Throughout Mr. Gallagher’s Facing History and Ourselves class, I have found myself constantly questioning the world around me and how I have an impact on it. The barrage of primary sources that Mr. Gallagher has provided our class with throughout this past semester has enriched my sense of responsibility for the events that take place around me. More specifically, three lessons that took a significant impact on me in this light were “The Bear That Wasn’t”, “The Milgram’s Test”, and most importantly, the first hand documentation of the Holocaust in “Remembering the Death Camps”. These three pieces of information have made me understand the danger of the bystander and how important it is to retain your personal values in times of extreme turmoil. Ultimately, this class has taught me how important it is to uphold your intellectual individuality and in doing so; always have the strength to stand up for your morals and beliefs.
“The Bear That Wasn’t” is a children’s story depicting a bear that is in constant question of his own identity. Throughout the story, the bear is constantly badgered by outside individuals who are in complete denial of his identity as a bear. Though he insists that he is actually a bear, nobody believes him and his identity as a bear in the world begins to falter. Though others are constantly trying to persuade him of his false sense of identity, the bear remains persistent on retaining his own identity. This sense of identity, overall, the most important message I derived from the story.
The story taught me that much of one’s identity is dependent upon one’s own self image. The bear’s sense of knowledge and identity remains constant throughout the story. Despite the turmoil that he experiences throughout the story from the society he is involved in, he never escapes his own self image. He stays confident in his ability to think and identify himself in the outside world and does not fall victim to other people’s interpretations.
In addition to the children’s story, “The Bear That Wasn’t”, the video of “The Mailgram’s” also had a major impact on my interpretation of my impact on the society around me. The test’s portrayal of individuals voluntarily administering health threatening electric shocks to other individuals was stunning. The fear of authority, and the notion that they were simply “doing their job” seemed to be sufficient enough for them to harm individuals. Even when the individual being shocked pleaded for the test to end, the person on the other end continued to up the voltage. This video seemed a microcosm of what happened in Nazi Germany throughout 1933-1945. People, who were under the impression that they were simply doing their job, were ultimately killing millions of people. They seemed to completely lose their ability to individually interpret a situation when given the notion that it was for the good of the country.
This documentation of the Milgram’s test, once again, made me realize how important it is to maintain the ability to think individually under the influence of authority. This definition of authority is not limited solely to authority figures who are in power in our society, but also to leaders of groups of friends. On a day to day basis, I bear witness to leaders and followers and typically if the leader of a group dictates that something is “cool” or “uncool”, followers of the group will mold their opinion to best fit in with the leader. The Milgram’s test made me realize how important it is not to sacrifice your personal opinion simply to fit in with a group. In essence, the video showed me to always use my set of morals as a reference before using that of the groups. In addition, if there is a conflict between the morals of the individual and the morals of the group it is an individual’s responsibility to themselves to confront the group. In short, and not to sound too cliché, it is vital that one must always stand up for their beliefs no matter the circumstance. In the modern day environment of Westborough High School I feel there is a significant lack of this ability. This, specifically, is why this class is so important to our school system. People blindly accept facts and opinions without ever questioning the source and validity of the information. This class aims at attacking traditional thought and questioning it to expose the bare boned truth of a matter. In short, the class teaches you not to be a bystander.
Out of all the videos that we watched in class, the one video, in particular that had the greatest impact on me was “Remembering the Death Camps”. The raw, uncut footage captured throughout these videos was both horrifying and fascinating. This video was the most incredible video I have ever seen. I had never gotten a full grasp on the horrors of the holocaust up until seeing this video. Seeing the expressions on the faces of the victims as they were being starved to death truly showed the utter hopelessness of their situation. This simply showed how dangerous it can be to allow yourself and other around you, to be bystanders. People were merely sitting on the sidelines of these camps watching the dead bodies being shoveled into the burial pit. This showed me that, in order to never allow such events to take place again, it is important to never become a bystander. One must always apply their individual thought into any situation they are involved in.
In conclusion, the Facing History and Ourselves class has showed me how important it is to never sacrifice your intellectual individuality. This class has shown me to always use my own, personal, moral compass when determining the right and wrongs of a situation. Moreover, I personally think that this class is vital to the education of Westborough High School Students. I feel that the values that I have gathered throughout this class will be reflected the same way upon others that take the class. In essence, this class will not merely educate those who participate in it, but, in addition, will develop every participants capacity as a human being.