
May 17,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, RHS junior Jamie Lim, has recently been named a finalist in the Facing History Together student essay contest Titled, Jam in a Jar, her essay was picked out of nearly 4,000 other student entries. The contest was based around the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, and sponsored by the organization, Facing Our History and Ourselves.
Its nice that Jamie won, but make no mistake, this is no history contest. It is an organization whose goal is promoting “social justice”.
Their motto “We help students learn about hatred and bigotry so they can stop them from happening in the future.”
But kudos to Jamie – this is just the type of award that is valued by college admissions staff.
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also from their site:
“Why Facing History and Ourselves”
“Every day, reports of incidents of bigotry and hatred across the globe show us how fragile democracy can be.”
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Also of note – this organization is an active partner with teachers – providing ongoing individual teacher contact with a Facing History “mentor” – providing “workshops , seminars, online learning, mentoring, lesson plans, publications, media and more”
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Regarding the “Teaching Mockingbird” Facing history teacher resource: “Use this resource to transform how you teach Harper Lee’s classic novel by integrating historical context, documents, and sources that reflect the African American voices absent from Mockingbird’s narration”
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also from their site:
“Search Our Collection
Everything you need to get started teaching your students about racism, antisemitism and prejudice”.
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This is all well and good, but they should be more honest about their organizations goals rather than cloaking their agenda as a history curriculum.
Debbie Downer