Teaching the Holocaust or slavery: Is role playing effective or fraught with problems?

My daughter’s drama class (8th grade) presented a Holocaust based play called “I Will Never See Another Butterfly”. It was not required attendance by the rest of the middle school, but many attended, especially the other 8th graders studying the period.
It proved to be very emotionally moving. The students playing the parts of victims and guards were deeply affected by the play acting required and the audience was in tears. A great creative way to present the realities of the time without singling anyone out.

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Bernadette
The work you mention is from a child’s perspective, to be sure, but it is also from the perspective of the Terezin camp, the realities of which were light years removed say, from Przymsl…in the end, it is trivial pursuit…

As much as I stand in awe of the Danes and their rescue and however good some of those memoirs are, the child comes away from reading the “suggested” works there with the idea that the persecuted were saved by their neighbors.

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@SoccerMom, Let me share with you a bit of my experience before you presume to judge me.

From 1st through 12th grade, I was tracked into the honors or advanced courses at my school. My district, a semi-rural, barely metro-area district was still largely segregating classes into the 1990s when I was attending (I entered Kindergarten in 1990 and graduated from a different district in 2003). The honors/advanced classes were exclusively white or Asian (2 or 2 students of Asian descent out of an average of 30 students; there was 1 student from India, as well) until I was in 4th grade when 2 African American students were admitted to the program. I stayed in this system until my Junior year and never had more than 5 non-Asian, non-white students in my classes with the exclusion of arts or physical education courses that were not tracked in the same way. The on-level courses where over 50% African American, the below level classes over 80% African American or other. Few, if any, students in the honors/advanced classes received Special Education or ESOL services as those services were usually scheduled in conflict with the honors/advanced classes. No matter how exclusive these honors/advanced classes were, there were still behavior problem students, same as in any other class.

As a student in the honors/advanced (and later gifted) track, I was academically challenged and I believe I received a superior academic education; however, I was not exposed to the diversity or challenges of the real world that are important for students to learn about before becoming adult citizens of the world. I missed out on learning to work with people who didn’t look or talk like me. I missed out on being challenged to become a leader by having to be a role-model or example for less high achieving peers. I missed out on learning from persons who might not have excelled academically, but were exceptional artists, athletes, “out of the box” thinkers, et cetera. I missed out on learning compassion from being exposed to and interacting with the very disabled or challenged. I missed out on being exposed to a broad range of world views and experiences.

Going to school is NOT just about attaining knowledge. If it were, the most highly gifted children would not be required to attend. Rather, it is also about socialization, acculturation, and learning to deal with and work with people who are not like you. The real world is not a bubble. We all live, work, and deal with people who are different from us, who we might not like, who we think are inferior to us, and even those who are better than us. School cannot and should not be a bubble, either.

Obviously, you disagree. However, as an educator, I will continue to advocate for inclusion and differentiation as the best practice, not just for the ELL, Special Education, or 504-Plan students, but also for the students as a whole. I base my advocacy on my experience as a student, my experiences as an educator, and my understanding of the available research. I have worked with extremely disabled students who are also exceptionally, mind-bogglingly gifted. I have worked with gifted students who shouldn’t really be labeled as gifted. I have worked with EBD students who can do mathematics on a college level, in middle school. I have worked with ESOL students (yes, probably even illegal aliens, but we can’t ask) who out-score their white, non-immigrant peers. I will never and can never support the (I believe) wrong-headed notion that just because a student has been labeled as Special Education or ESOL they cannot and will not achieve. I also will never and can never support the (I believe) wrong-headed notion that just because a student has been labeled as gifted they can and will succeed at everything. Everyone is an individual, with strengths and weaknesses.

In my experience schools do track students, largely based upon CRCT or ITBS test scores and prior grades/performance. When there are disabled or ESOL students in an honors or advanced (AC as they say in my school) classes, they are there because they, just like the non-disabled students, deserve to be there based upon their test scores and performance. No test can show lazy (in fact, in my experience laziness in class can sometimes mean boredom due to the work being too easy) and no matter how you group students you will still have some bad apples in each group. This can either become a bone of contention or it can (and should) be used as a teachable moment.

Mary Elizabeth and I have respectfully agreed and disagreed on points in the past, but we always try to keep it civil. Can you please show us the same respect?

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When I was a high school English teacher, I entered some of my students in a countywide dramatic competition. I selected the play, “The Diary of Anne Frank,” and I directed some of my students in a few meaningful scenes, which I had chosen from that play. The effort must have been of high calibre because my students were awarded with the first-place blue ribbon for that countywide competition.

