When Robin Abel decided to create a Holocaust education class at Waltham's Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall School, she realized she first needed to brush up on her history.
"I wanted to bring this idea of Holocaust education to the school, so before I started working on the curriculum and delving in, I wanted to get a refresher course from (the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.)," the Waltham resident said said.
Abel, the director of Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall's learning center, last month attended the 13th annual Arthur and Rochelle Belfer National Conference for Educators at the museum.
Able joined Susan Basiri, from Fuller Middle School in Framingham, Keith Civin, from the Rashi School in Newton, and Brittany Shaw, from Newton Country Day School and about 175 secondary educators from around the country during the three day conference which started June 28.
"I just wanted to make sure that the curriculum I'm developing is in line with and honoring the history and the museum and the people," she said.
Abel said the conference focused on the theme "never again."
"But it is again, and it's constant, and there are genocides happening in the world today," she said. "Students need to understand that the Holocaust is an example of how hurtful man can be toward each other. If we think it doesn't continue to exist and we don't continue to have evil in the world, we're hiding under a rock."
According to a press release from the museum, the conference was part of the museum's" ongoing effort to equip educators nationwide with the knowledge and skills to effectively bring Holocaust education into their classrooms."
Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall doesn't currently offer a class on the Holocaust, but Able said that should change next year. She is working on creating a History of the Holocaust elective that will be open to students in ninth through 12th grade
The Holocaust Memorial Museum focuses on storytelling and making the experience personal, Abel said. Instead of using a textbook, Abel's students will read novels and use poetry and images.
She explained that her students will read the stories of a survivor, a perpetrator and a rescuer.
A second piece of the curriculum involves service. To address this aspect, Abel said she will have students think about how they can be active against the genocide in Darfur or how they can look at hate crimes in the United States.
The conference provided Able the tools to start her own class, but for other teachers the conference furthered their own knowledge on the topic.
Shaw, who teaches world history and psychology to high school students at Newton Country Day School, said she attended the conference out of a personal interest in Holocaust studies.
"In addition, my hope is to one day teach a course devoted solely to the study of the Holocaust and focus primarily on personal memory, using survivor testimony, both written and recorded," she said.
Civin, a middle school social studies teacher at Newton's Rashi School, said he takes seventh-graders to the Holocaust Memorial Museum every year. He said he attended the conference to better prepare his students for the trip.
"At the conference they stressed (the need) to complicate the thinking of your students," Civin said. "There are no easy answers. As a teacher, normally I try to simplify things for students."
Able said she hopes her students will learn, "that they need to participate and make a difference."
