A seminar devised to help high school teachers better approach the Holocaust is coming to an end.
Started six years ago by a 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis faculty member, 鈥淭he History and Memory of the Holocaust鈥 workshop aims to help secondary English and history teachers better understand the Holocaust and then develop lesson plans on the subject.
鈥淭he idea for the workshop came about when I offered to talk to my son鈥檚 10th-grade world history class, and his teacher said she didn鈥檛 know how to teach the Holocaust. She felt that it鈥檚 too overwhelming,鈥 said Diane Wolf, a professor of sociology and director of the Jewish Studies Program at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis.
Wolf partnered with the 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis History Project, which provides professional development for the region鈥檚 teachers, to develop an academic seminar that incorporates scholarly talks, films, reading and discussion. The group of about 20 also travels to the Jewish Family and Children鈥檚 Services Holocaust Center in San Francisco, where participants can explore the archive and speak with educators. They also hear from survivors.
The program has been funded by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which contributes half the budget, and money raised by Wolf from private donors. The money from the Claims Conference is no longer available, which means the workshops will end.
Laima Haider, a teacher at College Park High School in Pleasant Hill, first attended the workshop in 2013 and has since returned to share her lesson plan with other participants.
鈥淚 struggled with teaching the Holocaust for years,鈥 she said. 鈥淗ow do I teach the future about something so important to remember? My old curriculum was overly simplified. With the help of [this program], I now have a detailed and telling study of the Holocaust for my students.鈥
California has a mandate to teach the Holocaust in 10th-grade world history class, but how it is covered varies depending on the teacher, said Morgan Blum Schneider, director of education at the JFCS Holocaust Center. Connecting with teachers is vital.
鈥淲ith each teacher we estimate that 100 students are reached in a year,鈥 said Blum Schneider. 鈥淎nd many teachers feel intimidated by the subject. They don鈥檛 want to teach it wrong. That鈥檚 where we come in. We want to try to provide the resources and help give confidence that they can do this in a really powerful way.鈥