[hr-education-na] Multi-media Holocaust curriculum now accessible by students

Published Thursday, March 30, 2006 
Baco Raton News
by Nicol Jenkins

Boca Raton students will soon be able to hear real-life accounts from
Holocaust survivors.

And they won't have to leave the classroom- they can simply turn on the
T.V.

The School District of Palm Beach County has added Echoes and Reflections,
a multimedia curriculum on the Holocaust. The Anti-Defamation League
(ADL), Shoah Foundation, and Yad Vashem have partnered to distribute the
curriculum.

The ADL and Florida Atlantic University (FAU)'s Center for Holocaust and
Human Rights Education trained 30 Palm Beach County teachers and
administrators on the curriculum this week.

"Our focus is on inspiring students to confront lessons of the Holocaust
with lessons of today involving issues of racism and discrimination," said
Andrew Rosenkranz, Florida Regional Director for ADL. "We hope students
will connect history with contemporary issues. The overall purpose is to
teach children to become active, caring members of society, so when they
become adults they will do everything they can to make the world a better
place."

Rosenkranz said Holocaust education is "state mandated."

"It's the law that Holocaust studies are part of the high school
curriculum," he said.

Palm Beach County has required Holocaust studies for kindergarten through
grade 12. However, Rosenkranz said, this curriculum will provide
multi-media tools. The lessons involve DVD's with first-hand accounts from
Holocaust survivors, maps, photographs, and timelines. The lessons will
also touch on various historical accounts including the rise of Hitler,
the ghettos, and Jewish resistance, he said.

"The curriculum forces students to make connections between issues of
cultural diversity, intolerance and genocides," he said.

Eileen Shapiro, School District Holocaust Studies Program Planner said the
new Holocaust curriculum will be offered to Palm Beach County high schools
and some eighth-grade classrooms. Representatives from Olympic Heights,
Spanish River, Boca Raton High and West Boca Raton High schools received
training.

Shapiro said the curriculum would "enhance" Holocaust lessons already in
existence.

"This multi-media curriculum will provide testimony from Holocaust
survivors. Teachers can use the DVD and stop it to explain to the
students," she said. "It's like having a survivor with them."

The district currently has other Holocaust programs, including Generation
to Generation, where students are paired up with a Holocaust survivor. The
student will then tell the survivors story in later years to continue the
testimony.

Shapiro said these programs are important for future generations to
remember Holocaust history.

"When people say there never was a Holocaust, the students can say that's
not true, I heard a survivor speak," she said. "We don't want them to
forget."

The programs also help students deal with current injustices, she said.

"We try to teach children to stand up for what's right and just," Shapiro
said. "Every voice counts."

 
Source:
http://www.bocaratonnews.com/index.php?src=news&prid=14757&category=Local%20News

 

 

======== North American Human Rights Education listserv =======
Send mail intended for the list to <        >.
Archives of the list can be found at:
http://www.hrea.org/lists/hr-education-na/
**You are welcome to reprint, copy, archive, quote or re-post this
item, but please retain the original and listserv source.