|
NEXT GENERATIONS; CHILDREN OF REMEMBRANCE
NEXT GENERATIONS recently embarked on an Oral Testimony Project. The first phase of this project has been a program for middle and high school students in Palm Beach County. The goal is to inform and inspire middle and high school students by sharing the stories of children of Holocaust survivors and to help students better understand the experiences of growing up in families that have experienced trauma, uprooting, loss, persecution and necessary emigration from their homelands.
The Oral Testimony Project documents the experiences of children of Holocaust survivors. Through videotaped interviews, a story begins to unfold about the children who have risen from the ashes and grown up in the shadows of the Holocaust.
These personal, individual testimonies with their common themes will ultimately emerge as a powerful, valuable teaching tool. New generations of Immigrants, their children and those born into families who have experienced trauma, persecution and loss, as well as educators and researchers will gain valuable insight into the lives of children of Holocaust survivors.
In the preliminary phase of this project, we produced the DVD and introduced it to students in four Palm Beach County schools. Two were middle schools: Loggers Run Middle School in Boca and Palm Springs Middle School in Lake Worth. Two were high schools: Boca Raton Community High School and Palm Beach Gardens High School. Students included those classified as ESOL and gifted as well as students in the Holocaust Studies elective course. The DVD was accompanied by two of the persons interviewed and they discussed their experiences and answered students questions after viewing the DVD.
We found that many students are curious about what happened to survivors and their families after liberation. A significant number of Palm Beach County students themselves identify with these stories because they are from refugee families who have experienced violence in their own countries. Surprisingly we have learned from our 2007 Pilot Project that immigrant students resonate with stories of the second generation’s experiences as first generation Americans.
The evaluations provided us with excellent feedback. Four teachers rated the DVD as “excellent” and one as “good.” We determined that we needed to embed the DVD project in a complete curriculum unit that is geared especially for ESOL students and students taking the Holocaust as an elective. The curricula needs to be adapted for the learning goals of each classification.
We are now in the midst of developing a curriculum for ESOL students as well as students who have elected to study in the Holocaust and Human Rights/Genocide programs. The curriculum will be completed and tested this Spring. We expect to reach over 300 students in this phase of our project.
|
