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Facing History’s unique approach combines adaptable teaching materials, professional learning, and ongoing support to equip teachers with the tools and practices they need to help students fully engage in their learning. Our continuously growing collection of resources are designed to promote academic rigor, social-emotional learning, and create connections between the complexities of history and today.
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Staging the Compelling Question
Students are introduced to the themes of the compelling question by responding to a quote from James Baldwin that sparks their thinking about the complexities and contradictions within US history.
Supporting Question 1: The Nation’s Founding Ideals
Students explore the supporting question "What does the Declaration of Independence state about the nation’s founding ideals?"
Supporting Question 2: Founding Ideals Versus Realities
Students explore the supporting question "What contradictions existed between the ideals and the reality of the founding of the United States?"
Supporting Question 4: Memory of the Founding
Students explore the supporting question "How should we remember the nation’s founding?"
Supporting Question 1: The History of the Angel Island Immigration Station
Students explore the supporting question “How did the Angel Island Immigration Station both reflect and enforce borders within American society?”
Supporting Question 3: Navigating the Borders of National Belonging
Students explore the supporting question “How does the history of immigration through Angel Island help us understand how we create and challenge borders today?”
Supporting Question 2: Defining Democracy
Students explore the supporting question, “What can democracy mean in the United States?”
Supporting Question 3: Using Democratic Tools to Pursue Freedom
Students explore the supporting question, “How have people used the tools of democracy to fight for their freedoms in the United States?”
Staging the Compelling Question
Students explore the compelling question, “How can we make real the ideals of democracy and freedom?”
Supporting Question 1: Defining Freedom
Students explore the supporting question, “What can freedom mean in the United States?”
Mother and Child during Armenian Genocide
An Armenian mother and child flee persecution by the Turks at the height of the Armenian Genocide.
The Artist and His Mother by Arshile Gorky
This image, which is on the cover of Facing History's publication Crimes Against Humanity and Civilization: The Genocide of the Armenians was painted by the artist Arshile Gorky. It is based on a photograph of Gorky and his mother, Sushan der Marderosian, taken in 1912. Although Gorky is generally identified as an American artist, he was born Vosdanig Adoian near the city of Van in what was then the Ottoman Empire. A few years after the photograph was taken, Gorky and his mother were victims of the Armenian Genocide. While he survived, Gorky remembers his mother dying in his arms. As an artist Gorky returned to the subject of the 1912 photograph many times throughout his career.