introduce identity, and to start thinking about the various aspects that make up our own identities, we often use an Identity Chart teaching strategy.
Topics: Back-To-School, Student Voices, Choosing to Participate, Teaching, Identity, Facing History Together, Race and Membership
In my senior year at Magnificat High School in Cleveland, I signed up to take a class on the Holocaust called “Dangers of Indifference.”
The class was unique in that three teachers taught it: a history teacher, an art teacher, and a religion teacher. Having these three perspectives helped me understand something I had not realized before – that hatred is not the largest problem we face, indifference is.
Topics: Cleveland, Student Voices, Choosing to Participate, Identity, Facing History Together, Holocaust, History