Introduction

Facing History in Ourselves is a class where history and ethics combine to give a student more of a sense of self. The class uses documents, movies, discussions, first-hand accounts, and documentaries to teach the students about their own morals. But how can that be? This class makes you examine yourself in ways you wouldn’t want to. You watching things that may terrify you, but this is history. It is raw and open and not censored, so that as a student in this class, you can form opinions about people, events, places, and things. You see the truth, and exploit the lies. By learning about The Jim Crow Era, Armenian Genocide, The Holocaust, Native Americans, and yourself, students are changed in more ways than one. By examining what you believe is true, and what it actually true, you get a sense of finding yourself and becoming new.

            I took this course to find about more about History. Many textbooks and teachers sugar-coat everything, and by doing so I felt like I was being lied to. When I stepped into this class I knew I could say whatever I wanted without being persecuted or yelled at. This was a real class to me. It showed things that made me uncomfortable, and by doing so I found out who I truly was.

            Amanda Borglund is a senior at Westborough High School. She works at Joann Fabrics, and has recently joined the school Improve troupe. She plans to attend Lesley University in the fall with her majors being English and Secondary Education.

The Boy In the Striped Pajamas

Hitler

Jim Crow

Armenian Child

Children At Auschwitz

What Facing History Meant To Me

Facing History was one of the hardest classes I have even taken in my high school career. I don’t mean hard in the work sense, but in the emotional sense. I never really had any emotions about the Holocaust, or the Armenian Genocide, or even the Jim Crow Era, simply because I didn’t have any relation to them. I’m not Jewish, or Armenian, or African American. I’m a Christian Swede-French Canadian. And for those reasons, I felt I had no reason to have any emotions towards those times of suffering. It wasn’t related to me, and I had no part in it. But I was wrong.

    In 8th grade, I was introduced to the Holocaust. I had heard about it before, but not much. During the Washington D.C. trip, we went to the Holocaust Museum. I was completely terrified. I refused to go slowly through the museum, and I went as fast as I could through it. I never watched any of the videos or films, I never looked at any of the pictures, and I never looked at any of exhibits. The thought of people being killed scared me. I was naïve and young. I should have stayed and explored the museum. I regret leaving so quickly because of this class. I showed me things about myself I never knew, and now are somewhat ashamed of.
    The Jim Crow Era seemed to me as a period in time where African Americans were persecuted against. I thought of it as not being as hard time and people were just dwelling over something that happened a long time ago. This class changed that. I saw evidence. I saw the truth. The Jim Crow Era wasn’t just another stop on the timeline, it was murder. Torture. Lives being torn apart. I never would have seen that unless I took Facing History. I never realized how badly people suffered for no reason. It wasn’t fair. I realized now that we learned more about this Era because it was important to see who we really are. It wasn’t to learn about just what happened, but examine who we are and what we did.
    The Armenian Genocide was just another example of who we really are. Before this class, I never knew what the Armenian Genocide was. I had never heard of it, nor had I ever know the graphicness of it. I feel ashamed that I had no idea what it was, and or where it had happened, or when it happened. The Genocide was awful, but I think it’s not even taught very often in classrooms. If had not even taken this class, I would of gone though life without learning the fates of these poor people and really I would be ignorant. Those people’s lives would have been for nothing. Now that we understand what happened, the people killed in this Genocide have a voice, even though they are dead.
    The holocaust was the most significant lesson for me in Facing History. I really never liked talking about the holocaust, and I really didn’t like talking about people being killed. I never wanted to face the history of the holocaust, but this class made me do that. I never realized the horror of the holocaust before this class. I had known about the killings and the Nazis, but I never knew about the holocaust and Hitler in so much depth. “The Nazis” documentary really showed me the other side of the Nazis that I had never seen before. I never knew how much propaganda they used, or how they planed things, or how they rose to power. This documentary showed me just that. I couldn’t believe any of the movies we watched, especially “The Grey Zone”, and “The Boy In the Striped Pajamas”. I never knew about the Jewish people being used to do the dirty work of the Nazis, and becoming doctors to dissect and experiment on their own people. It was so different than what I thought I knew, and it surprised me that this movie was so accurate. I had never seen anything like this before, and it showed me things I wouldn’t have believed if I had read about them. Moving on to “the Boy in the Striped Pajamas”. I never really believed this movie, and I had seen it before about 3 times. I really liked the movie, but I always repressed the ending. I had forgotten about the ending each time, but every time I watch it, I think “Poor Schmal and Bruno.” But now, after taking the class, I looked at the door and thought not just the two boys, but every single person that had been in that room. Or in every gas room, or in the crematoriums, or the living ones, the elders, the younger ones, the fathers, mothers, daughters, brothers, cousins, friends, neighbors, every single person that had been affected by the holocaust. And I couldn’t bear it. I held back my tears as I left the room. I had finally understood what the class was trying to teach me. I was facing the history within myself and I felt ashamed, sad, angry, depressed, mad, and other such emotions. But then I realized. I shouldn’t be angry or sad. I should be happy. I realized who I really was, and I understood that history was made to be remembered, not to be forgotten.
    Facing History in ourselves showed me who I really was. I learned through many lessons; but especially the Jim Crow Era, The Armenian Genocide, and The Holocaust. These three lessons opened up my eyes in ways that a regular history class could not. I learned about what my morals were, and how I felt about my own opinions and how I could express them without any prejudice or any problems. I felt this class was more relaxed, free, and I felt I could say anything I wanted to, no matter how silly it might sound. I was so excited to take this class, because it showed me who I truly am.