No tolerance for
ignorance. http://daytobeyou.com/inspire/no-tolerance-for-ignorance/. online image. May 24,2012
the children's march.
http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&rlz=1C1TSNF_enUS431US431&biw=1600&bih=799&tbm=isch&tbnid=8dxPhPexZa4tRM:&imgrefurl=http://www.xtimeline.com/evt/view.aspx%3Fid%3D953328&docid=ZpQmKXDf2Izp7M&imgurl=http://www.xtimeline.com/__UserPic_Large/46622/evt111013085300085.bmp&w=250&h=202&ei=r_e-T7GEDcjr6gGZvbmiCg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=680&vpy=500&dur=1354&hovh=161&hovw=200&tx=82&ty=112&sig=109457356900722350452&page=1&tbnh=125&tbnw=155&start=0&ndsp=32&ved=1t:429,r:19,s:0,i:114 .online. May 24,2012
The Longest Hatred: An Examination of anti-gentilismhttp://www.polskawalczaca.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=9064.image
online. May 24,2012
“In what
ways did the course benefit you as a student, and as a person?”
Since the first day of Facing
History I was told that “This class is going to change you”. Nervous but
prepared I started the long journey through the death camps, starvation, lack
of empathy on both sides of the spectrum. This was hands down the only class
that I can say “I truly learned a lesson and at the same time gained so much
from this course”. Facing History made me sit down and focus on the situation,
not only the picture but the meaning behind it. From the first movie to the
last footage, I learned something new. This class affected me in many, many
ways to which I am grateful to Mr. Gallagher for.
During the course of Facing History,
we had a lot of in class discussions. One movie that I could talk about all day
would have to be, “A Class Divided”.
A simple teacher
decided to split the class up simply by eye color. The brown eyes, and the blue
eyes. The first day the blue eyes had all of the power, and the second day the
brown eyes had all of the power. Never in my life had I seen such little kids
turn on the friends so fast. I never thought that human beings are so easy to
convince. Those kids in a matter of minutes turned from innocent kids into
little evil demons. When we had the class discussion, not many people had
anything to say about it, but I felt just how easy it was to turn people on
others. Hitler turned all of his people in a matter of years. Every single one
of them. That video was the beginning of the class for me.
I can only think of the words to
describe how this class really affected me. Mr.Gallagher has done so much, in
order to make sure the students of Westborough High really know what civic
agency is. How it works. If you don’t leave the class with a completely
different outlook on life then you didn’t listen in class. The next clip that
really affected me was “The Children’s ‘March”
. This documentary was so inspiring. Those kids had heart.
Also at the same time the whole situation was messed up. I understand where
they were coming from but at the time when I was watching to now I’ve changed
my mind. At first I was angry watching the documentary, but thinking about it
now, you have to do what you have to do in order to make your point to be well known.
What are you willing to do in order to make a difference? Those kids went to
jail in order to have a better life. Being a person of color, I would have
joined that march at the drop of a dime. Only you can make a difference. You
can’t rely on the thought of other people to lead you in the right direction.
Look at what Hitler did. He convinced trillions of people that Jewish people
are horrid animal who have the right to go into a work camp in order to work
for their freedom. In reality not many of the citizens even knew what was going
on in the concentration camps. I personally believe that all the citizens
should have had to spend a full night in the camp. Harsh yes, but not nearly as
cruel as what every single one of them did to the Jewish community.
Another film that I want to mention
was “The longest Hatred”.
This documentary
really affected me because I had absolutely no idea that the Jewish community
had been attacked for such a long time. Since the beginning of time human
beings have blamed Jewish citizens for their own fall outs. When did it become
ok to blame everyone else for your problems instead of taking responsibility
for them yourself? The in class discussion was pretty simple because for some
reason not a lot of people wanted to express what they were feeling, maybe it’s
because they didn’t really care or they just wanted to think about what they
had just saw. It’s almost like very few people had empathy. All the films that
we had in class affected me, some not as
much as others, but when Mr. Gallagher would teach a segment and then we would
go on to watch another film, I felt how what he was telling us pouring out of
the movie. The movies had a different meaning after Mr. Gallagher would talk.
Mr. Gallagher has made a class, with
his bare hands. He worked his ass off to have this course for the sole purpose
that our generation and the next generations would know the truth behind the
Holocaust. In every history class that you have, think of how many times you
fell asleep, or opened up a book and said “I’m not doing this”. This class
makes you open your eyes to the real world around you. This world is not a nice
place, and will never be. You can’t expect for the past to stay in the past. We
fought for those people and there are still people to this day that will deny
the Holocaust ever happened. You learn to spit on that ignorance, and stand up
for what the right thing to do is. Since this class, I have no tolerance for
the cruelty of society. I believe that every student that attends high school
should have to take a mandatory class of “Facing History”. Our generation needs
this. I didn’t know until I took the class, and from our class on who will be
there. Things like this need to be known, we have to keep teaching the kids of
what our past has to show. The good and the bad. Bad being, the one thing I
wish I never knew, was how when we accepted the Jewish community into America,
we did THE EXACT SAME THING THAT THE NAZIS DID! HOW DARE US BE SO INCONSIDERATE
TO PEOPLE WHO HAD BEEN HURT BEYOND WHAT WE REALLY KNEW. THE IGNORANCE THAT
DRIPS OFF OF OUR PEOPLE.
I want to say that I have earned
civic agency. I will not lie. I know the grasp of it but I will continue to
learn and further my education on the Holocaust. This isn’t something you just
learn and never bring up again. You have to continue to learn or you will never
see the true meaning behind the class. Mr. Gallagher is the only one who has
real emotion behind the class, us as students are just mere shadows of a
growing society that will one day know the meaning behind the Holocaust.
INTRODUCTION :)
The
long journey into “Facing History”, was rough, dark, and depressing.
Honestly, I didn’t think in a million years I would be sitting here
writing a paper on the Holocaust, and
how it affected me. Mr. Gallagher taught me
to have civic agency, and through this course I certainly did gain civic
agency. Before I talk about how the
course affected me, let me tell you why I decided to take “Facing History” in
the first place. I wanted to actually learn something more about the Holocaust
than what I had been taught in previous years. It seems like every year I’ve
been in high school I have learned a wee bit about this devastating historical
event, but have never actually gone into detail about it. Also, I had heard
such great things about Mr. Gallagher from my best friend and his favorite
student, Colleen Mulcahy. Colleen told me that this class would impact my life
in ways that I could not believe. She was so right. I just remember coming into
class knowing that I was going to be crying by the end of the class. I really
don’t have words to explain how I felt during the course. Off the top of my
head I have “PISSED, ANGRY, SAD,
DEPRESSED, ALONE, DEAD,EMPTY”. There are soo many other word I could use but
there just not appropriate. This class made me look in the mirror and say “ I’m
starting with the man in the mirror, I’m asking you to change your ways”
(Michael Jackson).
