Last month the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed a bill requiring Massachusetts public schools to teach the history of genocides. You can read more about the law with this link to the WGBH article. As the next step in that legislative process, Governor Charlie Baker, just last week, signed S.2557, An Act Concerning Genocide Education, into law. Beginning in the 2022-23 school year, this law requires every school district to, for the purpose of educating middle and high school students, provide instruction on the history of genocide consistent with the content standards in the Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Framework. The new law also creates a Genocide Education Trust Fund to support a newly formed grant program and other initiatives administered by DESE.
Pentucket, though, is ahead of this legislation with classes taught at the high school, as well as with content embedded into other core 7 through 12 courses. At the elementary level, there have been adjustments to our curriculum resources with Social Studies texts that have recently been adopted and with the new literacy curriculum, “Wit and Wisdom.”
Students struggle to understand how and why we are capable of both incredible acts of violence but also of unbelievable acts of generosity and selflessness. High school social studies teacher, JC Honer, has been engaging with these concepts since 2013 when he created and implemented the semester long course, Genocide and Humanitarianism. Throughout the semester, 11th and 12th grade students read about survivors and perpetrators of the Congolese, Armenian, Holocaust, and Rwandan genocides and the world’s reaction to these events. Students also study, research, write, and present about topics surrounding genocide and the human response such as restorative justice, human nature and perspective, and “upstanders.” Eyewitness testimony is used to help students understand the complexity of both genocide and humanitarian acts of decency and kindness. Students have also had the opportunity to hear from subject matter experts including a panel presentation on genocide with survivors and offspring of the Holocaust, the Armenian and the Rwandan genocides. Pentucket parent and St. John’s Prep educator, Joe Lovett, often presents on behalf of the Holocaust Legacy Program.
Facing History and Ourselves has been the cornerstone for content and resources in the course and film has also been a powerful medium. Students often connect with the message in Schindler's List as they journal throughout the film chronicling what they saw, questions they have, and other reflections about the content.
“The State Legislature is creating a wonderful opportunity for students in the Commonwealth to engage with genocide education. While a challenging subject, these lessons provide people with incredible stories of survival, resiliency, and ultimately, hope for a better future.” - JC Honer, Social Studies, Pentucket High School
In 11th and 12th grade, World History students confront these difficult concepts as well. In our newly reorganized World History curriculum and text book (McGraw Hill's World History and Geography 2018 version), students investigate primary sources and learn, first hand, from those who lived through these ordeals. An example of such text is:
“She [Armenian eyewitness] saw vultures hovering over children who had
fallen dead by the roadside. She saw beings crawling along, maimed, starving and begging for bread… She passed soldiers driving before them… whole families, men, women and children, shrieking, pleading, wailing…setting out for exile into the desert from which there was no return.”
- Anita Engle (Spielvogel, 2018, p. 697)
Examples of sources used in 11th and 12th grade World History
Our 4th graders across the district have engaged in a Wit and Wisdom unit that focuses on similar content through the reading of biographies but more connected to their age. One of these being Anne Frank. The unit provided the students an opportunity to learn more about the experiences Frank had as a young child during the Holocaust and to understand the historical context of that time period. Additionally, the students culminated the module by formulating written responses about how one of the people featured in the biographies demonstrated a “great heart.” This required students to closely analyze the text. Here is a great student example of how they used textual evidence and further connected it to the knowledge they built around the challenges Anne Frank faced during the Holocaust.
Fourth grade teachers shared how this learning experience impacted the students:
“The significance of using her biography is that it gave fourth graders an example of a great hearted person in their age range as Anne Frank demonstrated perseverance and courage. We were impressed with the level of empathy expressed by students as they had a hard time imagining themselves in that situation. The biography deepened their understanding of a figurative great heart because it made it real to them.” - 4th Grade teacher in Pentucket
In 7th grade ELA, students are currently reading Linda Sue Park’s, A Long Walk to Water, based on the “Lost Boys of Sudan” and the main character’s, Salva’s journey to safety. In 8th grade ELA, this is the first year students will be reading Refugee by Alan Gratz. This Historical Fiction, tells the story of three different perspectives of characters during the Holocaust, the Syrian Genocide, and the civil unrest in Cuba. Through these texts, students begin to further understand the human experience and mass atrocities that have taken place globally.
It is important that our students learn what happens when we dehumanize people but also what can be done to respond and prevent such acts in the future. As we learn more about genocides, we come to realize that it has occurred across the globe for centuries and continues to happen in modern time, which makes the topic so powerful for students to learn. Just in the past century, examining the atrocities and what led up to each of them teaches us a great deal about the trends. This research driven site, Our World in Data, reminds us that these events occur far too often and in many places that most of us do not realize.
Roser, M. & Nagdy, M. (2013). “Genocides.” Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/genocides
Our district continues to focus on embedding social and emotional learning throughout our curriculum and developing empathy is one of the key aspects in our schools. Of course, to do this, our students at all grades must tackle and comprehend complex text, primary and secondary sources and engage with high quality curriculum while having skilled teachers provide the necessary scaffolds and structures for all students to be successful. Learning about genocides but also the brave responses of humanitarianism provides great opportunities for our students to connect how they can help make the world a better place for all.
Brent Conway
Assistant Superintendent
Dr. Robin Doherty
Gr. 7-12 Instructional Coach
Keith Sherman
PRHS Social Studies Teacher