Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 17, 1995 TAG: 9505170053
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-11 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MELISSA DeVAUGHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
"I'm RUNNING from my home
I'm RUNNING to save my life
It's a big game of hide and seek
I hide and they seek
I stay still, I stay quiet
My every move could be my last
Ready or not here they come and
I RUN."
After she was done, the girl turned and walked slowly and quietly away.
This was a familiar scene this week as more than 150 eighth-graders from Montgomery County faced the reality of world history at a special conference at Virginia Tech. The conference, part of a national curriculum called "Facing History and Ourselves," is the first of its kind in the United States.
The students learn about the importance of tolerance, diversity and human rights, and how human behavior led to the Holocaust, the demise of American Indians, discrimination against blacks, religious prejudice and other injustices rarely mentioned in history books.
Most importantly, said Jane Goette, a coordinator for gifted students in the Blacksburg area, it teaches them how to deal with everyday issues of intolerance, prejudice and exclusion.
"What I think this curriculum does best is, it sensitizes students to nuances of human behavior and makes them more conscious of it," Goette said. "I notice how they talk about each other and how they're conscious of kids who seem to be more left out. They're less likely to be numb to it all."
Artwork, poetry and written projects from the "Facing History" unit adorned the lobby at Monday's conference, sponsored in part by the county school system, the Education Network of Virginia and the Facing History Foundation in Massachusetts.
Poems such as "A World Without Laws," "Silent Hope," "All a Dream," "Explosion" and "Hope" hung on display. Posters depicted life in concentration camps during the Holocaust, World War II, genocide, the internment of Japanese-Americans and propaganda during various wars.
On one table, a thick scrapbook filled with memorabilia from Adolf Hitler's life rested next to a papier-mache replica of the Battle of Wounded Knee. At another, a group of students from the Virginia Tech chapter of Amnesty International shared information with middle-schoolers who stopped to talk.
The Tech students helped plan the conference, organized volunteers, visited the middle schools during the "Facing History" unit and even stayed after Tech's semester was over to take part in Monday's conference.
Judy McKnight, state facilitator of the Education Network of Virginia, vouched for the success of the "Facing History" curriculum, which the county has used for six years.
"This curriculum has been reviewed and validated by the United States Department of Education in its significance and in reaching its goals," she said. "The project has worked with teachers all over the state, especially in Montgomery County."
McKnight said traditional teaching is essential, but this unit "helps our students learn to live together and get along with other people that may not be just like them."
The pupils vouch for the program, too.
"It's meant a little more, learning about these things," said 13-year-old Brad Sumpter of Christiansburg Middle School. "You could see it on people's faces when they came out of class."
"And it was more emotional," added classmate Walter Badillo, also 13. "People didn't want to talk about it because it was hard to hear, but we'll definitely remember it."
by CNB