KIDS LEARN ABOUT GENOCIDE
‘iWitness’ gives teachers sense of 1915 tragedy
By Naush Boghossian, Staff Writer
Los Angeles Daily News
April 4 2006
The Armenian Genocide – once observed primarily by Armenian-Americans
and marked by events in parochial schools and annual protests at
the Turkish Embassy – is taking on a greater role in the culture of
Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Unified School District has launched a genocide
curriculum that more effectively teaches students about the killing
of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 – considered the first large-scale
genocide of the 20th century.
City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo hosted the first in a series of
training workshops Monday, with more than 300 teachers reading witness
testimonials and looking at survivors’ photographs in the “iWitness”
exhibit on display at his office.
“I run an office where every day truth is powerful. It leads us to
justice, and I think the images out there speak truth and justice,”
Delgadillo said. “This isn’t a huge demonstration, but, hopefully,
it will inspire these kids and teachers to follow that same lead and
demonstrate courage at every turn.”
The Genocide Education Project developed the curriculum. It focuses on
the 1915 genocide by the Ottoman Empire against its Armenian citizens,
but it also includes materials on other genocides of the 20th century –
the Holocaust, Rwanda, Cambodia, Bosnia and Darfur.
California schools are required to discuss the Armenian Genocide in
their 10th-grade modern world history classes.
Two El Camino Real High School history teachers said “iWitness” –
with its stark portraits and poignant stories of victims – brought
to life for them horrors from nearly 100 years ago.
“We have a world history book – and it’s an excellent one – but it
only has two or three paragraphs devoted to this time,” said James
DeLarme, a 10th-grade teacher. “This really opens your eyes and makes
it real as to what happened. It will help when I teach students about
what happened.”
Teacher Devon Krodle said it was the emotion of the stories that
impressed him.
“When you hear these stories and see the pictures, it gives you a
better sense of the reality of that period,” he said.
The Turkish government blames the deaths of Armenians on civil war
rather than an orchestrated massacre, and the U.S. government has
not yet formally recognized the killings as a massacre.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, has been trying for years to push
through a bill officially recognizing the genocide, but has met with
resistance from Congress because of America’s relationship with Turkey.
“I think we need to do whatever we can do to help educate the public
by teaching its youngest members what genocide really means, to help
them understand their own history and what’s going on elsewhere in
the world like in Darfur,” Schiff said.
L.A. Unified’s goal is to expose its students to facts about human
rights violations in the world. In March, district teachers attended
training on a new Holocaust curriculum that helps them put the
topic in perspective and increases their sensitivity to the events,
officials said.
“As a people, if we’re not aware of how prevalent genocide has been
in (the last) century, then it will keep happening,” Clay said. “The
key point we want to make is that we want to impart to students the
factual material and let the students make up their own minds.”
The idea is to study the similarities and differences of all genocides,
because no genocide can be studied in isolation, said Raffi Momjian,
executive director of the Genocide Education Project.
“The key is training teachers on how to address human rights topics,
and our ultimate goal is to empower students to learn why and how
these things happen,” said Momjian, whose nonprofit group develops
instructional materials about human rights and genocide.
“As they grow up and hear about these things, hopefully they become
an informed and active citizenry.”