Greetings FHAO 2006-2007 students

[freemanjud]

Hi folks,

You are constantly having "FH" moments, from what I hear. As you have them--and as you have something to say to fellow students/future students, feel free to post here. We look forward to hearing from you.

[KukumlimaWorms]

Just noticed the new names for the FHAO sections-- vegetables, very nice. Glad to see section 61 is aubergine-- although I should point out on behalf of my brother (who was nicknamed The Eggplant by Mr. Aversa) that eggplants are a fruit.

[fishermanjoe]

So for my Intro to Nursing class each person has to write a paper about the role of nursing in something, and the paper I'm peer-reviewing is on the role of nursing in euthanasia during the Nazi era. It's making me miss Facing History so much and I'm really sad that I didn't decide to write about that.
Much love,
Sophia.

[runwscissors]

I learned recently that most things that we think of as fruits are, botanically speaking, actually berries.
Anyway, I'm taking a class about museums, and how museum curators have the power to create meaning using the objects in the collection, how national identity can be displayed in museums, and how people's worldviews can be confirmed by museums. We've talked a lot about how Native Americans can often be found in museums of natural history - suggesting that they belong to nature, to history, and do not have a role in present day society. There is also a question of "primitive" art - does it belong in an art museum, or in an ehtnographic museum? Anthropologists for a long time placed a high premium on "pre-contact" items to preserve traditional native culture, even though this denies that those cultures could possibly have had any contact with anyone besides white people. Now we're starting to talk about repatriation of Native American artifacts - countless objects were taken, especially during the late nineteenth century, when the conventional wisdom was that native people were doomed to extinction so we should take their stuff and preserve it for when they're gone - which has taken many forms and is becoming increasingly common.
The class has largely presented museums as seats of power. People go to museums expecting to learn something new, to be presented with facts by the exhibits they view. I've been thinking a lot about all the many museums we visited with Facing History, and questioning if that's a bad thing. Granted, my class has focused on ethnographic and art museums, so it doesn't necessarily hold, even though much of what we're learning is related.
Just thought I'd share, and hope all is well (especially for the class of 2008 - happy first semester, or whatever you're doing!)
Peace,
Becca Bilodeau

[The_Great_Kahn]

I had a question for my fellow facing history alums. What do you think of heroes? Are they real? Can any one person affect life around them in a way that no one else could? Have heroes become relics of the past in the new modern era? I struggle with these questions while I search for perspective. I look for meaning, and purpose, and yet I question their very existence because I question whether anything I can do is so truly unique from any other person. If I did not exist, would the things that I end up doing, be done by someone else?

I know its an odd question, and probably one which will sit here unanswered. But I thought I would pose it anyway.

All the best,
Ian Dyer-Bennem