History of Hate and tolerance

The history of hate and tolerance is one of my favorite classes I have taken at Fountain Valley to date. This course centered around studying the context and build-up of major conflicts around the world. Some of the main topics covered were genocide, the ten stages of genocide, the Israel Palestine conflict, religous background, and most importantly how to discuss tough topics in a respectful and meaningful manner. The most enjoyable part of this course was learning about many different cultures and how they interact, for better or for worse. As an assignment for this class, My fellow classmates and I led a unity day workshop about the Rwandan genocide. We discussed how this genocide could have been prevented, how it was encouraged, and how the leading world powers stood by as millions were massacred. I was able to create this presentation and come to my own conclusion about the impacts and causes of this genocide due to the skills I learned in the History of Hate and Tolerance. The second quarter of this class was focused on researching a certain conflict more in depth than what we studied during the first quarter. I chose to study the Israel-Palestine conflict, more specifically the way the borders had changed and why they had changed. This project forced me to do lots of thorough research in order to understand both the Israeli and Palestinian perspectives, and how these views caused the many conflicts in the region. As I studied this conflict, I became more and more infatuated with understanding how perspective and education affect modern day conflict. This war had been going on my whole life, and I had no clue about it until I had taken a world history class in my Sophomore year. I did not want to ever be this ignorant to such an important topic ever again, so I decided to always be more aware of the surrounding world and global issues.