The recent row over Bill Maher and Ben Affleck's heated discussion of Islam on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher strikes me as an opportunity for a civic lesson–one rooted not in debating who is right or wrong, or who is bigoted or not, but one, that, in true Facing History and Ourselves fashion, is rooted in history. At Facing History, we have learned that history often provides a needed distance from which we can illuminate the present and inform more productive civic dialogue.

Topics: Antisemitism, Choosing to Participate, Human Behavior, Human Rights, Facing History Resources, Religious Tolerance, News, Readings, Identity, Facing History and Ourselves, Teaching Resources, History

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

Stories matter. The stories we tell have the power to effect history. By sharing stories with students, we help them to see themselves as part of the human story, as individuals who can change the narrative by making positive choices and contributing to their communities and the world.

Topics: Civil Rights Movement, Books, English Language Arts, Choosing to Participate, Facing History Resources, Immigration, Identity, Holocaust, Memoir, History, Reading, Reading List

Forty-one years ago this month, a violent military coup in Chile led by Army Commander-in-Chief Augusto Pinochet overthrew Salvador Allende's democratically-elected government.

Topics: Classrooms, Art, English Language Arts, Teaching Strategies, Democracy, Memory, Choosing to Participate, Human Rights, Facing History Resources, New York, Teaching, Identity, Holocaust, Genocide/Collective Violence, Teaching Resources, History

September 21-27 is Banned Books Week in the United States, an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and to express our own views, and share the views of others.

Topics: Classrooms, Civil Rights Movement, Books, English Language Arts, Choosing to Participate, Immigration, Identity, Common Core, Holocaust

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

Thursday marks the 51st anniversary of the March on Washington, at which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.

Topics: Civil Rights Movement, Teaching Strategies, Democracy, Human Rights, Readings, Identity, Teaching Resources, Video, History

“I think my daughter is one of the most remarkable people I know. I would do anything in the world for her,” Facing History Cleveland office director Mark Swaim-Fox told the Cleveland Magazine blog last weekend, after participating in the 2014 Gay Games in her honor.

Topics: Cleveland, Bullying and Ostracism, Choosing to Participate, Human Rights, Identity

Topics: English Language Arts, Human Behavior, Teaching, Readings, Identity, Teaching Resources