Introduction

Hello, my name is Andy Tabb, and I am a senior at Westborough High School.  This past semester I took the course Facing History and Ourselves, and I personally believe that it is a class that every student should take.  This class is primarily focused on the holocaust, but along the way, students will learn a lot about themselves.  When I first signed up for this course, I thought it would just be a good way to learn a little about the holocaust, but I had no idea how interesting and beneficial it would be to me.  This class has taught me a lot about myself and has taught me many valuable lessons that I will use for remainder of my life.  Another great part about this class is the fact that we get the chance to watch some fantastic films about the holocaust.  In most history courses, you get almost all of your information out of a textbook, but in this class, we get almost all of our information from the films that we watch.  The films allow us to not only get great facts about the holocaust, but they also allow us to feel more emotionally attached to the people we learn about, and let us feel like we are actually there in person.  For example, in one film, we get to see the actual footage of the Nazi death camps, and get to look at all of the horrors that occurred there.  Overall, Facing History and Ourselves is unlike any other course that is offered, and it should be taken by all students.

What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me

When I first chose to take this course, I just thought that it was just going to be an interesting class where I learn about the Holocaust.  I had no idea that it would change who I am as a person.  By taking this class, I have learned a significant amount of new information about who I am, and I have learned a lot about the different types of people out there in the world.  There are various different ways that this class has benefited who I am as not only a student, but also as a person. 

One way that this class has benefited my life is by teaching me who I actually am as a person.  Before this semester of Facing History and Ourselves, I didn’t really know exactly who I was as a person.  While I still haven’t figured that out completely, this course has definitely helped me get started.  For example, in the beginning of this semester, we would constantly write out different words that we would use to describe ourselves.  I found this exercise to be incredibly useful because it helped me take a look at how I see myself.  I don’t think that there is any other class offered at Westborough High School that could have helped me with this, so taking this class was definitely a fantastic choice

Another way that this class benefited my life was by teaching me to trust my beliefs and not just automatically follow what other people think.  Just because someone is alone with their thoughts and beliefs, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are wrong, so you should never give up your beliefs just because they are not shared by others.  One way that Facing History and Ourselves me this was by introducing me to the children’s book The Bear that Wasn’t.  In this story, there is a bear that goes around a city, but wherever he goes, people just constantly tell him that he’s not a bear, but in fact just a dirty hairy man.  After hearing this so many times, the bear eventually starts to believe it, and he just gives in to the rest of society.  I thought that this was a very moving story because it did a fantastic job of showing me that the only belief that I should care about is my own. 

A third way that I benefited from this course was by learning a lot about human nature from all of the different holocaust movies that we have seen.  Before I took this course, I knew that the Jews were treated like prisoners and murdered, but since this course offered so many great movies about the holocaust, I now fully understand how evil the Nazi’s truly were.  For example, after watching the final film in this course with the actual footage of the Jews getting released from the death camps, I was in total shock.  I had never seen any actual footage of the camps, and it was actually quite tough to watch.  The Jewish people who were shown in this film were insanely skinny, and most of them had huge bruises and scars all over their bodies.  One of the things that really shocked me was how there was not one ounce of fat on any of the Jewish prisoners, and you could see just about all of their bones.  It almost looked like they were ghosts.  I am honestly still shocked about how anyone could possibly treat anyone this poorly.  Even if I hated someone with all of my heart, there is still no way that I could treat anyone even close to as badly as the Nazi’s treated the Jews and the rest of the prisoners.  This class has taught me that everyone needs to stand up for what they think is right, and never just go along with the crowd, because when that happens, it becomes possible for events like the holocaust to occur.

Another way that I benefited from the course Facing History and Ourselves is because it taught me to treat people with respect no matter who they are or what they look like.  While I have always lived by these ideas, it wasn’t until I took this class that I fully understood how important it was to live by these beliefs.  For example, in Facing History, we watched the film Freedom Writers, which did a terrific job of teaching respect for others and tolerance.  In this film, Mrs. G took over a class of students of all different types of races and ethnicities that didn’t get along at all.  She decided that she was going to teach the students about respect and tolerance.  At the end of their time together, they essentially became one big family, where everyone had the utmost respect for one another.  I personally thought that this film was one of the most beneficial films that we watched all year long.  I think that by showing this film to our Facing History and Ourselves class, we were all able to get a good idea of how we should treat each other.  It doesn’t matter if you are different from someone else or come from a different social class or race, you should be respectful and courteous to everyone.  Without talking this course, I’m not sure that I would have truly lived by this lesson.

I believe that the class Facing History and Ourselves should be a mandatory class for all students to take.  The knowledge and insight that you gain by taking this course is not taught in any other class.  This course does a fantastic job of teaching and reinforcing the principles that can be used to make each and every one of us a better person.  Some of the ways that I personally have benefited from taking this class are helping me find my true identity, helping me not have my thoughts and beliefs influenced by others, teaching me about human nature, and teaching me how to treat everyone with respect no matter who they are.  Overall, taking this course has been one of the best decisions that I have ever made, and by taking it, I have learned many things that will help me for the rest of my life.

Works Cited

Google Images, The Bear that Wasn’t, Image, 5/19/2011

Google Images, Jewish Prisoners, Image, 5/19/2011

Google Images, Dead Bodies, Image, 5/19/2011

Google Images, Freedom Writers, Image, 5/19/2011

Google Images, Facing History and Ourselves, Image, 5/19/2011