Remembering Pearl Harbor Day.

Unless you are a United Sates History teacher, you might overlook the significance of Pearl Harbor Day. December 7, 1941 radically altered the world landscape and the role of the United States on the world scene. The bombing of the US Naval base at Pearl Harbor represented the culmination of decade long events that led to the deterioration of US – Japanese relations. There are a number of ways that classroom teacher can chose to honor this day and to teach its significance.

The Federal government has a web site called FREE- Federal Resources for Educational Excellence. This site links to numerous federal agencies (like the National Park Service and the US Naval Archives). From this site you can access TwHP- Teaching with Historic Places. This site provides lessons plans as well as maps, charts, photos and reading passages. To access information for Remembering Pearl Harbor as well as many other historical, scientific and mathematic lessons, go to http://free.ed.gov

Other suggested activities include:

1)      Obtain a World War Two veteran as a guest speaker. Unfortunately this is a shrinking resource as approximately 1000 WW II vets are dying each day. Please be sure to provide specific parameters as to what to talk about and for how long keeping in mind the age of the students. Some vets tend to ramble. Ask them to bring in any artifacts they may have but be sure to check your school’s policy about bringing weapons to class. You can check with local American Legion or VFW chapters to see if they have a speaker’s bureau.

2)      Ask students to do some internet research to come up with photos of the attack and its aftermath. Two useful websites are the National Archives ( www.archives.gov/research/ww2) and The US Navy Historical Division ( www.history.navy)

3)      Discussion Topic. Who is a hero? What characteristics make a person a hero?

PS. I would stay away from showing a full length movie in class. While both” Tora Tora Tora” and “Pearl Harbor” are excellent films, they take up too much class time.

(Photo Credit- National Archives Dec. 7,1941 80-G-19947)

Teaching about the Holocaust

Resources for Teaching About the Holocaust.

This year marks the 72^nd anniversary of Kristallnacht, The Night of Broken Glass. On November 9,1936 over 200 synagogues were burned,  hundreds of Jewish owned businesses were destroyed and thousands  of German and Austrian Jews were rounded up and arrested by Adolf Hitler’s NAZI regime. This brutal event marks a turning point of what has become known an as the Holocaust..

 There are a vast number of excellent books on the topic available for high school and college students as well as teachers desiring background material. Teachers need to be mindful of the appropriateness of both written and  video materials.

The World Must Know ( c.2005) and Witness to the Holocaust (c.1997  by Dr.Michael Berenbaum are two outstanding volumes  by one of America’s pre-eminent Holocaust scholars. Dr. Berenbaum is also the author of A Promise to Remember: The Holocaust in the Words and Voices of Its Survivors (Bulfinch, 2003). For those who wish to address the issue of Holocaust deniers, a number of works by Dr. Deborah Lipstadt, professor at Emory University are outstanding. The best known is probably Denying the Holocaust (c.1994) for which she ended up as the plaintiff in a much publicized civil lawsuit in Great Britain.

 The Diary of Ann Frank  is a classic and a must read and works well in an interdisciplinary unit with social studies and literature classes particularly in  middle and high school. A film version is also available. An excellent first person account of a Holocaust survivor is  The Miracle of Survival: Angels at my Back by Janet Moskowitz. (c.2007)

 I have found “Paperclips,” to be a powerful DVD also suitable for middle and high school students, This project started by the students  of Whitwell Middle School in Tennessee chronicles the “perfect storm” of student, faculty, parent and community involvement that both promotes tolerance and respect in our multicultural society as well as telling the horrific stories of the Holocaust.

For more information and lesson ideas, I recommend that you visit the website of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum at www.ushmm.org and click on the link for teachers.You may also contact me at educatorpartners@gmail.com.  Thanks for reading my post. I hope to hear from you soon.