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April 21, 2006
Holocaust studies for teens
Lesson planner is reminded of what teaching is really about.
SHULA KLINGER
When you are Jewish, you are quite used to thinking about the Holocaust.
You think about it alone, mourning the victims and reading the literature.
You think about it in conversation with other Jewish people, sharing
your stories and learning about each other's families. Our common
history binds us and we find comfort in knowing about the journeys
of others.
It is an odd experience, then, to approach the Holocaust from the
perspective of curriculum development. It's a subject taught in
schools, where, rather than being raised in a moment of private
contemplation or grief, it's part of a lesson plan involving a teacher,
a group of students, a textbook and a grade assigned at the end
of it all.
In early February, I began developing a lesson about the Holocaust
as part of a social studies course for Grade 11 students at the
school where I work. At South Island Distance Education School,
there are few face-to-face classes and many courses are offered
online.
I oversee the process of course development, helping teachers integrate
online discussions and group activities in online courses. In this
particular case, teacher Dr. Lloy Falconer was responsible for deciding
what would be taught and how the students would be assessed. Falconer
and I then worked together to develop appropriate activities and
assignments with the help of multimedia developer Sunsanee Intaphong.
Falconer wanted to take a new approach in the lesson on the Holocaust
so that it would be different from the rest of the social studies
course. We did not want to raise feelings of guilt and shame in
the students. We talked instead about themes of reverence, humility,
respect, tolerance, curiosity, hope, kindness and diversity.
As we worked, we had many conversations about the ethics of teaching
the material. We talked about what it means to assess a learner
who is reading this material for the first time. What constitutes
evidence of learning in this situation? Instead of readings, quizzes
or short essays, we designed a contemplative space, which allows
students to respond in a range of different ways.
Each page of the lesson begins with a quote by Anne Frank.
In order to establish the right tone in our lesson, we sought guidance
from the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre (VHEC). Having discovered
a wealth of excellent material on their website, we were delighted
when VHEC gave us permission to reproduce it for our students.
Students have three choices for their final project. They can submit
a piece of artwork (either digital or handmade); they may write
a series of letters to a person who lived through the Holocaust,
or who perished; or they can develop a short lesson of their own
for their peers (and school staff) to take. All of these assignments
are tied to discussion questions in the course's forum area: Why
do we study the Holocaust in school? How should we study it? How
old should a person be before they learn about it in school? What
is an appropriate memorial for those who perished?
I started work on this project feeling self-conscious, aware that
I was the only Jewish member of our development team. I felt as
though I was intimately connected to the material we were developing
but, strong as my feelings were, I wanted to seem organized, efficient
and sensible about the whole endeavor. But I soon found that, even
as we struggled with deadlines and the requirements of the high
school curriculum, the conversation took a new and heartfelt turn.
I have been deeply affected by the ways in which our normal process
changed to suit the subject matter. Our conversations have reminded
me of the spirit in which lessons can be developed. It is not a
series of cold logistics, but a set of decisions that pay attention
to the warmth of our emotions; our values and beliefs about the
ways in which history has shaped our present.
Most of all, this experience has reinforced the sense that it is
indeed our present, a coming together of people who reached this
place in history via many different routes. It has given me the
feeling that even if, 60 years later, we cannot give a succinct
answer to why the Holocaust happened, everyone who studies this
subject must still ask the question. And in the asking, the students
become scholars: both of a difficult academic subject and of their
own reactions, values and beliefs about humanity. Where is the darkness
in human nature? Where is there light and hope for the future?
In this single school lesson, we hope to challenge students' minds.
We challenge them to examine history in a spirit of respect and
humility. We emphasize the importance of learning from history,
reinforcing the sense that, even living in the present, we are all
intimately connected to the past.
Shula Klinger is a freelance writer living in Richmond.
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