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Merrick Herald, NY
March 8 2007
A class in war and peace
By Scott Brinton
Renowned cellist Lutz Rath spluttered a five-minute series of
nonsensical consonants and vowels as he stood hunched over the
lectern in Calhoun High School's auditorium last Thursday.
The roughly 100 students before him, in grades 10 to 12, were
laughing hysterically, particularly when Rath raised his tightly
clenched fist and bellowed with greater oomph.
With his flamboyant gestures and quasi-militaristic intonation, Rath
could have been Adolf Hitler. And that was precisely the effect he
was going for.
Rath was performing excerpts from Dada artist Kurt Schwitters's
"Ursonata," a 40-minute "sound poem" that makes no sense. The 1924
piece, which is nothing more than babble, is intended to be humorous.
At the same time, it perfectly mimics the hateful, bellicose rants of
the fascists like Hitler, said Rath, who was born in 1945 in Germany
during an Allied air raid.
Rath was one of five musicians from the Long Island Philharmonic who
came to Calhoun to perform "Forbidden Music: Music from the
Holocaust." The 45-minute show ran through a handful of works by
artists and composers who were banned in Germany during the Nazi era,
including Schwitters, Viktor Ullman and Gideon Klein.
The quintet finished with the "Terezin Ghetto Requiem." Written by
Czech composer Sylvie Bodorová in 1954, the piece incorporates Jewish
Hebrew psalms and Latin Catholic liturgy in paying homage to the
victims of Terezin, a walled city in Czechoslovakia that the Nazis
turned into a concentration camp.
The Calhoun students were mesmerized. They came from 10th-grade
global studies classes and the Voices of the Past course, a yearlong
elective developed by Calhoun social studies teacher David Goldberg
and English teacher Julie Beth Walz in 2005. The class examines past
genocides, including the Holocaust, with an eye toward protecting
human rights in the future. Goldberg arranged for the Long Island
Philharmonic performance, with a grant from the Nassau Board of
Cooperative Educational Services.
Goldberg, who is in a social-studies education doctorate program at
Columbia University's Teachers College, said Voices of the Past aims
to show students the horrors of genocide and war to help them
understand that the world can be a very dangerous place, and that
they must stay abreast of current events to ensure that human rights
are preserved across the globe.
To prevent future genocides, Goldberg said the "solutions are
awareness and political pressure. Those are the forces that have
changed history."
Walz, who earned her master's in English education from Columbia,
said, "Every kid at Calhoun High School should take this class. It's
life skills. It's one of those real-world courses."
Walz believes the course imbues students with a greater sense of
empathy. She tells them that they need to inform an adult if they see
bullying, noting that all genocides have begun with smaller violent
acts that eventually led to widespread slaughter.
Lorraine Lupinskie-Huvane, Calhoun's social studies chairwoman, said
the Holocaust and other genocides are taught in global studies
classes, but she said Voices of the Past, which is open to students
in grades 10 to 12, looks at issues of human rights with far greater
depth. "The opportunities that the teachers can provide through this
course aren't necessarily what they can get through their other
classes," she said.
In addition to the Holocaust, Voices of the Past examines:
n The Armenian genocide, in which an estimated 800,000 Armenians died
at the hands of the Ottoman Turkish government during World War I.
n The Rwandan genocide, in which nearly a million members of the
Tutsi and moderate Hutu tribes were butchered by extremist Hutu
militias in 1994.
n The Darfur genocide, in which 400,000 civilians have been killed by
the Sudanese government since 2003 in an ongoing conflict between
Sudanese military forces and two rebel groups in Darfur.
Voices students meet daily. One day they study with Goldberg and the
next with Walz. Goldberg focuses on the history of genocide, while
Walz looks at the feelings of individuals caught in war through poems
and newspaper articles. Goldberg said the course goes beyond textbook
study with hands-on learning experiences such as the "Forbidden
Music" concert. He added that a Holocaust survivor and Rwandan
genocide survivor recently spoke in his class.
The course also looks at efforts to achieve world peace. On Feb. 28,
seven students telephoned a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer stationed in
Zambia, in southeast Africa. The Peace Corps paid for the conference
call through its Coverdell World Wise Schools Program, for which
Goldberg applied to participate.
Gregg Hayward, an agricultural and environmental education Peace
Corps volunteer from New Hampshire, spoke about the challenges that
he faces living in a remote village in a developing nation. He also
encouraged students to learn about other cultures. "Keep your eyes
open," Hayward told them as they sat in a circle around a
speakerphone in a small social studies office on Calhoun's second
floor. "The one thing no one can take from you is your education.
Keep getting educated, and always be open to being educated by other
people. You open your own doors."
Students said the course has changed their global outlook. Senior
Kristen Rudkoski said, "I sort of thought I knew what was going on in
the world." But now Rudkoski realizes she has much to learn.
"Children are the future, and we're going off to college soon," she
said. "We need to be aware of what's going on in the world."
Senior Brittany Onorato said the visit by the Holocaust and Rwandan
genocide survivors, in particular, affected her. "They explained
their stories, their struggle, how they overcame their struggle,"
Onorato said. "It really opens your eyes to what happened. You could
see the emotion in their faces."
And junior Kathryn Perafan described Voices of the Past as a
"life-changing" course. "It makes me feel I need to do more to help
out other people," she said.
