{"id":12055,"date":"2017-02-28T16:13:40","date_gmt":"2017-03-01T00:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/?p=12055"},"modified":"2017-02-28T16:13:40","modified_gmt":"2017-03-01T00:13:40","slug":"asking-big-questions-with-the-2017-facing-history-student-essay-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/asking-big-questions-with-the-2017-facing-history-student-essay-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"Asking Big Questions with the 2017 Facing History Student Essay Contest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Facing History’s essay contest prompts students to reflect on civic participation and ethical decision-making by asking them to write about a person or text that has shaped the way they think about what it means to make moral choices.<\/em><\/p>\n

I came to the teaching profession with big ambitions. Like many readers of this blog, I imagine, I\u2019ve always loved learning, and I enjoy the effervescent and unpredictable company of kids. As a first-generation college graduate, I know firsthand how education can transform an individual\u2019s life. But I also entered the classroom with the conviction that schools have a communal and civic purpose, too\u2014that they are the root and heart of democratic societies. It\u2019s one thing to hold these lofty beliefs and it’s something entirely different to know how to teach towards those civic aspirations every day, lesson by lesson and semester by semester. There\u2019s so much to teach\u2014such big swaths of history and literature, so many facts, dates, and vocabulary words, not to mention how to read a primary source or write a research paper. The pressure of passing along all this knowledge can leave little space for wisdom.<\/p>\n

After a few years in the classroom, and especially after I connected with Facing History and Ourselves, I began to find ways to connect my daily practice of teaching with my larger sense of purpose. One of the most powerful tools was also the simplest to use: asking students the right questions. Nearly everything we study in middle and high school classrooms, no matter how remote or particular, opens onto some larger question. In high school US History and European History survey courses, my students and I could explore, \u201cWhat are the conditions for creating a just society?\u201d In a middle school literature course, reading Lord of the Flies<\/em>, To Kill a Mockingbird<\/em>, and Romeo and Juliet<\/em>, we could ask, \u201cWhat are the forces that shape a young person\u2019s moral growth? How do we learn to tell the difference between right and wrong?\u201d When students can orient their learning about generative questions like these, they make powerful connections between school, self, and society. And they begin to ask their own big questions, too.<\/p>\n

Each year, Facing History and Ourselves holds an essay contest built around a great question\u2014the kind of question that makes a bridge between knowledge and wisdom. The contest is a chance for students to practice skills, create a polished and thoughtful product, and maybe even win a scholarship or prize. But our contest, too, has a larger purpose, because we see writing as a tool for thinking, a process that helps students to reflect, to discover their own ideas, and to enter into a conversation with both classmates and strangers.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s contest centers on Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel\u2019s observation about ethical decision-making: \u201cLet us not forget, after all, that there is always a moment when the moral choice is made. Often because of one story or one book or one person, we are able to make a different choice, a choice for humanity, for life.\u201d We invite students to write an essay about a person, story, or book that has influenced their own thinking about ethical decision-making and civic participation. We hope teachers will share this contest with their students and use it as a way to meet some of their own larger purposes in the classroom. Most importantly, we hope young people take the opportunity to explore their own voice and to be inspired to always ask big questions about the world around them\u2014especially after they move beyond school walls.<\/p>\n

Want to bring the 2017 Facing History Together Student Essay Contest to your classroom? Read the official contest rules<\/a> and visit the contest site<\/a> for more information. Student submissions will be accepted starting March 1 at 9:00 a.m. EST through March 15 at 9:00 p.m. EST.<\/p>\n

By Laura Tavares
\nOriginally Published at Facing History<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facing History’s essay contest prompts students to reflect on civic participation and ethical decision-making by asking them to write about a person or text that has shaped the way they think about what it means to make moral choices. I came to the teaching profession with big ambitions. Like many readers of this blog, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":12058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[345],"tags":[580,903,905,906,859,904],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12055"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12055"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12057,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12055\/revisions\/12057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}