(2001). Coming to Terms with the Past: Lessons from War-Torn Countries. Countries are increasingly facing the question of transgenerational transmission of trauma from their previous acts of war, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. How countries choose to confront that past has significance on the future course of their society. Truth commissions have been used in many countries as a means to collect accounts of torture, murder, and abduction committed against an identified enemy. Their aim is to write an historical record of the abuses of the past through the testimony of the survivor-victims. The fear and isolation that people have experienced is often replaced by restorative justice through the dealings of these commissions. With restorative justice the victims, rather than the state, are the focus of the healing. The problem remains of being able to offer a context to survivors for processing the trauma sufficiently and to have the words to describe what has occurred. (Contains 20 references.) (JDM)…
(1997). No Home without Foundation (Nta Nzu Itagira Inkigi): A Portrait of Child-Headed Households in Rwanda. The genocide in Rwanda has resulted in that country having many child-headed households. This unusual phenomenon has set Rwanda apart from its neighboring countries. This book of photographic portraits and stories of Rwandan children and adolescents in families living without adult support or supervision conveys the complexity and diversity of their situations and their determination to remain together as siblings. The book is designed to use photography and writing to influence public policy affecting the lives of those living in marginalized communities. The book's introduction presents the purpose of this project as documenting the current situation of parentless children in Rwanda and their heroic efforts to rebuild the foundations of their families. A series of photographic and narrative portraits follows, describing how the children lost their parents, their views of family, their feelings of responsibility for siblings, and their efforts to support their families. (KB)… [PDF]
(1987). Mental Health and World Citizenship: The View from an International Nongovernmental Organization. The lecture discussed the following topics: (1) the beginnings in 1948 of the World Federation for Mental Health, a global nongovernmental organization which conceived of mental health in social terms, linking mental health of individuals with that of communities and nations; (2) the limited goal in the late 20th century of citizenship in a world community, rather than the inclusive one of allegiance to a single supraordinate government; (3) the role and functions of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) affiliated with the United Nations, such as the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF); (4) the advocacy and educational activities of the World Federation of Mental Health, an NGO dedicated to concern with individual members of the human family, existing in an era increasingly marked by systematic genocide; and (5) the relationship of effective world citizenship, membership in a worldwide moral community, and mental health. (ABL)…
(2004). Peace Education Theory. Journal of Peace Education, v1 n1 p5-20 Mar. During this past century there has been growth in social concern about horrific forms of violence, like ecocide, genocide, modern warfare, ethnic hatred, racism, sexual abuse and domestic violence, and a corresponding growth in the field of peace education where educators, from early child care to adult, use their professional skills to warn fellow citizens about imminent dangers and advise them about paths to peace. This paper traces the evolution of peace education theory from its roots in international concerns about the dangers of war to modern theories based on reducing the threats of interpersonal and environmental violence. This paper reviews ways that peace education has become diversified and examines theoretical assumptions behind five different ways in which it is being carried out at the beginning of the twenty-first century: international education, human rights education, development education, environmental education and conflict resolution education. (Contains 1 note.)… [Direct]
(2006). Can Empathy Be Taught?. Academe, v92 n4 p58-63 Jul-Aug. Prejudice and discrimination are ugly cousins, haunting humankind like the evil fairy who appears unbidden to curse the young princess. Is education the good fairy, bestowing tools to overcome this curse? A course the author taught in winter 2006 at the University of California, Irvine–one of the most ethnically diverse campuses in the United States–addressed this question. The course, part of a pilot program funded by the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogues initiative, asked why some differences–ethnicity, race, religion–become politically significant while others–height, hair color, weight–do not. Why are linguistic differences sometimes politically relevant and sometimes not? What about gender or sexual orientation? What encourages respect for or tolerance of differences judged to be ethically and politically salient, leading some to reach out across divides that isolate others? These questions take on a poignant immediacy when news reports about continuing prejudice and… [Direct]
