“The present is just an accumulation of every little event in history.”

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A high school senior shares her insights about civic participation after completing the Facing History class “Democracy in Action.”

For the past two school years Facing History students in New York state have participated in a pilot civics elective curriculum. This elective, designed to align with New York’s Seal of Civic Readiness that students can earn on their diplomas, intertwines the history of US Reconstruction, current events, and civic participation.

Schools have always played an important role in preparing young people to understand and participate in democracy. However, in recent decades, competing priorities for the time and attention of educators has left little room for the integration of civic education. But research shows that there is widespread support for teaching civic education, and Facing History is helping to support schools and educators eager to lift up civic learning for their students.

Facing History is extremely well-positioned to do this work through our approach to civic education. For decades, we have helped young people develop informed civic responsibility through our pedagogical strategies and curricular resources. From our historical case studies to our collection of resources exploring current events, we teach students the following:

• to discern facts from misinformation
• to connect history with the world around them
• to engage empathetically and constructively with others who have different identities, experiences, and perspectives
• to collaboratively explore solutions to complex problems

Erica Hodgin, Facing History’s Director of Civic Education, recently interviewed students who participated in a course drawing on the New York civics elective curriculum. In the following conversation, Erica sits down with Ava F., a 12th grader from Chappaqua, NY who took her school’s “Democracy in Action” class. Ava shares her takeaways from the experience, including what she liked, where she sees room for improvement, and the most profound lessons she learned during the course.

Erica Hodgin: I want to start by asking, what was the most interesting thing you learned or took away from your Democracy in Action class?

Ava: The most important thing I learned this year from the Democracy in Action class is that everyone really does have a voice and there are so many ways to become involved in your community. And what I’ve learned is that the most important thing when becoming involved in your community is really just to leverage all your resources. Resources can mean anything. That can mean your teachers. That can mean friends. That can mean people you’ve never met before. Social media and the internet in general is also a great tool to reach out to people. I think that just the internet in general. The saying that there is strength in numbers really does hold true with civic agency. That’s something that I’ve really seen to be true.

Erica: At the beginning of the class, you talked about what it means to be an American, and in particular your story, your voice, and your identity within our country and our society. Can you tell me a little bit about what it was like to think about your identity and your history and how that shapes your view of our society and the world?

Ava: We started off the year with an identity unit and this was about ourselves and getting to know our classmates more. We were in pretty small classes, which I think is much more conducive to this type of learning where it can get very personal at times. I would say that we really dug deep into not only who we are, but how we are. And by that, I mean, we really try to tell each other our stories and also reflect honestly and try to be introspective. I walked away from that portion of the class being reminded that everyone’s story and identity and all the different parts that can make a person influences their views and the way they approach things. People have all sorts of different experiences, even just in my pretty small class. There were students with all sorts of backgrounds that really did influence the way they looked at things.

I didn’t know how important that part of the class was until later. Everyone’s individual identity can affect how they work with others and how open they may be to accepting new ideas. For example, in our civic agency project at the end of the year where we explored an issue in our community, there were people with all sorts of different ideas and maybe things they felt passionate about. And I think that it’s important to balance the idea of, “Okay, everyone has an individual identity, but we also have a community identity, you know, in our schools, towns wherever that may be.”

Erica: I know you studied the Reconstruction Era in your class. Can you talk about those lessons?

Ava: We did lots of lessons about Reconstruction and I think that was a really good base for looking at democracy and different levers of power. We also explored other marginalized groups, but I think that the American legal system and democracy is a big part of it. The Reconstruction Era really did influence how other groups were treated in the US justice system, and of course how the African American community was treated.

Erica: How did studying the Reconstruction Era impact your thinking about issues that we’re facing in our society today?

Ava: I think that after that unit it was very clear to see how African Americans and Black Americans have faced so many systemic issues, which is of course something that I already knew, and I think a lot of other students in my class did too, but I think it really just reaffirmed that idea and made us more aware of it because after we looked at Reconstruction, we looked at current day issues like police brutality and other injustices that marginalized groups, including African Americans, face in the US.

I also think it kind of shined the light on how important history is to the present day. The present is just an accumulation of every little event in history. I think it was a very important part of the class.

Erica: Did your class talk about challenging issues that we’re facing in our society today? And if so, do you feel like it helped you build different skills or develop more comfort and confidence when talking with folks who may disagree with you or have a really different perspective than you do?

Ava: We definitely looked at present day issues, especially how they related to past issues in the US. One of the most memorable lessons for me was talking about unhoused people and homeless encampments in the United States because I think it’s something that’s not typically talked about in school, or at least in my academic experience so far. And it is something that can be uncomfortable because it’s very emotional, of course, to see people struggling so, so much. And I think the biggest thing with that is it created more comfort, but more comfort being uncomfortable. I think that’s the most important thing because, you know, in politics, education, whatever it may be, nothing happens if no one is ever uncomfortable. Being uncomfortable is kind of just a part of life and a part of learning. This course definitely made my class more comfortable being uncomfortable with ourselves and each other about these difficult, often very emotional topics.

Erica: I want to ask about the civic engagement project that your class did. Can you tell me a little bit about what you worked on?

Ava: My class chose the topic of the ChapLine. We live in Chappaqua and the ChapLine is a proposed 1.6 mile trail that would be a 10 foot wide walking and biking trail that connects the high school area of the town to the lower village in part of the town—kind of the downtown area.

We got interested in this topic because so many different topics were floated: affordable housing, different social justice issues involving race, different things with different economic groups. But we arrived at this one because we agreed it tied into a bunch of the topics, including environmentalism because the more people you have walking cuts down on carbon emissions.

Through our research we also found that the ChapLine would just be better for the community because it could connect certain low-income housing apartment buildings to the downtown so people who don’t have a car or reliable transportation could be more involved in the community. We then compiled a presentation of all of our research at a town hall, specifically focusing on funding methods that could be used to make the ChapLine possible.

Erica: What would you say are your biggest takeaways from doing that project that you think you might draw upon in the future?

Ava:  I would say my biggest takeaway was to always dig deeper and always keep asking questions. I think it really reaffirms that there’s usually more layers to a story than you may think. And to not be afraid to be uncomfortable. And to not let a fear of being rejected or someone just not really interested in what you’re doing get in the way of your mission.

Erica: Are there any other takeaways or things you learned from the class that you would like to share?

Ava: I would say, and my peers would also agree with this, that I learned that everyone does have a voice and can make a very strong impact on their community—whether that be a community, their town, their school, their state, or even their country. I also think it’s important to balance that knowledge with just recognizing that some people’s voices will be more readily received by some people than others. If you’re a part of a historically marginalized or discriminated group, then there will be some people who may not be as accepting of you in certain spaces. So we must recognize inequities, but also believe in ourselves.