March 8 2007
A class in war and peace
By Scott Brinton
Renowned cellist Lutz Rath spluttered a five-minute series of
nonsensical consonants and vowels as he stood hunched over the
lectern in Calhoun High School's auditorium last Thursday.
The roughly 100 students before him, in grades 10 to 12, were
laughing hysterically, particularly when Rath raised his tightly
clenched fist and bellowed with greater oomph.
With his flamboyant gestures and quasi-militaristic intonation, Rath
could have been Adolf Hitler. And that was precisely the effect he
was going for.
Rath was performing excerpts from Dada artist Kurt Schwitters's
"Ursonata," a 40-minute "sound poem" that makes no sense. The 1924
piece, which is nothing more than babble, is intended to be humorous.
At the same time, it perfectly mimics the hateful, bellicose rants of
the fascists like Hitler, said Rath, who was born in 1945 in Germany
during an Allied air raid.
Rath was one of five musicians from the Long Island Philharmonic who
came to Calhoun to perform "Forbidden Music: Music from the
Holocaust." The 45-minute show ran through a handful of works by
artists and composers who were banned in Germany during the Nazi era,
including Schwitters, Viktor Ullman and Gideon Klein.
The quintet finished with the "Terezin Ghetto Requiem." Written by
Czech composer Sylvie Bodorová in 1954, the piece incorporates Jewish
Hebrew psalms and Latin Catholic liturgy in paying homage to the
victims of Terezin, a walled city in Czechoslovakia that the Nazis
turned into a concentration camp.
The Calhoun students were mesmerized. They came from 10th-grade
global studies classes and the Voices of the Past course, a yearlong
elective developed by Calhoun social studies teacher David Goldberg
and English teacher Julie Beth Walz in 2005. The class examines past
genocides, including the Holocaust, with an eye toward protecting
human rights in the future. Goldberg arranged for the Long Island
Philharmonic performance, with a grant from the Nassau Board of
Cooperative Educational Services.
Goldberg, who is in a social-studies education doctorate program at
Columbia University's Teachers College, said Voices of the Past aims
to show students the horrors of genocide and war to help them
understand that the world can be a very dangerous place, and that
they must stay abreast of current events to ensure that human rights
are preserved across the globe.
To prevent future genocides, Goldberg said the "solutions are
awareness and political pressure. Those are the forces that have
changed history."
Walz, who earned her master's in English education from Columbia,
said, "Every kid at Calhoun High School should take this class. It's
life skills. It's one of those real-world courses."
Walz believes the course imbues students with a greater sense of
empathy. She tells them that they need to inform an adult if they see
bullying, noting that all genocides have begun with smaller violent
acts that eventually led to widespread slaughter.
Lorraine Lupinskie-Huvane, Calhoun's social studies chairwoman, said
the Holocaust and other genocides are taught in global studies
classes, but she said Voices of the Past, which is open to students
in grades 10 to 12, looks at issues of human rights with far greater
depth. "The opportunities that the teachers can provide through this
course aren't necessarily what they can get through their other
classes," she said.
In addition to the Holocaust, Voices of the Past examines:
n The Armenian genocide, in which an estimated 800,000 Armenians died
at the hands of the Ottoman Turkish government during World War I.
n The Rwandan genocide, in which nearly a million members of the
Tutsi and moderate Hutu tribes were butchered by extremist Hutu
militias in 1994.
n The Darfur genocide, in which 400,000 civilians have been killed by
the Sudanese government since 2003 in an ongoing conflict between
Sudanese military forces and two rebel groups in Darfur.
Voices students meet daily. One day they study with Goldberg and the
next with Walz. Goldberg focuses on the history of genocide, while
Walz looks at the feelings of individuals caught in war through poems
and newspaper articles. Goldberg said the course goes beyond textbook
study with hands-on learning experiences such as the "Forbidden
Music" concert. He added that a Holocaust survivor and Rwandan
genocide survivor recently spoke in his class.
The course also looks at efforts to achieve world peace. On Feb. 28,
seven students telephoned a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer stationed in
Zambia, in southeast Africa. The Peace Corps paid for the conference
call through its Coverdell World Wise Schools Program, for which
Goldberg applied to participate.
Gregg Hayward, an agricultural and environmental education Peace
Corps volunteer from New Hampshire, spoke about the challenges that
he faces living in a remote village in a developing nation. He also
encouraged students to learn about other cultures. "Keep your eyes
open," Hayward told them as they sat in a circle around a
speakerphone in a small social studies office on Calhoun's second
floor. "The one thing no one can take from you is your education.
Keep getting educated, and always be open to being educated by other
people. You open your own doors."
Students said the course has changed their global outlook. Senior
Kristen Rudkoski said, "I sort of thought I knew what was going on in
the world." But now Rudkoski realizes she has much to learn.
"Children are the future, and we're going off to college soon," she
said. "We need to be aware of what's going on in the world."
Senior Brittany Onorato said the visit by the Holocaust and Rwandan
genocide survivors, in particular, affected her. "They explained
their stories, their struggle, how they overcame their struggle,"
Onorato said. "It really opens your eyes to what happened. You could
see the emotion in their faces."
And junior Kathryn Perafan described Voices of the Past as a
"life-changing" course. "It makes me feel I need to do more to help
out other people," she said.