Sunday, January 31, 2010
Armenian Genocide Response
I consider myself to be pretty competant when it comes to history. I also have a lot of interest in human rights. Therefore one would think I would have more knowledge about the Armenian genocide. However prior to this class I had only read one book on the topic. I wonder why this is not talked about in schools like the Holocaust is. One reason that I can see that it is not talked about in the United States is the lack on our country's involvement. We like to talk about how we helped to end World War Two and the Holocaust. However we did not do anything about the Armenian genocide. Therefore it seems like our government would not want to teach it in school because our lack of involvement would have to come up. In this way the genocide reminds me of Rwanda, however in an earlier time period. I wonder if we would know more about what happened in Armenia if it had happened during a time in which media was more widespread. However there is not as much knowledge about what is going on in Darfur as I would have thought. In fact the other day right here at Nazareth I told someone about what was going on in Darfur, because she had never heard about it at all. I found this quite shocking, however I think it speaks to what we teach in schools. As someone who is going into teaching, I find it important to inform students about the world around them. I do not want to scare them, however I think it is very important to give at least some information. Even young children should understand how people live around them and the situations around the world that are not as good as what the child experiences.
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You are so right, Lyndsi! I agree that young children need to learn about the world around them-- but also keeping in mind what Anais said about being 4 and tortured by the images she saw, I think we have to teach but not teach the way we might teach an adult so as not to traumatize them-- But, in thinking about college students and them having no knowledge of Darfur, for example, I think it is critical to expand and explain what is going on so as to inform them both of the facts and about our silence!!
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