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Facing History and Ourselves Founded in 1976, Facing History and Ourselves is a non-profit organization that created a nationwide curriculum teaching about prejudices and injustice in American and European society with a focus on Nazi-Germany and the Holocaust. The organization is centered in Brookline, Massachusetts, with 180 staff members located throughout the country. Since the late 70s, the have trained over 10,000 teachers who have taught over half a million students all over the nation and Canada. Facing History has recently gone global, reaching Israel, Northern Ireland, South Africa, and China. Most of their revenue comes from both grants and contributions. The teaching workshops, seminars, guest speakers, and resource materials are funded by the contributions and gifts. Many corporations and foundations have donated large amounts of money, up to $99,000, to Facing History over the years. Contributors that donate 100,000 or more are placed into FHAO’s Sustaining Gift Program, which currently includes over 86 families and foundations.The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated over $200,000 for the implementation of common-core standards in July 2013.

Curriculum

The course is meant to be a reflective one for middle school students and juniors and seniors in high school. In the classroom, students partake in group discussions and use primary source material to learn about different historical events. The curriculum aims to create a history course with a reflective component, allowing students to think about modern day prejudices. The semester-long class starts with learning about the impact of the individual in society and how one is affected by his or her environment and culture. Students then learn about governments and the roles citizens play in their nation and talk about the effects of bystanders in society. Progressively, classes move into talking about dehumanization and how different societal groups can turn against each other, threatening a democracy. The course is taught by looking into white and black segregation and injustice in the USA. Students also learn about the Armenian Genocide, Cambodian Genocide, and struggles of Native Americans and Japanese-Americans in the USA. The final subject focused on is anti-Semitism and Nazi Germany. The course creates a bridge between these events and the students’ lives by calling for reflection. Students are asked to think about familiar subjects such as peer pressure, conformity, and belonging. The course goal is to make students realize their role in society and to hopefully create more educated, mindful citizens of the world so that events like the ones discussed can be prevented in the future.

Teaching the Course

FHAO offers a variety of professional development programs for educators interested in teaching the subject. To meet local, state, or national mandates, the organization will work with the district. The course also meets common-core standards by offering a variety of resources and professional development and using primary source material. The organization has been working longest with Boston Public schools and has developed units to fit their civics and history curriculum for grades 8-11. They partner up with departments of education throughout the country to meet their individual standards as well. Working with high school and middle school teachers, they are taught how to lead group discussions, introduce controversial topics, and establish a classroom environment necessary for the course. FHAO provides online courses divided into single week sessions, which include group discussions, videos, and conference calls. In addition to working with individual educators, the organization also goes to schools and school districts to lead seminars and programs. After attending a seminar, taking an online course, or participating in a workshop, teachers have access to a free online lending library and personalized coaching, which can allow them to have guest speakers in their classroom.

Staff

Roger Brooks has been appointed as Facing History and Ourselves’ next president and CEO effective December 1, 2014. Brooks recently served as Dean of the Faculty and Chief Academic Officer at Connecticut College. Margot Stern Strom serves as executive director. Strom cofounded the organization in 1976 and received the Charles A. Dana Award for Pioneering Achievements in Education on November 5, 1997 in New York City.

Effectiveness

Facing History and Ourselves puts out and points to numerous studies showing the effectiveness of their program.  Their evaluation department have performed over 140 studies, which show the program to be effective and beneficial to students. However, the US department of Education released a WWC intervention report. It evaluated eight studies conducted by FHAO, and seven did not meet WWC evidence standards and reservations. When evaluating the studies, WWC did not notice statistical significance in knowledge, attitudes, and values. The one study that did meet standards showed primary outcomes of relationship maturity, ethnic identity, civic attitudes and participation, racism, and moral reasoning. The study suggested that, in a group of 346 eighth grade students, Facing History positively affected their maturity level and made them less racist. It did not, however, show significant change in students’ moral reasoning. Difference in change of ethnic reasoning was slightly significant from a pre-test to a post-test.

Materials

Educator resources can be found on the FHAO website. There, teachers can access lesson plans, readings, study guides, teaching strategies, library resources, videos, and project ideas. The readings are broken down into topics. The topics are: Anti-Semitism, Armenian Genocide, Civil Rights Movement, Democracy, Eugenics, Genocide and Collective Violence, Holocaust, Human Rights, Human Behavior, and Immigration.

 

Criticisms

 

While there are many positive words written and feedback given about the history course, there is a differing opinion. There has been criticism surrounding the course, especially about the different comparisons it makes. The course allows and encourages students to make connections to modern day America and their own lives. A criticism of the course says that this is not right. They believe the reflection causes students to think about modern day racism and violence in the US rather than modern anti-Semitism. The course also compares events like the Armenian Genocide, Cambodian Genocide, and mass murders in Rwanda while still keeping a focus on the Holocaust towards the end. The problem people see with this is that the Holocaust is not comparable to the many other events presented. The Holocaust is different for many reasons, but for one, it was the only time in history when a government tried to extinguish an entire group of people for no territorial or political gain whatsoever. Facing History has been said to be the only way some students learn about the Holocaust in today’s society, and many people think that this single approach is not sufficient.