Ideas This Week
Ideas This Week is your hub for updates on all things Facing History—from announcements and featured press to expert interviews, impact stories, and essays on the ideas driving our work.
Activist Jose Antonio Vargas Speaks to Facing History
This 2019 reflection considers the lead up to the DACA US Supreme Court decision alongside the personal immigrant story of journalist Jose Antonio Vargas.
Sometimes Empathy is Hard for Teachers
The stresses of teaching can spread educators thin emotionally.
Reclaiming the Fourth of July with Frederick Douglass
Learn about Frederick Douglass's "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" speech and how it remains to be a call to action for Americans today.
Teaching LGBTQIA+ Students: Insights from Harvey Milk High School
In this interview, Harvey Milk High School staff discuss strategies for engaging with LGBTQIA+ students as an educator.
Remembering Stonewall on the 50th Anniversary
As we approach the anniversary of this momentous event in the gay rights movement, we reflect on the contributions of two prominent activists.
It Takes a Village: The Success of Brown v. Board
The recent 65th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education reminds us that we must have all hands on deck in the continuing fight for educational equity.
School (Re)Segregation 65 Years After Brown v. Board
More than six decades after the overturning of racial segregation in US public schools, we reflect on the state of educational equity and academic achievement in the American school system.
Student Essay: Congratulations! It's a Mockingbird
This award-winning student essay captures a transgender student’s experience reading To Kill a Mockingbird, and how it intersects with their own experiences of gender and hopes of social change.
Student Essay: Right and Just
This award-winning student essay describes a class trip to the U.S. Holocaust Museum in which the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor encounters a photograph of a historical upstander to whom she, and her grandmother, owe their lives.
Student Essay: Gay Olympians are Changing the World
This student essay explores the impact of the increasing visibility of gay olympians, particularly at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Upstander Story: Memphis Students Unite Their Community 100 Years after a Lynching
This piece describes the student-led activist group Students Uniting Memphis’s effort to gather 500 community members to commemorate the life of lynching victim Ell Persons, and bring awareness to the injustices that occur when we divide people into “us” vs. “them.”