My name is Zach Howe, a student at Westborough High School Westborough High School Westborough High School Rugby in the spring. I see myself as an average b range student. So taking the Facing History and Ourselves Course was for me a great decision because it allowed me to view my emotions on what Mr. Gallagher sees as groundbreaking historical moments. I have used the reactions that I have found in me to gauge myself as a person and to see how my decisions and the ways my views on life have changed because of the Facing History Course taught by Mr. Gallagher at Westborough High School.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Make a Difference Essay
Making a difference is not just a thing that you do by yourself. You try to live by making a difference and encouraging others themselves to make a difference. This is what Mr. Gallagher taught me during his facing history class. He taught me that if you truly wanted to change something you have to live your life trying to make this difference. Living your life to the fullest and the way that you want will allow you to make the changes that you want to make for yourself. Not being a person that judges others before they even have the opportunity to show you what they are good at or what they want to do with their lives; their dreams. There are dream killers out there who live their lives to the fullest by being mean and spiteful to others just to get a kick out of them and make them happy. They are life stealers; they steal a person’s dream and in essence steal what that person wants to do for themselves. I have seen through the holocaust movies that Mr. Gallagher has shown throughout the course that the Nazis are the prime example of dream killers. Not only did they take the Jewish Community’s lives they also stole the Community’s dreams. The Nazis stole the youth of the Jewish Community, they stole their innocence and in its place they put dread. This is not what you do to a Human Being. You do not take their dreams and destroy them, you want to help someone feel appreciated and good for themselves so they can soar to the heights that they want to.
Looking back on what we did this year for this class I really just want to point out all of the great things that Mr. Gallagher hit upon and wanted us to understand from an adult point of view. He never wanted to make us look small and take it upon himself to be the one that was the only adult in the room. He allowed everyone to make their own choices and decide for themselves what he was presenting meant to them. Going back to the wave and what it did to the school to provide us with a look on what the Nazi experiment was and still is a success if it is allowed to be developed by someone. It will ultimately go out of control without the proper control elements in place to stop certain things from happening. To stop the people from rebelling away from the government that is allowing them to feel patriotism for their own country.
Mr. Gallagher stressed the point that people must be the ones that change things for everyone. Not one person can force a change; it must be a group of people that want this change in order for it to occur in the first place. He asked us “Why do the German people stand around and DO NOTHING.” I feel like I know the answer to this question now, and it is the reason that they want to conform and not be the one person that goes against their Nationality. Your nation is everything that you want to be and more, the idea that you belong to a great nation brings a sense of pride that you do not want to lose. This pride makes you what you are and to go against your nation is to change your pride.
One person in Germany who saw the death camps and helped them to start the killings through the use of Zyklon B was Kurt Gerstein. This man was one of the sanitation SS officers whom did not support the killings of the Jewish people and tried at every chance to alert people of the plight of the Jewish people. He went out of his way to tell the Pope and he still did nothing to stop the killings. Kurt was one person and he tried as hard as he could to stop the killings. One person is not enough to stop a country when it is rolling as fast as it can to madness. Kurt was found dead in the POW prison where he was taken when he was confessing and providing evidence to the murders of the Jewish people. He was either killed by fellow SS officers or he killed himself. Kurt was an honorable man and people such as this should be remembered by everyone as shown in this facing history course. He was one of the Germans that viewed the Jewish people as real human beings and felt dread whenever he saw more train cars going into the death camps. He knew that it was because of his sanitation duties that the Nazis found a quicker and easier way to kill millions of innocent people.
When I look back to when I was figuring out what courses I wanted to take for my Senior year I feel as though that I wouldn’t change this class. I learned so many things through this process of thinking and not having to cram for homework, tests, and quizzes. The facing history course allowed us to think without the underneath of school work to stop us from just expressing ourselves through blogging. This course has changed the way that I think of a human being and the life that they represent. They represent another human that is trying to find their way through life just like me. They deserve no less than I do. Life doesn’t always view human life as equal, but we ourselves should see each human life as equal and allow them to thrive under our own leadership and equality. Human life is precious and no one should be judged by the way that they look or the way that they talk, but by the amount of character that they have and the effort that they give to be a good human being. By being a good Human being they are being themselves. That is what Mr. Gallagher taught me with this Facing History and Ourselves Course and Westborough High School.
Looking back on what we did this year for this class I really just want to point out all of the great things that Mr. Gallagher hit upon and wanted us to understand from an adult point of view. He never wanted to make us look small and take it upon himself to be the one that was the only adult in the room. He allowed everyone to make their own choices and decide for themselves what he was presenting meant to them. Going back to the wave and what it did to the school to provide us with a look on what the Nazi experiment was and still is a success if it is allowed to be developed by someone. It will ultimately go out of control without the proper control elements in place to stop certain things from happening. To stop the people from rebelling away from the government that is allowing them to feel patriotism for their own country.
Mr. Gallagher stressed the point that people must be the ones that change things for everyone. Not one person can force a change; it must be a group of people that want this change in order for it to occur in the first place. He asked us “Why do the German people stand around and DO NOTHING.” I feel like I know the answer to this question now, and it is the reason that they want to conform and not be the one person that goes against their Nationality. Your nation is everything that you want to be and more, the idea that you belong to a great nation brings a sense of pride that you do not want to lose. This pride makes you what you are and to go against your nation is to change your pride.
One person in Germany who saw the death camps and helped them to start the killings through the use of Zyklon B was Kurt Gerstein. This man was one of the sanitation SS officers whom did not support the killings of the Jewish people and tried at every chance to alert people of the plight of the Jewish people. He went out of his way to tell the Pope and he still did nothing to stop the killings. Kurt was one person and he tried as hard as he could to stop the killings. One person is not enough to stop a country when it is rolling as fast as it can to madness. Kurt was found dead in the POW prison where he was taken when he was confessing and providing evidence to the murders of the Jewish people. He was either killed by fellow SS officers or he killed himself. Kurt was an honorable man and people such as this should be remembered by everyone as shown in this facing history course. He was one of the Germans that viewed the Jewish people as real human beings and felt dread whenever he saw more train cars going into the death camps. He knew that it was because of his sanitation duties that the Nazis found a quicker and easier way to kill millions of innocent people.
When I look back to when I was figuring out what courses I wanted to take for my Senior year I feel as though that I wouldn’t change this class. I learned so many things through this process of thinking and not having to cram for homework, tests, and quizzes. The facing history course allowed us to think without the underneath of school work to stop us from just expressing ourselves through blogging. This course has changed the way that I think of a human being and the life that they represent. They represent another human that is trying to find their way through life just like me. They deserve no less than I do. Life doesn’t always view human life as equal, but we ourselves should see each human life as equal and allow them to thrive under our own leadership and equality. Human life is precious and no one should be judged by the way that they look or the way that they talk, but by the amount of character that they have and the effort that they give to be a good human being. By being a good Human being they are being themselves. That is what Mr. Gallagher taught me with this Facing History and Ourselves Course and Westborough High School.
Works Cited
Zyklon B. Google Images. Image. 14 January 2011.
jew-bwa-ha-ha. Google Images. Image. 14 January 2011.
the_great_wave_off_kanagawa. Google Images. Image. 14 January 2011.
hitler. Google Images. Image. 14 January 2011.
jew-bwa-ha-ha. Google Images. Image. 14 January 2011.
the_great_wave_off_kanagawa. Google Images. Image. 14 January 2011.
hitler. Google Images. Image. 14 January 2011.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)