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.
Disrupting Public Memory: The Story of the National Day of Mourning
Breaking down the historically one-sided narrative about Thanksgiving in the US has been a decades-long effort, led by historians and Indigenous communities.
![The First Thanksgiving, 1621.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-11/The_First_Thanksgiving_BW_FH2185279.jpg?h=fbba1660&itok=dpPgVloR)
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.
Elevating Student Voice Through Podcasting and Storytelling
In this interview with educator Molly Josephs, we explore how storytelling helps students find their unique voices & create connections across differences.
![Picture of students.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-11/Facing-History_SJLA_037.jpg?h=c9f93661&itok=BVGZU-Cq)
5 Native-Led Podcasts for Media Literacy
The world of podcasting offers a platform for marginalized peoples to share their stories that would otherwise go unheard. Facing History provides five podcasts produced by Native American individuals dedicated to fostering healing within their own communities through the process of telling their stories and sharing their insights.
![Zoomed in photo of woman recording podcast.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/podcasting2.jpeg?h=2bf4480e&itok=RPLdwPTU)
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)
Teaching While Queer: One Teacher on Being Out in the Classroom
Facing History educator Emily Haines discusses what it's looked like for her to bring her full identity into the classroom.
![Picture of rainbow flags.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-10/daniel-james-Dhw68hz9KbA-unsplash.jpg?h=a141e9ea&itok=BiDeyMJQ)
3 Hispanic Americans You Should Know
In this article we highlight three individuals who fought for representation, inclusion, and justice. Their work has contributed to the enrichment of American identity and culture and cultivated a more just society.
![Picture of Jovita Idár, Sylvia Rivera, & Julia Alvarez.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-10/HHMprofiles.png?h=27090159&itok=WsnDMagB)
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)
Common Ground Revisited
Learn about the play Common Ground Revisited, which explores various ways that key historical actors may have experienced the 1970s school desegregation in Boston and the different ways that contemporary Bostonians relate to these historical events.
![Busing Information Phone Bank; City of Boston Mayor's Office in September 1974.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-08/Busing_Information_Phone%20Bank_City_Boston_Mayors_Office_September_1974.jpeg?h=18da7b47&itok=et7KRWL8)
Why Teach Reconstruction Today?
Studying the history of Reconstruction reveals that American history is lined with recurring cycles of social progress and backlash in which everyday people have surmounted immense barriers to drive powerful change.
![Man representing the Freedman's Bureau stands between armed groups of Euro-Americans and Afro-Americans.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-09/Freedman_bureau_harpers_cartoon_FH21213.jpg?h=83f3d97f&itok=jf0SD3Wz)
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)