Introduction

Introduction

                The Facing History and Ourselves course is a very rare and unique opportunity. The Facing History and Ourselves course uses movies, documentaries, and group discussions to enable the student to gain access to Civic Agency: the ability to understand the time period being discussed. This Civic Agency allows the student to place themselves in the shoes of someone in the time period and areas discussed, and determine for themselves what they would do or how they would feel. For example, when our class discussed The Choice, we placed ourselves into the woman’s situation and had to determine for ourselves what we believe we would do in her situation. Facing History and Ourselves is a necessary class to take in order to fully understand past events and to make sure ones like The Holocaust don’t happen again.

               

              The reason why I chose to take Facing History and Ourselves is because of the person teaching it. This person is completely dedicated to teaching the class and making sure that the class understands its meaning. There are very few teachers now-a-days that will go to such an extent to make sure each and every student in his/her classroom is learning as much as they can. Also, since my sophomore year taking History with this teacher, I have had a deep respect for his dedication, principles, and his humor. It is because this teacher made such a major impact on me that I chose to take his Facing History and Ourselves class.                                  

I am currently a Westborough High School Senior taking Mr. Gallagher’s Facing History and Ourselves class. I have recently enlisted in the United States Army and will be shipping off to Basic Training in October. I have been trying to juggle school, my summer farm stand job, as well as a new girlfriend for a while, which resulted in my staying up until 2AM at least and going to school at 7AM the same day. Mr. Gallagher noticed this and brought to my attention the harm it had been afflicting to my body. I am currently balancing the three sources of stress a lot easier and became more awake and active in my classes. It is thanks to this amazing teacher that I was able to stop myself before any permanent damage could be done.

What Facing History Meant to Me

What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me

            My Senior year Facing History and Ourselves class meant a lot to me. I was able to learn many things about the Holocaust and the Nazis that I never even could’ve even guessed. I learned that after the Jews were placed into ghettos, many died of starvation. What shocked me most about this is that most of these deaths were children, women, and elderly people. What added to the shock was the fact that there were so many dead bodies in the ghettos that the people still alive and/or healthy ignored the bodies and the cries of the grieving. I would’ve never been able to imagine something such as this let because it seems too inhumane. I couldn’t understand why the people would ignore dead children on the streets until I used Civic Agency. The images of dead bodies in the streets of the Jewish Ghettos were so shocking to me, that I believe if in real life, I would’ve done the same thing as the surviving Jews and ignored as many bodies as I could.

            This course benefited me in many ways as a student and as a person. This course allowed me to learn how to use Civic Agency to step into any person’s situation and ignoring my own biased point of view, determining whether or not I would make the same decisions. This course also showed me how Adolf Hitler’s amazing orator skills benefited him and helped him to rule the Nazi party. This course, as a student, benefited me because I was able to learn a large amount of information in a short amount of time. This is useful for whenever I decide to enter college because the professors will be talking very quickly and expecting me to absorb as much detail as I can in a short time frame.

            As a person, this course benefited me because it showed me what can happen if people ignore injustices and act as bystanders. I will now take into consideration Civic Agency as well as what I have learned about bystanders to best relate to someone’s situation and to do my best to solve confrontations quickly and motivate bystanders to advocate for themselves as well as the people around them by no longer being bystanders. As a person, I also learned the importance of balancing my many different aspects of life and how if not well maintained, an unbalanced lifestyle can become very stressful as well as dangerous to my health.

            The most meaningful facets of this course to me were the moments where we would have to take a specific situation, such as the Pianist’s situation in the movie The Pianist, and place ourselves in the persons’ shoes using Civic Agency. These moments allow me a great deal of introspective thought and make me question and test my own personal morals. I liked doing this because it made these classes more interesting and mentally demanding. It was fun to have a class where you are asked the toughest possible questions and have to pick between many different unfavorable outcomes. For example, in The Choice, our class was told to pick between having our young daughter to be taken away, or, our young son. Both choices are very unfavorable and picking between the two is very difficult. Many students tried to rationalize different answers based on what they already knew about where the children would be headed, but that wasn’t using Civic Agency. In reality, there wouldn’t have been a correct answer. None of us could even begin to imagine our thought process if faced with these choices and when it comes down to the matter at hand; we wouldn’t know how to react. For the Pianist's situation, it was either stay with his family in the Ghetto working as a Pianist, or work as a police officer beating fellow Jewish people. Working as a police officer would've been the most beneficial, but not the morally correct choice. He chose the morally correct decision over the fiscal one. I would like to believe that I would do the same thing as him in his situation.

          It was these difficult classes that caused the most introspection and were most meaningful to me. Other classes that were the most meaningful to me were when we would watch movies about specific social situations during the Holocaust. For example the Pianist, or Swing Kids, and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. I liked theses classes because they weren’t documentaries which unfortunately I found boring and would put me to sleep. These movies had character development and plots that I found interesting and grasped my attention enough to keep me awake during the class. I believe that I would remember more information given to me through these movies than any of the other documentaries shown this year.

            This course was outstanding and probably one of the most memorable classes of my entire educational career. I will never forget what I have learned in this class, and will never forget the students and the teacher involved. This class reminded me that even though the Holocaust was horrific and should never happen again, it gave an important message. That message is of the necessity of advocating for oneself and the people around them. The Jewish people that did absolutely nothing as the Nazis overextended their powers and started to become uncontrollable were all bystanders. It was because of these bystanders that the Nazis rose to power so quickly and were met with little to no opposition. The lesson I learned from all of this is; playing the role of a bystander and waiting for the next person in line to take up the leadership role and oppose the antagonist, is cowardice. If nobody is willing to fight for their own freedoms, then by the time someone comes around that will fight, chances are that they are already too late to be of any use. Advocating is extremely important because it is what allows each and every person to claim their in-alienable rights as human beings. This class taught me more about the Holocaust and Auschwitz than I would’ve liked, but thanks to its raw information and cold hard facts, I now know the extent to which one must fight for their own as well as other peoples’ rights.

          This amazing class has helped me to reinforce my own ideals and to give me new reason for enlisting in the United States Army. I want to no longer be a bystander and properly be able to fight for the freedom and rights of every human be them American or Israeli. Thanks to this class, I am proud of my decision and proud to be able to serve not only the United States, but also mankind.

Works Cited

          Auschwitz. Google Images. Online Image. 24 May, 2012.
          Bodies in Auschwitz. Google Images. Online Image. 24 May,  2012.
          Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Google Images. Online Image. 24 May, 2012.
          Classroom. Google Images. Online Image. 24 May, 2012.
          The Pianist. Google Images. Online Image. 24 May, 2012.