Why? continued

Part of the Holocaust course that I previously described, involved going to the U.S. Memorial Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C.  I thought that perhaps this might help the students understand the Holocaust.  I let the students go through the museum at their own pace, and I walked through on my own. 

This museum is beyond compare in my opinion.  It offers a truly informative experience.  Expertly designed, this walks you through a 3 floor experience detailing the Holocaust- from its beginnings to its tragic middle and yet... it also offers a glimmer of hope at its conclusion.   Perhaps the most compelling display I came across was a room with a pile of shoes.  Yes shoes, taken from Jews destined for the camps.  Some shoes fancy some merely functional, and yet.... So incredibly touching.  It had never dawned on me how are shoes tell a tale about us.  Even though we may buy identical shoes with someone else, how they wear and how they form to our feet become remarkably unique to us.  Those shoes told a simple story, much like Anne's story.  We can identify with a simple shoe.  Of course questions come flooding through your mind.  Who's shoes? What happened to the owner? How did they come to be here, so many years later?

This display made me cry, I am not ashamed to admit it.  Lloyd Elm taught me that tears are no shame.  So when I come across a sad movie, I cry.  Except when I am with my daughters.  They get upset.  But I digress.  This museum is powerful....

But what about my students.  I found them at the end of the exhibit... and interestingly, their faces did not display much emotion.  They did not seem shaken up or sad, or pondering deep thoughts.  Is this just HS?  As a high school student, what would my reaction be?  I won't lie, I'm sure I wouldn't be in tears to protect my image as a cool dude, but... I think I would have been shaken by this.  These students didn't seem to be shaken at all.  As a matter of fact, I don't think they talked about it the rest of the day.

Do they care?  Can they relate?  Can the feel the suffering that took place?

To this day I can't say.  They rarely discussed it.

Finished for now, but there is one more posting about this class that I must tell...