Turning Historical Events into Modern Reflective Inquiries
For years, every time we covered World War II and the Holocaust in school it was just a fact memorization activity. "Hitler was bad and did bad things." When I was afforded the opportunity to travel to Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic in college, I got to look at the Holocaust in a new light. It was not just a fact dump but instead a philosophical inquiry.
We used the Holocaust and the work of the Third Reich as a jumping off point to debate and consider questions like: How are values and ethics established in individuals, groups and organizations? What are the responsibilities of leaders to establish ethical climates in their organizations and communities? What are the responsibilities of followers and bystanders? How does this all relate to the world today?
This experience put the power into my hands to guide my educational experience and allowed me to truly reflect on not just events that happened in history but how and why they happen. Now as a World History teacher who covers both World Wars I and II, I attempt to provide this same energy and power to my students by bringing historical dilemmas and events into modern terms that promote inquiry and self reflection.
Summer after my Sophomore Year of College
Josh Britton, 23, High School History Teacher
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If the World Had Been Watching
I read this quote in a Starbucks cafe two weeks before final exams.I was completely focused on the overwhelming cluster of due dates standing in between me and graduation. One of the deadlines that was rapidly approaching was my annotated bibliography for my Senior Seminar. I had chosen the Rwandan genocide, thinking I would have a large amount of information to create a decent paper. The genocide stemmed from Hutu extremists calling for the mass extermination of the Tutsi people after blaming the Rwandan Patriotic Front, a Tutsi rebel group, for the death of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana. This ultimately led to the death of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.I was indifferent to this issue as it was merely to be another ten page paper that I planned to procrastinate until the last minute. As I scoured the internet for a variety of sources regarding the mass genocide of nearly one million people, I came across a quote posted on the United to End Genocide website.
“Rwanda can be a paradise again, but it will take the love of the entire world…and that’s as it should be, for what happened in Rwanda happened to us all – humanity was wounded by the genocide.”
– Immaculée Ilibagiza, Rwandan author
Rwanda. A country that experienced a mass tragedy in the short span of 100 days was forgotten about. Kurt Cobain had just been found dead in his apartment and the FIFA World Cup were capturing the attention of the United States. America had turned it's head to mass killing of almost a million people. This quote by Immaculée Ilibagiza shows me that we let down humanity on April 6th, 1994. We turned away from a problem that was "too big for us to face". But in the face of injustice that this quote address, I was able to find hope. For this isn't the end. Rwanda CAN become a paradise. But we must nurture it with empathetic arms. We must see the victims as our community rather than a series of statistics. We wounded humanity by our silence, but it is not too late to turn this mindset around. The first step at a better tomorrow rests in being aware. Our ignorance hurt Rwanda. We must make ourselves aware of these dilemmas in an effort to prevent them from happening again. By making ourselves aware we are able to place ourselves in the victims shoes. Like the quote says, "what happened in Rwanda happened to all of us. Humanity was wounded by genocide". Humanity can also stop genocide through making ourselves aware. My humanitarian moment was in a Starbucks cafe where I discovered that the same wound that humanity received from genocide is the same wound that can be healed through love.
“Rwanda can be a paradise again, but it will take the love of the entire world…and that’s as it should be, for what happened in Rwanda happened to us all – humanity was wounded by the genocide.” – Immaculée Ilibagiza, Rwandan author
November 2018
Cynthia Tomaselli, 21, Student
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