(2003). Active Science as a Contribution to the Trauma Recovery Process: Preliminary Indications with Orphans from the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda. International Journal of Science Education, v25 n9 p1111-1128 Sep. Constructivist, hands-on, inquiry-based, science activities may have a curative potential that could be valuable in a psychological assistance programme for child victims of violence and war. To investigate this idea, pilot sessions were performed in an orphanage located in Ruhengeri, Rwanda, with seven young adults and two groups of 11 children aged from 9 to 16 years. Despite a number of imperfections in this attempt, significant observations have been made. First, a sound communication was established with all, even with the young adults who at the beginning were not as enthusiastic as the children. Furthermore, some children, originally isolated, silent and sad, displayed a high degree of happiness during the activities, and an overall increasing positive change of attitude. In addition, they appropriated well some principles of experimental science. This suggests that a joint development of science literacy and joy may be an interesting approach, both in education and therapy…. [Direct]
(1997). The Great Irish Famine. Between 1845 and 1850, more than a million Irish starved to death while massive quantities of food were being exported from their country. A half million were evicted from their homes during the potato blight. A million and a half emigrated to the United States, Britain, and Australia, often on board rotting, overcrowded "coffin ships." This is the story of how that immense tragedy came to pass. The necessary historical and political context for a study of the Irish Famine is provided in the teacher's synopsis. Following the synopsis is a student summary that provides a historical overview and concludes with seven questions. Six lessons follow the student summary: (1) Laws; (2) Racism; (3) Eviction; (4) Mortality; (5) Emigration; and (6) Genocide. A synopsis gives an overview of the relevant Irish and English history and contains 47 footnotes and a 15-item bibliography. Each unit of study begins with a list of performance objectives, teaching/learning strategies and…
(2003). American Gothic. Teaching Tolerance, n23 p18-24 Spr. This article describes a new curriculum which explores a disturbing side of the Progressive Era. The national education program Facing History and Ourselves is a 25-year-old organization best known for its trenchant examination of the Holocaust and other genocide campaigns. Facing History discovered in the course of that work that many of the Nazis' ideas about superior and inferior human worth had origins outside Nazi Germany. To explore that development, the program has recently launched a new initiative focusing on the eugenics movement, an attempt in the early 20th century to solve social problems by "eliminating inferior racial traits." The project's centerpiece is the resource book Race and Membership in American History: the Eugenics Movement, compiled by Phyliss Goldstein and Alan Stoskopf, with assistance from Karen Murphy. An online instructional module and hands-on training workshops help middle and high school teachers weave the eugenics theme into existing… [Direct]
(2008). The Last Indian in the World. American Indian Culture and Research Journal, v32 n2 p79-84. In June 2004, the American national media spent a considerable amount of airtime revisiting the events of June 1964 when three civil rights workers were murdered near Philadelphia, Mississippi. On the fortieth anniversary of the murders. National Public Radio's \All Things Considered\ devoted airtime to a story, \Truth and Reconciliation in Neshoba County,\ in which reporter Debbie Elliot went to Philadelphia, Mississippi, the seat of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, to examine how \people in Neshoba, both black and white, are grappling with their community's legacy.\ The story goes on to look at the activities of the thirty-member Philadelphia Task Force and dissects the activities of this group as racial networking under the black-white binary that has become synonymous with the civil rights movements in the United States. The story overlooked the several members of the Philadelphia Task Force of Mississippi Band of Choctaw tribal members whose roots in Neshoba Country… [Direct]
(1978). Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior. Bibliography and Filmography. Intended to provide a wide range of reading for students and teachers, including a variety of both literary and historical perspectives, the bibliography section of this listing of Holocaust literature and films is organized into six categories: (1) children's books and the Holocaust: an overview; (2) suggested reading: general reading, history, the ghettos, the concentration camps, Nazi education, Hitler and Nazism, the Armenian genocide; (3) German culture; (4) the legacy of the Holocaust: a supplementary reading list; (5) human behavior: American history, America today, human differences, and conformity and cruelty; and (6) myth vs. reality: literature as history. All entries are annotated. The filmography section, prepared to accompany the junior high curriculum "Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior," lists available visual materials under three headings: moral dilemmas, documentaries, and interpretations and dramas. Date of film/filmstrip,…
