Lesson Overview

Students sometimes see the study of history an irrelevant exercise in memorizing a bunch of facts about dead people. But many current debates are directly related to historical memory – specific narratives created and upheld by groups of people about events in history – also called collective memory. For example, should we: Re-name buildings or remove statues honoring Confederate heroes or slave traders? Suspend high school students “sneaking” coded white nationalist images into yearbooks or taking to social media to share photos of their Hitler-style salutes? Exclude uncomfortable stories from state-approved social studies curricula?

This lesson provides students with an opportunity to explore the function of public remembering. Using clips from the film The Silence of Othersstudents will learn about Spain’s Amnesty Law, a law that gave amnesty to officials from the Franco dictatorship who committed atrocities and forbade investigating about their crimes, leading to a “Pact of Forgetting”. They’ll hear from victims about the impact of silence, and use what they learn to write about a current event related to historical memory.

OBJECTIVES

In this lesson, students will:

• Learn about “The Pact of Forgetting” as a response to the end of Franco’s fascist dictatorship in Spain, and about Spain’s transition from a dictatorship to a democracy.
• Explore the different functions of individual and collective memory
• Understand the impact of silence on victims of crimes committed by the state, including crimes against humanity.
• Write a blog post or letter to the editor indicating their position on a current event or policy involving historical memory

GRADE LEVELS:9-12

SUBJECT AREAS

• History (World War II; Civil War; Jim Crow)
• Civics / Government
• Current Events
• Research Skills
• Global Studies
• Language Arts
• Law & Justice
• Civil Rights Movement
• Political Science
• Philosophy
• Human Rights
• International Relations

MATERIALS

Film clips and a way to screen them in class; Internet access or hard copies for each student of the initial reading.

ESTIMATED TIME NEEDED:1 class period, plus homework