THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 23, 1994 TAG: 9406230458
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940623 LENGTH: NORFOLK
At the start of the spring semester, Dotty Dray's seventh-grade English class was filled with self-centered teens who didn't have a clue or a care about the Holocaust.
{REST} Four months and countless books and videos later, they had turned into history hounds who cried upon hearing survivors' recollections. ``They stopped putting each other down,'' said Dray, who teaches at Cradock Middle School in Portsmouth, ``and became caring human beings.''
Dray recalled her success at the start of a three-day seminar Wednesday aimed at helping 75 teachers master one of the toughest lessons they have to give - how to steer kids away from prejudice and toward tolerance.
Sarah Pirtle, an associate trainer with the Massachusetts education organization Communitas, offered these tips:
Don't put students down. ``Set up an atmosphere where a person troubled with the material at first is not ranked at the bottom. All of us need to belong.''
Keep them laughing. ``When you have running jokes, the group gets closer.''
Get them talking early. ``The first week of school, you need to have opportunities where people can say something about themselves.''
Address problems before they mushroom. ``If someone across the room sneers at another person, you've got to stop and deal with it.'' But don't go attacking the people who've made the slights, she said. Instead, gently tell them where they've erred.
The conference, titled ``Facing History and Ourselves,'' is being held at Norfolk Academy by the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater.
Pirtle, a folk singer, showed how black history could be blended with music. She got most of the group to join in on one tune, highlighting ``anti-racists'':
``. . . Anne Dudley/Founded black schools and colleges/I want to know your name/Morris Dees/Took the KKK to court/I want to know your name. . .''
Roosevelt Moseley, a history teacher at Norfolk's Lake Taylor High, said he might use that song. He emphasizes oral projects to ``encourage students to express themselves and listen to others.''
Dray, the Portsmouth teacher, simply bombarded her students with information. They read books on the rescuers and victims of the Holocaust. They wrote papers on Hitler and the camps. They saw ``Schindler's List'' on a Saturday. They heard a survivor, who brought several teenagers to tears.
``What normally takes three weeks to do lasted 4 1/2 months. They wouldn't let it go. When the time came to read `Tom Sawyer,' they said, `No; let's read another Holocaust book.' '' by CNB