(2003). Indians Teaching about Indigenous: How and Why the Academy Discriminates. American Indian Quarterly, v27 n1-2 p177-188 Win-Spr. The \academy\ of scholars in United States institutions of higher education generally do not like hearing about genocide in the Americas, especially if it implies or states that this country willingly participated in and benefited from genocidal policies. Well, that about sums up the primary problems that Native scholars have in writing about Indian nations or Indigenous peoples. Five hundred years of dancing around a central fact that European powers came to the Western Hemisphere, militarily and underhandedly \conquered\ the peoples already living there, and then built their powerful \democratic\ societies on \taken land\ does not bode well for an Indigenous history. In this article, the author identifies some of the major structures put into place to deny, revise, suppress, and subordinate American Indian scholars and their supporters when they tackle these difficult topics. The author uses his own experience with discriminatory practices from academic institutions to illustrate… [Direct]
(1987). The Treatment of the Holocaust in Textbooks: The Federal Republic of Germany, Israel, The United States of America. Holocaust Studies Series. This book presents an overview of the treatment of the Holocaust in the textbooks used in the Federal Republic of Germany, Israel, and the United States. Selection of these three countries was based on historical, political, and state administration criteria. All three countries are democratic but vary in terms of history, heritage, and educational system. Each section in this volume presents an overview of the country's postwar system of education with emphasis on the agencies and authorities responsible for the selection, production, and distribution of textbooks. A special effort is made to differentiate among the textbooks used at the various levels of education in the treatment of anti-Semitism, Nazism, and the Holocaust. The bibliographies appended to each of the three essays provide additional sources for the interested reader. The book is divided into three parts with 12 chapters. The parts include: (1) "Federal Republic of Germany: Germans, Jews and Genocide"…
(1987). Elderly Service Workers' Training Project. Block B: Cultural Gerontology. Module B.3: French Culture. This learning module, which is part of a three-block series intended to help human service workers develop the skills necessary to solve the problems encountered in their daily contact with elderly clients of different cultural backgrounds, deals with French culture. The module begins with background information about the importance of French-speaking Canadians in Manitoba and with a list of the module's general objectives. The next section, which deals with the importance of French Canadian culture for older adults, covers the positive and negative effects of being a member of a minority group in Manitoba and the importance of the French Canadian sense of humor. Examined next are the perceptions and values of older French Canadians with respect to sociability, the family, traditions, and the influence of religion. Intermarriage, discrimination, and cultural genocide are discussed in a section on the feelings and concerns that older French Canadian adults experience within a diverse… [PDF]
(1977). Black/Brown/White Relations: Race Relations in the 1970s. The collection of papers in this book present an analysis of the effects of institutional racism on all races. The first part of the book deals with seeking definitions of the race problem and explores the various facets of race relations in the 1970s, including: (1) the black view of a national population policy and the fear of racial genocide; (2) the problems and prospects of black students at integrated colleges; (3) a literary analysis of the black vision of despair; (4) black liberation and women's liberation; (5) ethnic resentment of Federal programs; (6) the attribution of prejudice to self and others; (7) racial attitudes of native American preschoolers; and (7) institutional racism. The second part of the book is devoted to the discovery of strategies for institutional change, and includes discussions of: (1) community development and social change; (2) a historical framework for multicultural education; (3) the political scenes in Gary, Indiana, and in the urban South;…
(1999). The Great Irish Famine. 2nd Edition. Between 1845 and 1850, more than a million Irish starved to death while massive quantities of food were being exported from their country. A half million were evicted from their homes during the potato blight. A million and a half emigrated to the United States, Britain, and Australia, often on board rotting, overcrowded "coffin ships." This is the story of how that immense tragedy came to pass. The necessary historical and political context for a study of the Irish Famine is provided in the teacher's synopsis. Following the synopsis is a student summary that provides an historical overview and concludes with seven questions. Six lessons follow the student summary: (1) Laws; (2) Racism; (3) Eviction; (4) Mortality; (5) Emigration; and (6) Genocide. A synopsis gives an overview of the relevant Irish and English history and contains 47 footnotes and a 15-item bibliography. Each unit of study begins with a list of performance objectives, teaching/learning strategies and… [PDF]