Throughout my high school life it was hard to find courses that had a great impact on me and on the people around me. From english, languages, math and others, I kept the same ritual over the four years. The concept of school that I ever had, was of going to class, studying formulas, rules, and grammar which would impact on my grades. But the course Facing History and Ourselves showed me a new perspective of school and life in general. With the approach of who you are, and how you act with mixture of what would you do, and what people have done makes it so different, and affecting. Also the idea of putting us in the position of those who suffered from the German hatred towards them, and the feelings and emotions involved in those moments change the opinion I had about things. As well the opportunity of speaking my mind up, but being intelligent and informed about it, makes it easier to approach those subjects, and all the things in my life. Without no doubt this course influences anyone not to be a bystander, nor a perpetrator. It brought me to a point in which I have to do intelligent, moral and informed decisions in my life.
This course is based on how you view things, and how much you know. It is not about if you learn concepts for a test, or for a quiz, but rather it goes through you and stays with you, because you want to learn, and is not forced to. The methodology of it brings you to wants to hear, see and learn everything. When I blog I have the opportunity to read what everyone says, give my opinion, sometimes agree, sometimes disagree, and sometimes even change my mind about the subject. But the idea of learning and the fact of being a non-leveled course makes that everyone in it wants to be, wants to learn and wants to make the best of it. For the first time, I hear a lot of my friends say they want to be in school, and this is definitely one class that I would not want to miss.
Moreover the class shows you more about yourself, makes you reflect about who you are, and where you going with your life. The stories that we read and some of them I identified with, such as “Little Boxes”, are the things that make the class so special. It tries to make you realize everything you are, and everything you have done, and how do you want to act towards things in your life. I would say it took me to a whole new level of self discovery, and made me think that I am unique in my own way, that even being part of a crowd I have a voice, and I am able to use it at any point, because my experiences and my views differ from everyone else.
Furthermore I realized that for having a voice, I can do whatever I please within I believe being right. That I should respect people as much as they respect me, and it does not matter if it is a tradition, what matters is how I feel, what I know about it, and what my morals tell me. For example, the video “After the first” was a big thing, because it does not matter how he learned from his father or how it has been a tradition in his family. He did not like or agree on killing the bunny, so he should not do it. If does not feel right, or if goes against what you believe, and what you know there is no reason to do it. It is not because an authority tells you to do, or tell you its right it does not mean it is. It is necessary to know the truth and make your mind within what you know to be truth, and how you feel about it.
In addition the course put you in the place of all those people that suffered. As we took a look at the racism in the U.S., in Little Rock, as well as the Armenian Genocide, set us to see the Holocaust. Listening from Father Boghosian really had an impact on me, for the fact that he saw and lived all of that. Also the Ms. Elliot video in which we saw how even kids when told that other is inferior can act in horrendous ways. It made me reflect about how I treated others, and how it would feel to be treated that way. The readings and films really shows you a whole new view of things, and I caught myself wondering how terrible would it feel to be in those circumstances. By feeling how they did, and understanding those feelings, made me realize that a simple word can cause hatred, and made me be much more careful and respectful of everyone.
Therefore, the course makes you reflect in the ways you acting in your life. I cannot be a bystander after taking this course; I cannot sit there and see someone suffer anytime of discrimination, because I know better. It does not matter how silly and stupid ones actions might be, if they are wrong they are wrong. The Nazi Propaganda was huge and people believed, because they wanted too, and no one was brave enough to speak their minds up. And that is a good part of the course, I can believe something, and if I have enough sources to prove my point I have no reason to fear, I have to speak up for what I believe. I realize that I cannot do bad to anyone else, because I would not want that to happen to me; I realize that I as well cannot let anyone do something discriminatory to anyone because it goes against my beliefs and what I learn. I learned more about who I am, what kind of person I want to be; I learned how those people felt; I learned that so much could have been avoided if people spoke up for the terror occurring, instead of being bystanders; and I learned all of that through those valuable lessons that I will carry throughout life.