As a teacher, I would hope that I would not have limitations placed upon the range of activities from which I might choose to expand the consciousness of my students. For some students, in some situations, in-depth and well-supervised role playing might enhance their empathy for the life experiences of others.

Moreover, role playing, of quality and care, may act as a transitional means for some students to move from a rudimentary intellectual understanding of historical events to a deeper understanding, both emotionally and intellectually, of those events. The below are words from my earlier post, today, which express how that transition might occur:

“Role playing may even increase students’ empathy levels and imaginations so that they might learn, eventually, to have empathy for others without the direct experience of role playing, but simply through reading of another’s situation.”

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If the teacher is that stupid, she shouldn’t be around children.

Why not order the Black kids to go out and pick cotton?

Seriously, she could have had them play the role of a merchant or farmer, but no, let’s pick the most sensitive subject under the sun and make a realistic recreation.

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I stand by my statement at 8:53 and my interpretation of the remarks by “Another Comment”.

@Brandy and Mary Elizabeth – There has been no disrespect shown by me to either of you. You have chosen to perceive insult where none was intended or expressed. However, your (M E’s) comments, paragraph 4 at 9:26, paragraph 2 at 11:09, and again at 12:51 come across as very patronizing. And, I might add, YOU are the one who brought up taxes. Just as at many other times, we hear the insinuation that, since someone is not a certified teacher (or so you assume), that person’s opinions are trivial, simplistic, or just uninformed. My suggestions were never intended or presented as the end solution to our educational ills.

And, Brandy, I appreciate where you came from. It is similar to the environment in which I grew up. I have not “presumed to judge you” but you don’t seem to have returned the favor. I, and my children with me, have daily dealings, working relations, and friendships with old people, young people, middle-aged people, whites, Latinos, legal immigrants, illegal immigrants, poor people, rich people, and people in the middle-class. We don’t live in a bubble. Soccer truly is the great equalizer

As a teacher of a non-academic subject, a tutor when needed, a mentor, and the mother of two children, I think I have an inkling of how children learn.

When I was a child, even elementary school was “phased”. I was also part of an experimental, blended-age class in elementary school where math was almost an independent study class. We each went at our own pace. Of course, these were the advanced students.

It is simple logic to conclude that rigor must be increased at the elementary level. There are too many gifted children (who coasted through elementary and middle schools and didn’t have to exert much effort in high school to achieve top honors at their schools) who have gotten into college and realized they never learned useful study skills and there are holes in their knowledge of (insert whatever subject you wish). Check out the dropout rates for gifted students. And let me give you a little sports analogy – good athletes improve when they train with and play against other good athletes. Their skills deteriorate when they constantly have to train with much lower level athletes. It is basically the same with academics.

And still we wonder why our students are behind the rest of the world!

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@SoccerMom, Thank you for your reasoned response. I have to admit that I feel the disconnect between our viewpoints, both of which are valid, is because I have worked with many students who have great hope, talent, or academic “gift”, but were denied access to the rigorous and challenging honors, advanced, gifted, or AP coursework, simply due to their being labeled as disabled or ELL.

It wasn’t that long ago that special educators were given the dregs of the school materials (whatever was left in the bookroom after regular ed (and gifted) had had its pick), where left to wilt out in trailers, were not expected to prepare such students for the rigors of on-level content, and were not required to provide that on-level content. Many, many, students fell through the cracks.

Unfortunately, things, at least in my district, still need significant improvement. I have worked with students with severe emotional and/or behavioral issues who were exceptionally gifted–and who benefited from an educator willing and able to accompany them into an AC or gifted course to make sure they were getting the content they needed and the support they needed. Several are now succeeding in regular ed (even gifted) on their own, with little to no support. I have worked with students who appeared incredibly physically disabled, but could out-score their highest achieving peers. . Is every special needs or ELL student a hidden gem? Of course not. Just as every “average” child is not either. But, I truly believe every child should be entitled to receive the advanced content he or she is eligible for and can handle, when supported appropriately. Behavior cannot be an exclusionary factor, simply because behavior does not necessarily indicate aptitude or IQ–much as I would have loved to simply kick out some of the wonderful “darlings” I had to teach in BCPSS.

