BRINGING THE DANGERS OF THE HOLOCAUST, GENOCIDES TO YOUTH
By Harpreet Dipak
General Romeo Dallaire
Western News, Canada
Aug. 17, 2006
Imagine being a high school teacher having to speak to your students
about the atrocities of the Holocaust, or the Armenian and Rwandan
genocides. It’s a tremendously overwhelming experience since the
magnitude of such events can’t be easy to explain.
This past week, 40 teachers from across Canada have been taking part
in the third annual General Romeo Dallaire Genocide Institute at
Western, sponsored by the Holocaust Literature Research Institute
at Western. Through forums, guest speakers and special sessions,
educators hope to gain valuable teaching techniques they can bring
to their classrooms.
For General Dallaire, the Force Commander of UN Assistance for Mission
Rwanda, the Institute carries an ambition aimed at helping teachers
apply certain methodologies and ways of teaching.
"We want to awaken students to how the international community and,
on the other side, extremism, can lead to crimes against humanity of
horrendous levels," Dallaire explains. He portrays the institute as
an information tool that is part of a larger ideology of respect for
others and avoidance of conflict.
Recognizing the complexities of the content being brought to
students in today’s classrooms, Dallaire says for teachers, the
five-day institute offers time for discussion, questions and plenty of
reflection. Participants have an opportunity to develop their current
skills and learn new methods through classroom-based activities.
Mike Farley, a Grade 12 World Issues teacher at Western Tech in
Toronto, says this past year his students have been learning about
the atrocities of genocide.
"We looked at the genocide in Rwanda and that had a very powerful
affect on me and the students, so I thought I’d like to learn more
about genocide in general…the institute seemed like a good fit,"
says Farley.
To teach his class, he used tools from a resource kit including
an online simulation called PAX Warrior. This model recreates the
environment during the genocide and students make various decisions,
ironically, as General Dallaire. Farley also showed the Dallaire
documentary Shake Hands with the Devil to help his students understand
the scale of events.
Once the intensive one-week training is complete, the challenge will
be for the teachers to applying these new methods when they return to
their classrooms in the fall. Farley already anticipates alternative
ways he will approach his curriculum.
"When I’ve been teaching about Rwanda, I kind of went into it
completely blind. It was very interesting, but I didn’t really have
any background in studying it at all," he says. "Here I am sitting
through this week with some of the foremost experts in genocide,
including General Dallaire."
Although initially overwhelming, Farley has found the forums engaging
and has gained more confidence with his own knowledge and approach.
Aris Babikian, Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee
of Canada, has been working with the Armenian community to reach
out and sensitize the public to such tragedies. He credits the
institute with providing necessary training for high school teachers
in accomplishing this.
"If teachers are not aware about the details, about the psychological,
social, collective and individual effects of these events on humans and
society, students won’t be able to learn about this," says Babikian. He
hopes the program will expand in the future to reach a larger number
of teachers across the country.
Dallaire is hopeful the five-day training session, which wraps up
August 18, will allow the teachers to convey his own experiences
of humanity, consequence and strength to students across Canada for
years to come.
"I think we’re breaking new ground here in providing this
capability…what we hope is to be able to move it now to the next
step, formalize our structure and make it that much more available
across the country," he says.