Introduction

           Welcome to my blog! My name is Sarah Hart and I am a senior at Westborough High School. This year I chose to take a half-year elective class called Facing History and Ourselves that is taught by Mr. Gallagher. The course focuses on educating students not only about genocides throughout history but the lead-up to them and the cycle that must happen before genocide takes place. Most of the class was dedicated to studying the Holocaust but learned about other genocides too such as the Armenian genocide. We also spent a lot of class time talking about both individual and group identity and the role we as individuals can play in recognizing and doing something about the lead-up to something like genocide. In addition to these things we talked about our own lives and how are actions, no-matter how small, can have a large impact on other people. We learnt about these things through watching many videos based on true events, reading articles, and reading first-hand accounts of the Holocaust and the lead-up to it. There are many reasons I decided to take this course. When I had Mr. Gallagher for U.S. History in ninth grade I loved him. He has definitely been one of my favorite teachers throughout high school. Throughout the year Mr. Gallagher had mentioned his Facing History class a few times and it sounded really interesting. While I didn’t know many of the details about the course I knew that I wanted to look into it more when I had space in my schedule to take electives. When it came time to pick my senior year classes last Spring I read through the course description of the class and it sounded like a class I would enjoy. While I had learned about the Holocaust before I didn’t have a full understanding of what happened and seeing as I have always been interested in history, the fact that we would be reading and watching first-hand sources really caught my attention. I am so glad that I took this course. I went into it thinking that I would just be learning more about the Holocaust but I am finishing it with so much more than that! The course gives you a better understanding of not only yourself but of history and the people around you as well.