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.
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)
How AAPI Thinkers are Redefining Asianness
Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) thought leaders reveal their experiences with “single stories” to demonstrate what it can look like to push back against restrictive narratives that dominate American society.
![The loneliest Americans book cover.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/tlabook_large-jpg.jpeg?h=ed0b1a50&itok=HQUl1c8B)
Teaching About Anti-Asian Violence: Start with Yourself and Your Community
Most school curriculum fails to adequately address Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) histories and identities, which contributes to a widespread lack of understanding that fuels the anti-AAPI hate we see today. Facing History provides suggestions and resources for educators to better address AAPI histories so as to avoid continuing this damaging trend.
![Man holding stop Asian hate sign.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/iStock-1307873903.jpeg?h=140710cd&itok=kSZdGfCX)
Remembering Grace Lee Boggs
The story of Chinese American activist and philosopher, Grace Lee Boggs, provides an inspiring example of the effectiveness of cross-racial organizing work between Black and Asian communities in pursuing racial justice by discovering shared stakes, committing to collective action, and nurturing ongoing resistance.
![Grace Lee Boggs.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Grace_Lee_Boggs_2012.jpeg?h=4c5c077f&itok=4q_QLFmO)
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)
Centering AAPI Students in the Classroom: An Expert Interview
Dr. Guofang Li and Dr. Nicholas D. Hartlep, leading scholars in the field of Asian-American Education, discuss obstacles to delivering quality education to Asian and Pacific Islander American (AAPI) students, the emergence and pervasiveness of the “model minority myth” (or “stereotype”), and how educators can actively center the needs and experiences of their AAPI students.
![Dr. Guofang Li and Dr. Nicholas D. Hartlep side-by-side headshots.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/GLandNH.jpeg?h=8869a3dd&itok=It89bQNM)
5 Tools for Teaching About Genocide
Facing History grants educators the opportunity to take advantage of five virtual tours, exhibitions, and professional development resources to navigate the challenges that arise when teaching about genocide.
![Definition of genocide stock photo.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/iStock-1082625266.jpeg?h=140710cd&itok=m-S9-c2_)
6 New Books on Genocide
Facing History identifies six books that elevate understudied aspects of multiple historical genocides and the connections between them to aid efforts of genocide prevention within a global climate of rising hate.
![Cropped Messengers of Disaster: Raphael Lemkin, Jan Karski, and Twentieth Century Genocides book cover.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/messengersofdisaster_large.jpeg?h=3e076d8c&itok=mTbBqYhr)
Competing Visions of Black Civic Participation
The approaches that Black leaders have embraced across space and time are numerous and have encompassed assimilationist and integrationist conceptions of social change, alongside contrasting approaches rooted in Black self-determination and nationalism.
![Photo of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X Talking](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-04/MartinLutherKing_MalcolmX_talking_photo.jpeg?h=1cd998b4&itok=24p0LYIf)
7 Classroom Resources on the Holocaust
International Holocaust Remembrance Day is Thursday, January 27th. This is a day when we remember the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, their loved ones, and the ways in which this incalculable tragedy has transformed our world. It is also a time for educators to ensure their readiness to integrate instruction on the Holocaust into their annual teaching plans.
![An image of a Samuel Bak Painting Man Reading by Giant Spoon](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-04/sameul_bak_painting_FH2ORD7891.jpg?h=bf0d9a15&itok=CT_zN84y)
Holocaust Denial: How Teachers Can Turn the Tide
Research released by the Claims Conference found that 49% of U.S. millennials and generation Z have seen Holocaust denial or distortion content online—and that one in five U.S. millennials and generation Z surveyed in New York believe that Jews caused the Holocaust. This toxic combination of ignorance allied with antisemitic hatred continue to permeate global consciousness, and teachers have an important part to play in turning the tide.
![Auschwitz photos taken of imprisoned children](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-04/holocaust_auschwitz_photos_of_children_imprisoned.png?h=a6c55029&itok=zvFo4qM3)