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Facing History in Transition as Armenian Genocide Centennial Approac

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  • Facing History in Transition as Armenian Genocide Centennial Approac

    Facing History in Transition as Armenian Genocide Centennial Approaches

    COMMUNITY | OCTOBER 31, 2014 10:24 AM
    ________________________________

    By Aram Arkun

    Mirror-Spectator Staff

    BROOKLINE, Mass. -- Facing History and Ourselves is a unique
    international organization which has done yeoman's work in promoting
    understanding of genocide, including the Armenian and Jewish cases, as
    well as human rights, by training educators since the end of the
    1970s. It is at present in a period of transition. Its founding
    executive director, Margot Strom, is retiring from the leadership
    position, while still remaining involved with the organization. Roger
    Brooks, dean of the faculty and chief academic officer of Connecticut
    College, and holder of the Elie Wiesel Professorship in the Department
    of Religious Studies, will begin in December as president and chief
    executive officer.

    Peter Balakian, Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of
    Humanities at Colgate University, has been involved with Facing
    History since the mid-1990s. He has been a member of its academic
    board for the last 15 years. He said that "Facing History has had an
    enormous impact on Armenian Genocide education in the US curriculum;
    its study guide on the Genocide has done a great deal to bring this
    history into the mainstream in a comparative context; this has been
    groundbreaking. Facing History is an innovative intellectual and
    cultural institution and has done much to advance the state of
    education in the US and now globally. It embodies the best of a
    progressive American educational tradition."

    Margot Strom explained how it all started as a course incorporating
    "the ideas and events that led to the Holocaust": "We were at one of
    the eight schools in Brookline teaching social studies -- the [John D.]
    Runkle school. At one point, roughly in 1976, I, Bill Parsons and
    others were invited by a very phenomenal director of social studies to
    a conference that he and the superintendent, [Dr. Robert] 'Bob'
    Sperber, had been involved in organizing on the history of the
    Holocaust. I had a master's in history by then, and a very great
    interest in learning how to teach social studies and history through
    multiple disciplines. It was at that moment that I really got in
    interested in the scholarship and the scholars. I knew nothing much
    about the history of the Holocaust then. And I only remember hearing
    in graduate school a heated conversation between a professor talking
    about the Armenian Genocide and Turkey with a student." A few years
    after the conference, probably by 1979, Strom knew that this was the
    field for her.

    Strom began studying and learning, and each of the conference
    participants became mentors to what soon became the Facing History
    organization. She received a federal Title IV grant. Strom said, "I am
    an adult learner, and when I started teaching in my classroom I began
    learning together with my students and their parents. People kept
    bringing me new materials. Working with people in a giant network, in
    Harvard education, was a benefit. People were likeminded,
    interdisciplinary, and valued democracy, and when they looked at
    injustice, they said, what can I do. People gravitated to me with the
    federal grant. Brookline let us write it, and it turned out to be a
    great books course for teachers. We did K[kindergarten] to 12th grade,
    and librarians, teachers, Parent-Teacher Organizations, and many other
    people were involved."

    Strom continued, "I knew other teachers needed to teach this, so I
    left teaching and started the organization." By 1982, Facing History
    formally turned into a non-profit organization. Today it has 180 staff
    members and 10 offices, including several abroad, and an annual budget
    of 25 million dollars. It estimates that it reaches over three million
    secondary students every year through its programs and the teachers it
    prepares.

    Adam Strom, Margot's son, who joined the organization in the early
    2000s, and now is Chief Officer for Content and Innovation, added that
    Facing History did not just provide workshops or curriculums and books
    for teachers. It was unique in also assigning a person to follow up
    with each teacher.

