Week 1: Countering Hate

This week’s theme focuses on hate and the power of story to counter it.

Students will explore hate in a variety of ways. They will learn how acts of “othering” or exclusion leads to hate, they will learn about its many manifestations and the impact it can have on individuals and groups and through explorations of their own story, will build their critical thinking skills and empathy to counter hate and inspire courage and respect.

Week 2: Responding to Racism

This week’s theme focuses on racism, its manifestations and impact through multiple perspectives.

Students will explore racism through close reading of testimony, they will learn how racism is promoted through the idea of Us v. Them and they will learn about the power of protest and identifying ways to counter racism, equipping  students with the knowledge, skills and capacities to create positive change and inspire respect.

Week 2: Responding to Racism

This week’s theme focuses on racism, its manifestations and impact through multiple perspectives.

Students will explore racism through close reading of testimony, they will learn how racism is promoted through the idea of Us v. Them and they will learn about the power of protest and identifying ways to counter racism, equipping  students with the knowledge, skills and capacities to create positive change and inspire respect.

Week 3: Defending Civil and Human Rights

Students will explore the topic through close reading of testimony, they will learn how civil and human rights is a foundation of a democracy, the role of values and civi responsibility in a democracy. And through the story of  indigenous Guatemalan activist and Peace Prize recipient, Rigoberta Menchú Tum’s experience, students will explore citizenship through careful reading of testimony. To end the week, students will explore civil rights in the past and present with a focus on the ways in which different groups have undergone struggle to achieve civil rights in the US.

Week 4: Building Community

Students will explore the topic through close reading of testimony, they will learn how culture helps to foster a sense of community, students will learn about the relationship of community and law enforcement, and explore topic of marginalization and its impact.

Week 5: Inspiring Respect

Students will explore how respect can serve to counter prejudice. They will consider the role of identity in making choices to become a bystander and they will build their communication skills that promote respect. The week will close with an examination of the many forms of non-violent resistance.

Week 6: Countering Intolerance

Students will engage in close of reading of text as they consider various forms of intolerance, including racism. Resources available this week provide students with opportunities to consider the topic of acceptance, its manifestations and its impact on individuals – both when it exists or doesn’t exist. Finally, students will explore the concept of empathy, which focuses on students’ own capacity for it and the understanding that it plays a critical role in promoting justice and in countering hate and intolerance.

Week 6: Intolerance

Students will engage in close of reading of text as they consider various forms of intolerance, including racism. Resources available this week provide students with opportunities to consider the topic of acceptance, its manifestations and its impact on individuals – both when it exists or doesn’t exist. Finally, students will explore the concept of empathy, which focuses on students’ own capacity for it and the understanding that it plays a critical role in promoting justice and in countering hate and intolerance.

Week 7: Women/Women's Rights

Resources this week engage students to think about the experiences of women in a variety of contexts. First, students will analyze the role of women and resilience in post-genocide Rwanda, they will explore justice and equality for women in the context of human rights and stories of leadership. The week will close with a series of Information Quests called  “Women You Should Know.” These feature three women: a war crimes trial participant, a survivor of the Nanjing Massacre and survivor of the Armenian Genocide.

Week 8: Immigrants and Refugees

Through this set of resources, students learn about the immigrant and refugee experience, including specific definitions for migrant groups, the processes by which newcomers settle into their new home countries and the complex and difficult experience it can be. Students also explore the topics of acculturation and language, the American dream and they consider the concepts of continuity and change through an analysis of time and place in one highly diverse community in southern California, Boyle Heights.

Week 9: Fostering Cross-Cultural Understanding

A critical element in countering hate and inspiring respect is an understanding of culture and learning to value cultural differences. Therefore, this week’s resources engage students in an exploration of cultural identity and notions of “melting pot” and “salad bowl” in terms of the Americanization process, including in the context of the Native American experience. To end the week, we offer resources in which students consider culture and resilience in the face of xenophobia, stress and uncertainty.

Week 10: What Does Courage Look Like?

Through this set of resources, we invite students to consider the topic of courage. Students can explore courage in the context of topics including values and individual agency. Students also learn about the act of protest undertaken by non-Jewish German individuals, mostly women, who in 1943 called for the release of 2,000 incarcerated Jews at the Jewish community center in Rosenstrasse, Berlin.

Week 10: What Does Courage Look Like?

Through this set of resources, we invite students to consider the topic of courage. Students can explore courage in the context of topics including values and individual agency. Students also learn about the act of protest undertaken by non-Jewish German individuals, mostly women, who in 1943 called for the release of 2,000 incarcerated Jews at the Jewish community center in Rosenstrasse, Berlin.

Week 11: Countering Violence and Violent Extremism

Through an age-appropriate exploration of topics related to violence, students learn about the patterns and trajectories along a spectrum of human relations Irving Staub calls, the Continuum of Violence,” which can be used as a tool for understanding starting points of genocide. These resources delve into an analysis of sexual violence, including in the context of comfort women in Nanjing, and to close the week, students learn about the role of multiperspectivity in countering violent extremism.

Week 12: Indifference through Media

This week’s resources provide students with an opportunity to reflect on the relationship between media and indifference, they will explore the topic through the work of Elie Wiesel and they will explore the topic in an analysis of testimony and documentary film. The week closes with resources that focus on “changing the script” toward an exploration of personal responsibility and advocacy.

Week 13: Building Resilience

For this second to last week of the project, we offer resources that focus on resilience through a variety of ways. Students watch testimony of survivors who share stories of resilience, the challenges they faced and how resilience took many forms.  Finally, students consider their own resilience and its role in wellbeing.

Week 14: Fostering Civic Responsibility

For this final week of resources of this project, we make available a series of resources that engage students to consider the manifestations of leadership, to engage students in a reflection of personal responsibility and acts of everyday leadership, including countering genocide denial. Finally, we offer students a call to action around stepping up and making change to inspire respect – which always begins with them.