By Joan C. McKinney, director of university communications
CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. - 青瓜视频 hosted about 70 teachers and students who learned about 鈥淭eaching the Holocaust in Today's Schools鈥� at a day-long seminar recently at the Hawkins Athletic Complex.
The workshop was designed specifically for Kentucky's public middle school and high school teachers and was meant to enable them to gain awareness about teaching on the subject of the Holocaust. 青瓜视频 and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) co-sponsored the event.
Presenters were Dr. David Lindquist, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Regional Museum Educator from Indiana, and Lolle Boettcher, USHMM Regional Museum Educator from Missouri. Dr. Robert VanEst, 青瓜视频 associate professor of education, coordinated the event with the museum and presenters.
Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear recently signed into law a resolution expanding opportunities for Kentucky public schoolchildren to learn about the Holocaust and other acts of genocide.
House Joint Resolution 6 directs the Department of Education to make curriculum materials on the Holocaust and genocide available for optional use in public schools by March 2009.
John Chowning, vice president for church and external relations and executive assistant to the president, founder of the Kentucky Heartland Institute on Public Policy (KHIPP) program at CU, said the Holocaust session was an 鈥渋mportant service CU is providing to the area,鈥� he said.
CU's KHIPP presented 鈥淐auses and Lessons of the Holocaust鈥� with Victoria Barnett, staff director of church relations at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USCHM) in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 17, 2007, and, as a result, 鈥淭eaching the Holocaust in Kentucky's Schools鈥� was held on campus.
Topics listed in the plan included: Rationales for Teaching the Holocaust, Historical Overview of the Holocaust, Teaching Guidelines, Resources for Use in Researching and Teaching the Holocaust, Using Technology to Teach the Holocaust, Personalizing the Holocaust: Oral History/Survivor Testimony and Opportunities for Teacher Research and Study.
Dr. Carolyn Garrison, associate professor of education at CU, was one of the professors attending the workshop and said, 鈥淚 have become more knowledgeable about the various groups targeted for persecution and annihilation, during this genocidal event from 1933 to1945.
鈥淚 also learned about the different kinds of concentration camps, political and killing camps,鈥� she said.
鈥淥ne of the most poignant understandings I developed as a result of this workshop was how important it is to help students develop an understanding of the individuals who perished instead of focusing on the numbers鈥�11.5 million who perished, 5.5 million of whom were Jews,鈥� Garrison said. She said it is important to focus most importantly on the stories about individuals involved鈥攑ersonalizing the Holocaust.
Garrison said to teach about the Holocaust, teachers must use documented, accurate information and resources. She said some materials actually include inaccurate information about that time period.
She also said some books such as 鈥淔our Perfect Pebbles,鈥� a survivor testimony written for third graders, are not appropriate for that age group due to content.
She said examples of books recommended for older readers include the trilogy 鈥淣ight, Dawn and Day,鈥� all three books written by Elie Wiesel, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Wiesel was a teenager when he and his family were taken from their home in 1944 to the Auschwitz concentration camp and then to Buchenwald. 鈥淣ight鈥� is a record of his 鈥渕emories of the death of his family, the death of his own innocence and his despair as a deeply observant Jew confronting the absolute evil of man.鈥�
Some of the PowerPoint slides presented by Lindquist and Boettcher included information about the solution to the Holocaust lessons - including personalization.
The slides said, 鈥淲e must move 鈥榝rom a welter of statistics, remote places, and events to one that is immersed in the 鈥榩ersonal and the particular (Totten, 1987).It was not the death of six million; it was the death of Isaac and Jacob, of Ruth and Sarah.鈥�
That presentation also included the suggestion that we avoid the tendency to over generalize.
Lindquist and Boettcher said everyone's experience during the Holocaust is unique, and stories need to be told of the families 鈥� mothers, fathers, children and grandparents. When teaching about the Holocaust, teachers need to always contextualize as to time, place and situation.
Participants in the workshop received DVDs, books and other resources to use.
All of the resources posted on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum have been carefully documented for accuracy, Garrison said. The Website www.ushmm.org includes survivor testimonies and exemplary lessons.
青瓜视频 is a private, comprehensive institution located in South Central Kentucky. Founded in 1906, 青瓜视频 is affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention and has an enrollment of 2,405 students who represent 98 Kentucky counties, 25 states and 29 foreign nations. Listed in U.S.News & World Report's 2008 鈥淎merica's Best Colleges,鈥� CU is ranked 22nd in 鈥淏est Baccalaureate Colleges鈥� in the South and eighth in the South for 鈥淕reat Schools, Great Prices.鈥� CU has been ranked 15 consecutive years with U.S.News & World Report. The university has also been named to America's Best Christian Colleges庐. 青瓜视频 is located 82 miles southwest of Lexington, Ky., and 80 miles southeast of Louisville, Ky. Dr. Michael V. Carter is in his ninth year as president.