Introduction

Facing History and Ourselves is an outstanding half year course provided by Westborough High School and is taught by Mr. Gallagher. The main focus of this course is to determine who you are and what you stand for. In order to assist in this search, the course focuses on various events throughout history where hate crimes were committed and explores prejudice against other people. These events include the civil rights movement of the 60’s, the genocide and removal of Native Americans and heavily focuses on the holocaust. These events are taught through discussions, documentaries and films which show how the events occurred and achieve in giving emotion to the events. The goal here is to introduce students to the various sides of these events and to put them in the shoes of the perpetrator, bystanders, victims and resistance alike. Through such civic agency, the student is able to determine for themselves who they would be in such an occurrence and how they would act. I chose this course because I have always had a deep rooted interest in history. In addition, I wanted to explore first hand why and more importantly how such events as the holocaust could have ever taken place. In this interest, I desired to better my understanding of human nature and of how humans think the way they do.

I come from a split family as my parents divorced when I was an early age, but have been fortunate enough to have both parents and step parents who greatly care about me. From them I was taught the morals and values that I live by today. I have played football for about 9 years now and greatly enjoy it. Other things I enjoy doing include watching sports and movies and hanging out with my friends. One day I hope to go to college, find a good job and start a family of my own.