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[CCBC-Net] teaching the holocaust
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From: Benita Strnad <bstrnad>
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 11:26:56 -0500
Several years ago I had an undergraduate student in education who worked in the library. She was a good student who had an average liking for reading. She was enrolled in the college of education and was majoring in special education. She took a young adult literature class taught in the School of Library and Information Science. In this course she was assigned to read the book "Thanks to My Mother" by Schoschana Rabinovici. When she finished reading the book she made the statement that she was now going to watch "Schiendler's List" again and this time it would make more sense to her.
I was astonished and the statement started a discussion that was one of those ah-ha moments for me. It was then that I understood that people can hear about something throughout their academic career and yet not understand it. By that I mean that they have no historical context in which to put the events that they are studying so the impact of the events and their relevance has no meaning. I do not know how or why this happens but I have seen it over and over again. I would like to have an explanation. It is obvious that developmental level has something to do with it when you are talking about small children, but how can this happen to high school students?
I have thought that perhaps it is relevance. The holocaust happened to somebody else in another time and another place. The old "it can't happen here" way of thinking. It could also be a question of the relevance of history in the lives of young people. Perhaps the way history is taught is so fragmented and convoluted that students of today do not see themselves as a part of the stream of history? As a result young people do not see themselves as a part of history.
Is the teaching of such subjects such as the Holocaust avoided because of a desire to avoid problems? Somebody pointed out earlier that we tend to avoid controversial topics so that conflict is avoided, but in doing so perhaps we have reduced the relevancy of history. How can you teach about the Holocaust without delving into the dark secrets of the past and exposing the fact that Jews were discriminated against even in our own country? How can you teach about the Underground Railway and not discuss the subject of slavery? How can you teach about slavery and not discuss the mass transportation of African's across the ocean under conditions designed to kill most of them? These things are not pretty and yet to gain understanding they have to be discussed. It is possible that we need to quit worrying so much about protecting children. Is exposing them to the truth going to get them to understand the reality with empathy and sympathy?
Another tangential question about teaching the Holocaust that I have is it possible to teach the Holocaust or any other historical subject using movies?
I was a K-12 school librarian in a small town (population of 350) in southwest Kansas in the 1980's. One day after school a couple of high school students and I watched the movie "Platoon." The horror of watching the soldiers terrify and burn an entire village was created with hoots and cheers by some of the students. I was horrified. I stopped the movie and asked the students what was funny about soldiers rousting people out of their homes and then burning the entire village. There was no answer. Then I told them that the town in which they lived had a population approximately the same as the village in the movie. How would they feel if soldiers came to their town and did to them what was done to those people in the village? The atmosphere in the room immediately changed and the movie took on a different meaning.
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 11:26:56 -0500
Several years ago I had an undergraduate student in education who worked in the library. She was a good student who had an average liking for reading. She was enrolled in the college of education and was majoring in special education. She took a young adult literature class taught in the School of Library and Information Science. In this course she was assigned to read the book "Thanks to My Mother" by Schoschana Rabinovici. When she finished reading the book she made the statement that she was now going to watch "Schiendler's List" again and this time it would make more sense to her.
I was astonished and the statement started a discussion that was one of those ah-ha moments for me. It was then that I understood that people can hear about something throughout their academic career and yet not understand it. By that I mean that they have no historical context in which to put the events that they are studying so the impact of the events and their relevance has no meaning. I do not know how or why this happens but I have seen it over and over again. I would like to have an explanation. It is obvious that developmental level has something to do with it when you are talking about small children, but how can this happen to high school students?
I have thought that perhaps it is relevance. The holocaust happened to somebody else in another time and another place. The old "it can't happen here" way of thinking. It could also be a question of the relevance of history in the lives of young people. Perhaps the way history is taught is so fragmented and convoluted that students of today do not see themselves as a part of the stream of history? As a result young people do not see themselves as a part of history.
Is the teaching of such subjects such as the Holocaust avoided because of a desire to avoid problems? Somebody pointed out earlier that we tend to avoid controversial topics so that conflict is avoided, but in doing so perhaps we have reduced the relevancy of history. How can you teach about the Holocaust without delving into the dark secrets of the past and exposing the fact that Jews were discriminated against even in our own country? How can you teach about the Underground Railway and not discuss the subject of slavery? How can you teach about slavery and not discuss the mass transportation of African's across the ocean under conditions designed to kill most of them? These things are not pretty and yet to gain understanding they have to be discussed. It is possible that we need to quit worrying so much about protecting children. Is exposing them to the truth going to get them to understand the reality with empathy and sympathy?
Another tangential question about teaching the Holocaust that I have is it possible to teach the Holocaust or any other historical subject using movies?
I was a K-12 school librarian in a small town (population of 350) in southwest Kansas in the 1980's. One day after school a couple of high school students and I watched the movie "Platoon." The horror of watching the soldiers terrify and burn an entire village was created with hoots and cheers by some of the students. I was horrified. I stopped the movie and asked the students what was funny about soldiers rousting people out of their homes and then burning the entire village. There was no answer. Then I told them that the town in which they lived had a population approximately the same as the village in the movie. How would they feel if soldiers came to their town and did to them what was done to those people in the village? The atmosphere in the room immediately changed and the movie took on a different meaning.
-- Benita Strnad Curriculum Materials Librarian McLure Education Library The University of Alabama Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you. Carlos Ruiz Zafon author of Shadow of the WindReceived on Thu 20 Apr 2006 11:26:56 AM CDT
