Introduction

I chose to take the course Facing History and Ourselves based on reviews some of my friends had given me, who took the course and or who had the teacher that taught it.  They only had good things to say about the course as well as the teacher.  At the beginning of the school year I really didn’t know what to expect going into the class but after a few classes I was happy I signed up.  In the course Facing History and Ourselves we watched films, read articles and had group discussions.  We visited topics ranging from the Holocaust to American civil rights. The course primarily consisted of watching documentaries that contained actual footage and clips, which made it as though we were really there when these events were taking place, although they may have taken place close to seventy years ago.  Watching the films in class made me realize how much history that had taken place not too long ago I had no idea about.  In school I have probable learned about the American Revolution for three or four years, but the most I had ever learned about the Holocaust is that about six million Jews were killed.  After taking the class and watching all the films the Holocaust was not given any justice in school before.  In the class we did not just have to memorize fact after fact then have to take a test on it a few weeks later, the material was presented in a way that stayed with you and had a shock appeal to it that really changed the way you thought after learning about something.  Although in short some of my friends had described the class as watching movies every day, but that is not at all what we did in class, history was brought to our eyes via film but we learned much more than in a typical history class we were taught to find our identity’s and make sure that some of the evils of history do not repeat itself.