I think gifted is a wonderful thing and should be expanded (and adequately funded), but not at the exclusion of the disabled, ELL, or “difficult” nor at the expense of other students. Unfortunately, the goal of US public education never has been and never will be to provide the best, most stellar education for all–it has always been to provide a free, appropriate, public education. In other words, you might want the Maybach of educations, but you have to settle for the Ford Fiesta of educations. Is this perfect? No. Is this what I dream of when I imagine the way public education should be? No. Is this the reality I know we face and will continue to face? Yes.

In the US, we educate every single child, no questions asked. We educate more students than any country other than China, more disabled students than every single nation, more impoverished students than most industrialized “First World” nations, and more non-native speakers that most other industrialized “First World” nations. We educate students whether they want to be there, have parents who care, or have the aptitude to learn. We do not get to cherry pick our students, we do not get to segregate them (though, Lord knows we have in the past), and we do not get to test out those who won’t succeed. We do not have the freedom Finnish educators have to develop individualized curricula. We do not have the ability to exempt large numbers of our population for high school education as is done is some Asian countries. We do not have true cradle to grave socialized medicine and social welfare programs like the European countries that outscore us. We educators are not respected as experts in our fields and contents by administrators, bureaucrats, politicians, and the population at large–teachers are in Finland. We are often not allowed to unionize or to commend fair wages–teachers are in Finland. Unless these things are changed, we will always be failing on compared to our peer “First World” nations. Or, we could simply decide to look for what we are succeeding at and encourage more of it–we are still the most innovative nation and we are still the destination of choice for many foreign undergraduate and graduate students. I believe that the idea that US schools are fatally flawed and failing is a myth, based upon false and misleading data with the goal of making money at the root. Many disagree and that is fine. In fact, such disagreement is part of a healthy democratic process.

Like Mary Elizabeth, I balk at the thought that public funds would go to unregulated private (even religious) schools, particularly at the expense of the public school system. I have yet to receive answers from voucher advocates to these questions (ones I have routinely asked):
-What if the parent(s) choose to spend their voucher at a Catholic school? A Seventh-Day Adventist school? A Jewish school? A Muslim or Islamic school?
-What if they choose to spend it on a school out of state? Out of the country?
-What if they choose to spend it on a boarding school?
-What if they use it at a school that is single sex? That excludes minorities? That excludes the disabled?
-What if they can afford the school with the voucher, but can’t afford the uniforms, transportation, or other expenses?
-What if, no matter the dollar amount of the voucher, no private school will accept their child(ren)?
-What if, even after the voucher is applied, they cannot afford the tuition and fees?
-Who will hold the private schools accountable for student performance and fiscal management?
-If a student is kicked out, who keeps the money?
-How will the expenditures be tracked to prevent fraud?
-Will homeschooling families get to keep the money?

I also oppose charter schools that are set up with the intention to improve performance through exclusion–exclusion of the disabled, the “bad”, the illegal, the ELL, the purple-with-pink-polka-dot, the whatever. Exclusion is segregation and separate but equal is inherently unequal.

I enjoy reading what people with differing opinions think and say about such issues. I find it refreshing to have an outlet for civil discourse about such issues. Thank you for taking the time to share your opinion and for giving mine consideration.

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And Brandy, I agree with your comments on accountability.

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@SoccerMom, Thank you for sharing.

@Mary Elizabeth, please feel free to share those questions. It really bothers me that, no matter how often I ask them (and not just here on this blog, either), the proponents of vouchers and to some extent charters refuse to answer them. Any opportunity to hear their response(s) would be enlightening and welcomed.

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An excellent resource for teaching about children and the Holocaust is the new book Storming the Tulips. Written by Hannie J. Voyles, a survivor who went to school with Anne Frank, the book is an intimate encounter with history, as told by twenty former students of the 1st Montessori School in Amsterdam. They were children, contemporaries of Anne Frank, and this book is a companion to her Diary of a Young Girl. While Anne’s story describes her sequestered life in the Annex, Storming the Tulips reveals what children on the outside endured—on the streets, in hiding, and in the concentration camps.
Their friends disappeared. Their parents sent them away. They were herded on trains and sent to death camps. They joined the Nazi youth. They hid Jews. They lost their families. They picked the pockets of the dead. They escaped. They dodged bullets. They lived in terror. They starved. They froze. They ate tulip bulbs. They witnessed a massacre. They collected shrapnel. And finally, they welcomed the Liberation. Some lost their families, most lost their homes, but they all lost their innocence as they fought to survive.
Learn more here http://linkshrink.com/3pi

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