TEACHING KIDS ABOUT ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Belmont Citizen-Herald, MA
Sept 22 2005

The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research, the
Armenian Assembly of America and Facing History and Ourselves will
present a panel discussion, “Armenian Genocide Education: Reaching
Into the School Curriculum,” on Friday, Sept. 30 at 7:30 p.m. in the
Belmont High School Auditorium.

Over the past several decades a remarkable amount of work has been done
to document and analyze the Armenian Genocide committed by the Ottoman
Turks in 1915-23. Yet the level of knowledge of the genocide outside
the Armenian community remains disappointingly low; and moreover,
the lessons of the Armenian Genocide and other 20th century genocides
have not halted the practice of mass killings for political purposes,
as recent events in Darfur attest.

Facing History and Ourselves of Brookline has been a leader in
producing Holocaust and genocide curricula since its founding in the
late 1970s. It has now published a textbook on the Armenian Genocide,
“Crimes Against Humanity and Civilization: The Genocide of the
Armenians,” supervised by Adam Strom with significant input from
leading scholars such as Richard Hovannisian.

The existence of this text, as well as the huge body of scholarship
on the subject, raises key questions: How to get the text and the
teaching of the Armenian Genocide into public schools in Massachusetts
and beyond? What is the most effective way to teach the Armenian
Genocide to non-Armenians? Can the lessons of the Armenian Genocide
have a far-reaching effect in the prevention of future genocides?

These and many other questions will be addressed by a panel discussion
which will be moderated by Marc A. Mamigonian of NAASR.

Panelists include: Professor Richard G. Hovannisian, Armenian Education
Foundation Professor of Modern Armenian History at UCLA; Margot Stern
Strom, executive director of Facing History and Ourselves; Adam Strom,
director of Research and Development, Facing History and Ourselves;
and Dr. Henry Theriault, associate professor of philosophy at Worcester
State College.

Admission is free (donations accepted). Parking is available at
Belmont High School and in adjacent areas on Concord Avenue.

There will be a reception following the program at the NAASR Center,
395 Concord Ave., Belmont.

For more information, visit or call 617-489-1610.