Presenting full picture to students is key, experts say
LOU HIRSH
Managing Editor
What to teach about the Holocaust, and when to teach it.
The answers often depend on the comfort level of parents, teachers and students, but some observers tell Jewish News that the key issue is making sure that students - when they're ready to handle it - get the full story.
There is a general consensus that students really are not ready for a full education on what happened until they reach middle school, around the age of 13.
"Before that age, they really don't have a grasp of the history and circumstances that would help them comprehend what the Holocaust was," says Elaine Hirsch, resource center coordinator for the Bureau of Jewish Education in Phoenix.
Hirsch says experts agree that educators, particularly those in public schools, need to teach about the Holocaust in its full historical and social context. The goal should be to present the "joys of Jewish life," giving a picture not only of destruction, but of the lives of European Jews and their contributions to society before the arrival of Hitler's regime.
"You need to give students a sense of what existed in those communities years before the eve of World War II. You have to convey what was lost," says Hirsch.
Paul Wieser, social studies coordinator for the Pendergast School District, agrees that students before middle school are not able to entirely grasp the chain of circumstances that brought about the Holocaust. A number of works of Holocaust-related literature, he notes, provide effective ways to introduce to younger students the concept that intolerance is unacceptable. But he says popular, poignant pieces like "The Diary of Anne Frank," which is read in many public schools, don't offer much of a big-picture view of the Holocaust.
"Most of it is about what one family in hiding went through. There's nothing in 'The Diary of Anne Frank' about the ghettos, about anti-Semitism, about concentration camps," Wieser says.
Like most states, Arizona does not mandate Holocaust education in its public schools. Wieser says it is for the most part up to individual school districts to formulate their own approaches to the subject.
"Having a mandate is not necessary a blessing," says Wieser, who has taken a specialized program in Holocaust studies as a Mandel Fellow at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. In some cases, he said, "You get better programs when people want to do it than when they have to do it."
Rather than state mandates, Wieser says, there needs to be better education of educators to ensure that students are properly informed about the Holocaust.
To that end, the Bureau of Jewish Education will offer its third annual Educators' Conference on the Holocaust, slated for March 13 at Temple Beth Israel in Scottsdale. Presented in cooperation with the Arizona Council for the Social Studies, the day-long conference will include presentations by Wieser, as well as Holocaust survivors, bureau instructors and representatives of the Anti-Defamation League.
Hirsch says the conference has attracted educators from throughout the state and "about 99 percent" of the dozens who attended last year's event were not Jewish.
The bureau's resource center also has numerous Holocaust-related books, videos and pamphlets for review by parents, educators and students. Call 234-1645 for more information on materials or the upcoming conference.
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