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[CCBC-Net] Holocaust for Children (long)
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From: Monica Edinger <monicaedinger>
Date: Sat, 22 Apr 2006 10:03:58 -0400
KT, I'm not at all surprised those 3rd -5th graders didn't know about the Holocaust. I've learned never to assume anything about my 4th graders' prior knowledge. Often something comes up that I expect them to know about and they don't. I figure this could mean they never encountered it or that it was encountered and forgotten for reasons having to do with the nature of the engagement and/or their developmental readiness. And so when the Holocaust has come up in my classroom, I'm not surprised when some of the kids express a lack of familiarity with it.
Yes, as Norma Jean pointed out, I'm very lucky to be teaching where I do. But my students' moral, emotional, and intellectual development is not different from others' their age who may not have their fortunate circumstances. If they are not ready, they are not ready.
Ed, I sure hope I don't underestimate my students' capacities for complex and difficult stuff. While I certainly do not shy away from the Holocaust when it comes up in my classroom (see the next paragraph), it is not a topic I'd chose to consider with them in depth as I simply do not think they are ready for it developmentally. Especially as, like you, I feel so strongly that any Holocaust study does need ample historical context.
Fran, curious as to what they'd think I did read aloud Sendak/Kushner's Brundibar when it first came out, but the kids weren't that taken with it nor interested in going further with it in terms of learning more. Ii'm not sure (and the kids sure weren't) what to make of it as a children's book; is it today still about a bully, the Holocaust, or what?
Lelac, you raise a difficult and delicate issue. One I recall from my own childhood and one I've observed among my 4th graders. This is the titillation aspect. It is a hard one to consider, but kids do look at the horrors of the Holocaust as they do other (to them) wierdnesses and oddities. Just as you remember reading Daniel's Story at a sleep-over I remember sneaking into my dad's study and looking at a book of concentration camp images which fascinated me the same way I was fascinated by (to me) strange photos in National Geographic. If we try to ignore this, pretend it isn't happening, or simply scold kids for doing it I think we aren't going to help them really understand what they are looking at.
And finally, I'm so glad that Dipesch mentioned Kohlberg's stages of moral development. Most of my 4th graders are at those early more concrete ones. As part of our study of forced immigration, we do a guided reading of an adaptation of Olaudah Equinao's slave narrative and there are many situations the kids struggle with such as understanding how Olaudah could possibly forgive Captain Pascal who betrayed him by selling him. Seems to me the Holocaust presents a perhaps even more difficult array of questions, ones students at a further stage of moral development will be better able to grapple with than mine. And perhaps better able to remember.
Monica
Date: Sat, 22 Apr 2006 10:03:58 -0400
KT, I'm not at all surprised those 3rd -5th graders didn't know about the Holocaust. I've learned never to assume anything about my 4th graders' prior knowledge. Often something comes up that I expect them to know about and they don't. I figure this could mean they never encountered it or that it was encountered and forgotten for reasons having to do with the nature of the engagement and/or their developmental readiness. And so when the Holocaust has come up in my classroom, I'm not surprised when some of the kids express a lack of familiarity with it.
Yes, as Norma Jean pointed out, I'm very lucky to be teaching where I do. But my students' moral, emotional, and intellectual development is not different from others' their age who may not have their fortunate circumstances. If they are not ready, they are not ready.
Ed, I sure hope I don't underestimate my students' capacities for complex and difficult stuff. While I certainly do not shy away from the Holocaust when it comes up in my classroom (see the next paragraph), it is not a topic I'd chose to consider with them in depth as I simply do not think they are ready for it developmentally. Especially as, like you, I feel so strongly that any Holocaust study does need ample historical context.
Fran, curious as to what they'd think I did read aloud Sendak/Kushner's Brundibar when it first came out, but the kids weren't that taken with it nor interested in going further with it in terms of learning more. Ii'm not sure (and the kids sure weren't) what to make of it as a children's book; is it today still about a bully, the Holocaust, or what?
Lelac, you raise a difficult and delicate issue. One I recall from my own childhood and one I've observed among my 4th graders. This is the titillation aspect. It is a hard one to consider, but kids do look at the horrors of the Holocaust as they do other (to them) wierdnesses and oddities. Just as you remember reading Daniel's Story at a sleep-over I remember sneaking into my dad's study and looking at a book of concentration camp images which fascinated me the same way I was fascinated by (to me) strange photos in National Geographic. If we try to ignore this, pretend it isn't happening, or simply scold kids for doing it I think we aren't going to help them really understand what they are looking at.
And finally, I'm so glad that Dipesch mentioned Kohlberg's stages of moral development. Most of my 4th graders are at those early more concrete ones. As part of our study of forced immigration, we do a guided reading of an adaptation of Olaudah Equinao's slave narrative and there are many situations the kids struggle with such as understanding how Olaudah could possibly forgive Captain Pascal who betrayed him by selling him. Seems to me the Holocaust presents a perhaps even more difficult array of questions, ones students at a further stage of moral development will be better able to grapple with than mine. And perhaps better able to remember.
Monica
-- Monica Edinger The Dalton School New York NY edinger at dalton.org monicaedinger at gmail.comReceived on Sat 22 Apr 2006 09:03:58 AM CDT
