Curriculum

The Facing History and Ourselves website www.facing.org offers a great an extensive on-line library for educators interested in teaching the Facing History curriculum The lessons on this site offers students an opportunity to actively participate in learning the history of social justice through the response to injustice. We decided to highlight one of the downloadable curriculua from Facing History's on-line campus to help our visitors better understand the curriculums mission.

To access this library visit the resources page of their on-line campus.

FACING THE TRUTH is a lesson developed by the Facing History and Ouselves National Organization and Bill Moyer. This curriculum is ment to accompany a documentary about South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Under the democratically elecetd president Nelson Mandela, the South African govenment set up this commission to investigate gross violations of human rights from 1960 to 1994. FACING THE TRUTH gives students a glimpse at the process of rebuiliding a country on the values of social justice.

FACING THE TRUTH

"Facing the Truth is not just about horror; it is also about healing. South Africa is attempting to show the world how a shattered nation can become whole again."

--Bill Moyer, journalist and co-creator of the FACING THE TRUTH documentary and curriculum

Pumla Gobodo-Madekizela, psychologist and member of the TRC, with the chairman of the commission, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in the background.
Photo Credit: www.sapartners.org

Assata Shakur, a brilliant activist in the black freedom movement in the United States, said in her autobiography, “The struggle in South Africa is the most important battle of the century for Black people. The defeat of apartheid in South Africa will bring Africans all over the planet closer to liberation.” Here, Shakur recognizes the link between the struggle against apartheid and the struggle in this country for black emancipation. This connection was not lost with the end of apartheid but instead has become stronger as South Africa enters the age of Reconciliation.

Developed by Facing History and Ourselves National Organization, FACING THE TRUTH gives students the opportunity to learn about South African’s revolutionary Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The curriculum allows students who have experienced prejudice in this country to consider alternative methods of resolution apart from the corrupt system of “cowboy justice” prevalent in the United States.

FACING THE TRUTH uses lesson titles like “Truth Is Not Enough,” “A Former Enemy…,” and “We Are Responsible For The Future” to generate constructive dialogue among students on issues of social justice. Some students may not feel that using truth and reconciliation can solve issues of prejudice in their lives, however, the lessons they learn from this curriculum will aid their search for viable solutions to problems they face in American society.

Facing History and Ourselves uses curriculum like FACING THE TRUTH to cultivate political consciences in their students. This mission sets them apart from other approaches to teaching history. They recognize the transformative potential of the study of history has on young minds and that these minds will have on the state of humanity in the future.

GHETTO LIFE 101

" Don’t look at ghetto kids as different. You might not want to invite us to your parties, you might think we’ll rob you blind when you got your back turned. But don’t look at us like that....We have a hard life, but we’re sensitive. Ghetto kids are not a different breed—we’re human. "

--LeAlan Jones, 13-year-old co-creator of "Ghetto Life 101" documentary.

LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman, co-creators of the "Ghetto Life 101" documentary
Photo Credit: Guide to Ghetto Life 101

LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman were two thirteen year old kids, living in Chicago's infamous South Side housing projects, who had an idea. They proposed to document a week of their lives in order to give students a view of life in the ghetto--the positive apsects along with their sorrows, fears, and disappointments. In order to gain an accurate, unbias view of their lives, the boys elected to interview relatives, teachers, classmates, and other members of the community.

The program, as described by Margot Stern Strom, the Executive Director of the Facing History and Ourselves program, is based on the notion that "we can live so closely together, that our lives can be so intertwined socially, economically, and politically...and yet still manage to be ignorant of one another is clear testimony to the deep-seated roots of this human and national tragedy." The effort required to attain an understanding of the people around us is minimal, and the program is designed to show students that

Ghetto Life 101 is a documentary, with the Facing History program designed to make students respond to it, with emphasis on relating it historically, including a study of the etymology of "ghetto" and "barrio," and why both words have a negative connotation and neighborhood has a positive connotation. The program is designed to literally show students life in the ghetto, which provides a stronger base of knowledge than simpy a text relating numerical poverty statistics to the students.