What Facing History and Ourselves Meant to Me

My name is Brian Leslie and I am a senior at Westborough high school. I was fortunate enough to participate in taking the facing history course taught by Mr. Gallagher. I took sophomore history with Mr. Gallagher and was really impressed with his teaching style. This course has been in the back of my mind ever since the end of sophomore year. I knew I wanted to take this course to get the chance to be in Mr. Gallagher’s class once again and to take a unique and self-motivating course.
This class is completely different than any other that I take during the day. The environment in which the class takes place is totally different from any others. I am a visual learner and by watching what physically happened I was able to get a lot more out of the course than I would have by reading a book about it. The famous quote, “A picture is worth a thousand words” is no doubt proved by this course. The films that Mr. Gallagher has shown in class are captivating, informative, and emotionally driven.
This course allowed me to go through the timeline of the holocaust. I loved how the course builds off itself and Mr. Gallagher did an outstanding job with the film and the topic selection. I felt like the films and the topics we learned at the end of the year I would not have had as great of an appreciation for them if I had not learned about the topics beforehand.
The unit on the “Little boxes” made me thinks about my own identity, where I came from, who I am, and who do I want to be. I thought this lesson was essential to understanding the point of the whole course because without knowing yourself you can’t reflect on an idea towards yourself. I liked this unit as an introductory unit because it allowed me to start asking myself those essential questions.
Another film that we watched was “After the first” about a boy going hunting with his dad for the first time. I thought this film was really well done and placed into the course at the right time because of the morals of the film. When I watched the boy start to like hunting by learning how to use the rifle but when it time to kill he froze because he knew it was wrong in his own mind and he did not want to do it. Because the dad keeps pushing him he does it, which relates to milgram experiment later on, I find these two to be very similar.
“The Bear that wasn’t was a story that really set the tone of the course. Some people just overlook this story and think its nothing more than a Childs book, which it is and very well could be, but I think there is more meaning to I really enjoyed reading and commenting on this story with my fellow classmates. I did not just blog for the grade, but I felt I wanted to blog to voice my opinion.
I really enjoyed class discussions on the Milgram Experiment. This experiment allowed me to see and relate how the Nazi officers could have followed orders to exterminate the millions of people during the holocaust. I remember watching an electrician going through the experiment with full knowledge of how many volts were being administered to the other person. He continued the test with just a small amount of encouragement from the administrator. Something like this really frustrates me because I know I would have walked right out.
The film that will probably stick with me for the rest of my life is “The boy and the striped pajamas”. I think this movie tied everything we had seen and learned about the whole year. The view from a child’s perspective and the innocence of youth gave me a true understanding of the war. There was not one point during this class that I felt bored or not engaged. This film showed what it was like from a perspective that most people would not even think would matter. I think people taking this course need to see this movie in order to fully understand and completely appreciate this course.
Some of the film that we watched was hard to watch because of the emotional story and graphic images that were inside the films. I think that each and every film is necessary to truly understand this course.
After taking this class I can say that I know what it was like on the streets of Germany during World War II. The course at the end makes you choose whether you would stand up and do something for what you think is right, or stand back and be a bystander and watch something like the holocaust happen. I took a lot away from this course but there is one moral that comes to mind when I look back at all that we have covered. I think that looking back I always blamed the Nazi’s for the holocaust and all the death and destruction that was brought by them. But after this course looking back on all that we have learned and covered I have realized that it was the bystanders who are at fault. It frustrates me that no one had the courage when to stand up when something could have been done to prevent this part of history from happening.
My only wish is that I wish we were able to finish the entire course, because of fourth quarter cutting short I felt like the course was rushed at the end. I wish there was more time at the end of the course to discuss the topics covered.
I hope this course will be continued to be offered to students at Westborough high school because I think this course offers so much, unfortunately the amount of time is just not enough to cover everything that could be covered during the half year.
Mr. Gallagher you have put so much time and effort into this course, and I thank you for allowing me to have the privilege in being able to take your course this year. I hope we can stay in touch because I really admire you as a person, teacher, and friend.