Tweet
Patch.com
Dec 4 2011
Speakers Help Sharon High Seniors Understand Genocide
SEF grant sponsored the talks with the Genocide and Human Nature class.
By Michael Gelbwasser
On a screen in a Sharon High School classroom, an elderly woman
described how her grandmother was shot.
And she described how her family was tortured and killed "for no
reason (other than) to be an Armenian."
Last Wednesday, nearly 100 years after the Armenian Genocide, about 20
seniors in Sharon High's Genocide and Human Nature - The Horror and
The Hope class watched a film about it.
"It's hard to talk after watching this," Roger Hagopian, who made this
documentary and others about Armenian history, told the students.
Hagopian and Dr. Pamela Steiner were the latest guest speakers to
visit the class this fall. Steiner is project director of the Harvard
Humanitarian Initiative's Intercommunal Violence and Reconciliation
Project, currently seeking to improve Turkish-Armenian relations. Her
great-grandfather was Henry Morganthau, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey
during the Armenian Genocide.
The Armenian Genocide was "the atrocities committed against the
Armenian people of the Ottoman Empire" during World War I, according
to the Armenian National Institute website.
Sharon High social studies teacher Jennifer Koltov said the speakers
give "students the sense that these are real issues that are
relevant."
A Sharon Education Foundation grant allowed her to bring in not only
Hagopian and Steiner, but also, earlier this fall, two speakers
regarding helping the Sudanese Civil War victims: Sarah Rial of My
Sister's Keeper and Sister Bridget Haase.
"I think it inspires the kids to see that individuals can make a
difference," Koltov said.
"And I think it reflects that these are ongoing issues as well. Just
because a genocide is technically over, it doesn't mean that the
societies are done dealing with it."
http://sharon.patch.com/articles/speakers-help-sharon-high-seniors-understand-genocide
Dec 4 2011
Speakers Help Sharon High Seniors Understand Genocide
SEF grant sponsored the talks with the Genocide and Human Nature class.
By Michael Gelbwasser
On a screen in a Sharon High School classroom, an elderly woman
described how her grandmother was shot.
And she described how her family was tortured and killed "for no
reason (other than) to be an Armenian."
Last Wednesday, nearly 100 years after the Armenian Genocide, about 20
seniors in Sharon High's Genocide and Human Nature - The Horror and
The Hope class watched a film about it.
"It's hard to talk after watching this," Roger Hagopian, who made this
documentary and others about Armenian history, told the students.
Hagopian and Dr. Pamela Steiner were the latest guest speakers to
visit the class this fall. Steiner is project director of the Harvard
Humanitarian Initiative's Intercommunal Violence and Reconciliation
Project, currently seeking to improve Turkish-Armenian relations. Her
great-grandfather was Henry Morganthau, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey
during the Armenian Genocide.
The Armenian Genocide was "the atrocities committed against the
Armenian people of the Ottoman Empire" during World War I, according
to the Armenian National Institute website.
Sharon High social studies teacher Jennifer Koltov said the speakers
give "students the sense that these are real issues that are
relevant."
A Sharon Education Foundation grant allowed her to bring in not only
Hagopian and Steiner, but also, earlier this fall, two speakers
regarding helping the Sudanese Civil War victims: Sarah Rial of My
Sister's Keeper and Sister Bridget Haase.
"I think it inspires the kids to see that individuals can make a
difference," Koltov said.
"And I think it reflects that these are ongoing issues as well. Just
because a genocide is technically over, it doesn't mean that the
societies are done dealing with it."
http://sharon.patch.com/articles/speakers-help-sharon-high-seniors-understand-genocide