    Adam said, "We believe less is more, preferring to focus on things in
    particular to raise larger questions. I would rather see a course that
    does a few things in depth rather than a little bit of everything. So,
    students look at the relationship between the individual and society
    and understand the factors influencing choices people make, especially
    about the treatment of other people. They examine issues of
    membership--how do nations define universal obligation? They look at
    the role that science plays. Facing History is about particular
    histories and human behavior, both the universal and the particular."
    History can provide some perspective for students to understand
    problems in contemporary society involving prejudice and conflict. And
    while history is an important part of Facing History, it is approached
    in an interdisciplinary fashion. Students must taught to ask moral and
    ethical questions while learning particular skills and information.

    Facing History deals with many types of prejudice and bigotry. The
    Armenian Genocide was an integral part of its curriculum from the very
    beginning, and Margot Strom relied on many Armenians who were helpful.
    Manoog Young and others at the National Association for Armenian
    Studies and Research, Margot Strom said, "began to teach me. They
    helped me bring Rev. [Vartan] Hartunian into my classroom, and later
    Bill Parsons and I worked on new materials. I still remember Hartunian
    -- to see him as a speaker allows you to walk in the shoes of others as
    victims, and as new immigrant citizens." Strom later interviewed a
    descendant of US Ambassador Henry Morgenthau about the Armenian
    Genocide.

    She emphasized that "Scholars have been incredibly generous." Richard
    Hovannisian, Professor of Armenian and Near Eastern History at the
    University of California, Los Angeles, and Balakian spent a great deal
    of time helping Facing History develop its resources on the Armenian
    Genocide. She said, "They want us to get the story right, and we do
    the best we can. We take from the latest scholarship and books, and
    always are trying to remain up to date."

    Facing History's main resource book for teachers, Facing History and
    Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior, is centered on the Holocaust.
    However, it also looks at other instances of genocide, and contains
    several sections on the Armenian Genocide. It shows some of the
    parallels and connections between the Armenian case and the Holocaust.

    In 2004, Facing History published a resource book specifically
    focusing on the Armenian Genocide: Crimes Against Humanity and
    Civilization: The Genocide of the Armenians. Adam Strom said, "We
    don't just care about these histories because they are ethnically
    identified. This is why we gave our book this title. We had great
    mentors in the Armenian community. Richard Hovannisian and Peter
    Balakian read every single page, literally. We feel very privileged.
    Both have been incredibly kind to the organization."

    Developed through a grant from the Armenian-American philanthropist
    Carolyn Mugar, this 198-page volume according to Samantha Power
    accomplished what Facing History "does best: bring history to life,
    gather moving portraits of suffering, indecision, and heroism, and
    force young and older readers alike to ask what we would have done if
    we had faced such wrenching moral dilemmas." Facing History has lesson
    plans for teachers who wish to cover the Armenian Genocide in their
    classes, and provides various additional resources on this topic,
    including a list of speakers.

    Margot Strom said that the general resource book and the lesson plans
    were in the process of being updated, including the treatment of the
    Armenian Genocide, as new research will allow going deeper into
    issues. Among other things, more is known about how the coiner of the
    term "genocide," Raphael Lemkin, understood the Armenian Genocide.
    This year, new video interviews of scholars on the Armenian Genocide
    will be conducted and older materials will be digitized. Audio
    versions will be made from some of the key readings in the Armenian
    resource book.

    Adam Strom said, "We will have an online workshop for education which
    will use the Armenian Genocide as a particular case study to raise
    general issues. We hope we can run it again and again. It will be live
    and interactive. Probably we will video some sessions."

    Aside from these efforts, for the centennial of the Armenian Genocide,
    Facing History will organize workshops in regional offices, and
    partner with community events. There are a few things in the works
    that will be announced later. Adam Strom declared, "Facing History
    wants to be a good partner in the anniversary. We think our role is
    education."

    In the meantime, Facing History continues to expand. It is striving to
    double the number of teachers and students it impacts as part of a
    five-year plan, and expanding the use of modern technologies to
    leverage its teaching capabilities during a period in which issues of
    religious intolerance appear more and more frequently.

    http://www.mirrorspectator.com/2014/10/31/facing-history-in-transition-as-armenian-genocide-centennial-approaches/

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