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.
Facing History Is a Family Value
Brian Chancellor shares his family’s Facing History story, from his father’s experience as an educator to his sons’ experiences in classrooms today.
![Portrait of Brian Chancellor and son.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-02/Brian_Chancellor_and_Son_FH2187882_crop.jpg?h=5fff594c&itok=xXYaY4Dj)
Own Your Impact: A High School Senior’s Reflections
Mark S. discovered Facing History through his high school leadership initiative, and in the process discovered a lot about himself and how he wants to walk through the world.
Student Reflections on Black History Month
Assistant Headteacher and Facing History Teacher Leader Sanum Khan shares an important conversation she had with students during Black History Month.
![Picture of students from Sir Henry Floyd Grammar School.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-10/shfgs2_0.jpg?h=feb2fd08&itok=Dr4cPY9H)
On Living Deliberately
Kaitlin Smith offers personal reflections on what it means to live deliberately.
![Kaitlin Smith kneeling in front of a rock pile and cairns left by visitors at the original site of Henry David Thoreau's cabin at Walden Pond State Reservation in Concord, Massachusetts.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-10/waldenKS3.jpg?h=818f1ba2&itok=S_RIxh3h)
Identity, Literature, and Possibility: A Conversation with Nicole Chung
Facing History's Franklin Stebbins sits down with Nicole Chung as she recounts her experience growing up navigating anti-Asian racism as a transracial adoptee of Korean descent within a white family in small-town Oregon.
![All You Can Ever Know book cover beside Nicole Chung headshot.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/nicolechung2022_large.jpeg?h=f7d9296c&itok=ZCctLuJk)
Helen Zia on the Asian American Movement
This article examines the rise of the Asian American movement through the leading voice of Helen Zia, a Chinese American author and activist working at the intersections of struggles for racial and LGBTQ justice, who helped provide a foundation for AAPI-led resistance against racism and violence.
![Asian American Dreams book cover beside Helen Zia headshot.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/HZ%20and%20AAD_Large.jpeg?h=151e6280&itok=RLlhomJ7)
Complicating "Asian Americans"
Facing History explores the complex story surrounding this term to broaden educators' understanding of and ability to teach about AAPI and API histories and contemporary life.
![Asian American graphic.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/AsianAmerican.png?h=69a7c3f8&itok=klCHKqw0)
On Existing: A Personal Reflection
Facing History staff takes a moment to reflect on personal experiences of being a minority amidst a climate of hate and the ability to use reading as a tool for discovering oneself.
![Photo from trans rights march.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/transreflection.jpeg?h=c6980913&itok=xFqakjYv)
A Brief History of Barbie: From Fashion Model to Ida B. Wells
The introduction of the Ida B. Wells Barbie as part of the Women Series of Barbies marks an opportunity to gain meaningful insight into changing conceptions of gender, race, and education through the emergence and evolution of Barbie.
![Ida B. Wells barbie in court.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/idwbarbie_large.jpeg?h=e188ef2c&itok=DaKAijbC)
bell hooks Taught Us to Transgress
Like many people of my generation who cut their teeth on the critical insights of bell hooks, news of her passing in December unleashed a wave of reflection for me about the ways she’s impacted me as a person and public scholar. Beyond the many moments of resonance I experienced while reading her writings over the years, her impact on me is most powerfully encapsulated in an experience I had in 2008 when I met her.
![bell hooks standing on stage and speaking while holding a microphone.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-08/bellhooks.jpeg?itok=jpRETw0k)
African Americans and the History of "Human Rights"
As a United Nations panel of experts is set up to investigate systemic racism and human rights abuses against Black people around the world, we explore a series of African American leaders who have invoked the language of “human rights” to underscore the urgency of their situation here in the U.S.
![Olympians on the podium, bowing their heads and raising a fist with a black glove.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-04/Fist_raised_Olympics_1968public_domain.jpeg?h=96687ce6&itok=yaBd2oCU)
13 Teaching Ideas on Human Rights
During Universal Human Rights Month, in December, we invite you to use any of these Teaching Ideas grounded in social-emotional learning (SEL) that provide ample social and historical context while being concise and easy to integrate into your classroom conversations.
![Paper cut outs of face profiles in different skin tones.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-04/graphical_diversity_paper_faces_1894061167.jpeg?h=3a5dff94&itok=qAstbdWw)