Activists are beginning to look beyond Darfur and realize that education may be our most powerful mechanism for developing permanent genocide prevention. The Genocide Education Task Force, a STAND initiative, calls for state legislation to mandate genocide education. Props to STAND for recognizing that education is the key. Now it's time to get more educators on board at the grassroots level - this is where students come in.
I wholeheartedly support genocide education. Something makes me nervous, however. Meet the worksheet.
Here's what some teachers might to do teach genocide.
Question 1: Who were the main actors in the genocide?
Question 2: Darfur is a ________ of Sudan. (Are you confused at what to insert in the blank? Yes, these worksheets are vague and confusing. I'm not giving you the answer).
Question 3: _______ civilians have been killed.
Question 4: _______ have been displaced.
Question 5: Another genocide in Africa happened ten years earlier in the country of:______
Are you bored yet? I am. Perhaps the greatest success in the Darfur student movement is the passion with which students approach genocide prevention. I don't want busy teachers sucking the relevance out of genocide with dry worksheets in order to fulfill state mandated curriculum requirements. I want these teachers to care.
A student at Lake Forest College started a group called Students Educating Students. The idea is this: students use their unique experiences to provide authentic education for other students about issues that are important to them.
It's time for students to take education into their own hands at the grassroots level. It's time for educators to create lessons on genocide that motivate passion, action, and academic integrity.
2 comments:
Well said, Ethan! Connecting facts to human emotion. Exactly - and this is what kids can take and run with.
First, I want to say that I am glad people are so passionate in stopping genocide. I regret to say that I am not very well educated in genocide related areas. Although this is not an uplifting subject, I think it is crucial to learn and teach about past events if we have any chance in preventing such events from occurring. In my conformation class, we just finished learning about the Holocaust. We read a book about one survivors experiences, which was they best way for me to learn. By hearing actual recollections I began to grasp the unreal events. I think that having students speak who have such life experiences is the best way to personalize the genocide. I wish I could be there to see the speakers and be a part of the activities!
Emily Milligan
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