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"I teach seventh grade reading in Nevada. Over 90% of my students receive free/reduced lunch. Most of my students are English Language Learners with many students arriving to America within the last five years.
My students have no idea what the Holocaust is. They are thirteen years old and live in ... " MORE "I teach seventh grade reading in Nevada. Over 90% of my students receive free/reduced lunch. Most of my students are English Language Learners with many students arriving to America within the last five years.
My students have no idea what the Holocaust is. They are thirteen years old and live in America. How could this have happened? It's our responsibility as teachers and adults to ensure we never let this happen again, but yet, so few of our students have even inkling about the Holocaust. I cannot express to you the fear I feel when I think about that fact. Incredibly, the Holocaust and history in general is not taught in elementary school and in sixth grade. For many of my students, they become aware of the Holocaust at the end of seventh grade, which is covered briefly in conjunction with World War II. After that, my students probably won't hear anything or learn anything about World War II and the Holocaust until high school. As a result, most of my students have little to no knowledge about the true story of the Holocaust. What they will learn is the pop culture references that often belittle Hitler, but without any references to the six million people who were brutally murdered or how we can prevent human beings from doing this again. However, our school library doesn't have the funds to purchase a class set of The Book Thief for our class. As the state of Nevada has experienced serious budget cuts. In conjunction with my team history teacher, we would like to buy a class set of the award-winning book "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. The book, told from the perspective of Death, tells of the story of a German girl who lives in a Nazi Germany and how the regime destroys her family when they hide a Jewish friend. It also details how the family stands up to the local Nazi party, but also suffer the consequence. The book touches on the theme of the cruelty and beauty of humanity. I would teach "The Book Thief" in conjunction with Night by Elie Wiesel and other Holocaust memoirs. My history teacher will also provide the historical context for what happened, which lead to the overall question about genocide today. You can help over a 100 students realize that the Holocaust was more than a passing reference. Your donation will make it possible for students to understand that while we are human, we are capable of losing our humanity. We also have the power to prevent what happens when people do lose their humanity. My students need 23 copies of "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. HIDELive Updates
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Kelly H. (staff member)
on Mar 30, 2009
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