Introduction

     Facing History and Ourselves is an elective course offered at Westborough High School. As a senior, I had the option and availability to take the course as part of my schedule. I didn’t know much about it. From what I had heard, students from previous years had loved it and encouraged me to take it. They had told me that it was beyond interesting and the things that I would learn from the course were unforgettable. These statements turned out to be true. Over the length of the first semester, I looked forward to going to Facing History class everyday. Each day was a new experience, and each day I learned something new. Mr. Gallagher, the teacher of this course, outlined for us the way we would learn from Facing History and Ourselves and what he hoped we would get out of taking the class. Throughout the semester, we studied intolerance, genocide, and the Holocaust. The goal was to learn about these things, acknowledge and decide that they were wrong, and to ultimately stop them from happening in the future. These areas of history also tied in to the societal issues that we, as students, face today, and the moral and ethical choices that we make. The five units of our Facing History course, explained by Mr. Gallagher, are identity; membership; history; judgment, memory, and legacy; and “choosing to participate”. Throughout the semester, we learned through articles, countless films, research, and class discussion. Instead of it being a regular class in which I was taught on a course outline, each day of this class was a new experience and I was able to discover for myself what it meant to me.