As LA area schools go back to school, we want to feature the new "Back to School Toolkit" from Facing History. Each day this week, we will showcase one part of the toolkit.

By using the fourth lesson from the Back-to-School Toolkit, classes get to collaborate on something that can guide them and serve as a touchpoint for the whole year – the classroom contract. While it can seem like a simple exercise, the importance of this lesson should not be minimized. It provides the opportunity for the entire community to have a voice and a stake in establishing the tone for wrestling with important ideas, conversations, and learning. 

Did you know that two students helped get the word “upstander” in the dictionary? They studied the importance of speaking up and making positive change, and were surprised that the term -- coined by diplomat Samantha Power and popularized by Facing History and Ourselves -- wasn’t already recognized. So they worked, as upstanders do, to find a solution.

Arianne Edmonds has upstanding in her DNA. Her great, great grandfather:

• testified at a Congressional hearing despite threats of violence
• started one of the early newspapers in Los Angeles for the Black community
• advocated directly for increased voter registration by African Americans

Facing History and Ourselves sat down with Arianne at the California African American Museum on April 29, 2019 to discuss her journey to bring the story of Jefferson Lewis Edmonds to more people.  

"Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you." - Ruth Bader Ginsburg

When educators gathered for our Los Angeles Partnership School Network Symposium at the Skirball Cultural Center earlier this year, they came to share ideas, learn from one another, and, as an extra bonus, visit the museum’s Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The exhibit was perfect inspiration for schools which cultivate upstanding in their schools.

Did you interact with Facing History resources in the past, but it has been a while since you looked into our latest work? 

Every year, Facing History Los Angeles convenes our partnership schools for a summit on school culture. Students, parents, teachers, and administrators consider key ideas in how to create a more compassionate, engaged school community that can delve together into the critical issues of our times.

Our October 2018 Summit on School Culture focused on the role of allies in seeing and standing up against injustice, beginning with the documentary And Then They Came for Us. This film clearly activated the intellectual rigor, emotional engagement, and ethical reflection of our pedagogical triangle for the students, teachers and parents in attendance. Whether you attended the event or not, this film, accessible for free on our web site, offers you a timely resource for promoting engaged citizenship and dialogue in your community.