The Gazette (Montreal) November 28, 2017 Tuesday A 'huge step'in effort to teach Quebec youth about genocide by ALLISON HANES, The Gazette There are countless sayings about the importance of learning from history to avoid the mistakes of the past. And yet humans are hopelessly inept at heeding this wisdom, particularly when it comes to teaching history. Quebec's Grade 11 contemporary world history course barely mentions some of the most consequential and chilling events of the 20th century. The Holocaust as well as the Armenian, Cambodian and Rwandan genocides are mentioned in a single paragraph in a chapter of the history textbook devoted to tension and conflict. Similarly, the Grade 8 history course glosses over the mass murder of six million Jews by the Nazis as an example of the deprivation of freedom under the heading of civil rights. But a group that has been working to rectify this shockingly inadequate instruction is on the verge of a major breakthrough in convincing the Quebec government to act. The Montreal-based Foundation for the Compulsory Study of Genocide in Schools has a meeting this Thursday with senior officials from the Quebec education ministry. A working group has been struck to develop a teaching manual for teachers on how to teach about genocide. "This is a huge step," said Heidi Berger, the founder and director of the organization. While the first meeting of the stakeholders who will create this toolkit falls short of the foundation's ultimate goal - having the study of genocide incorporated into Quebec's high school curriculum - it is a promising start. At present, teachers can address genocide with their students, but it is optional. "They could spend two minutes or they could spend two hours or they could spend two days," Berger said. "No teacher has to teach if they don't want to and they often don't have time to teach it." Also, many who might be interested simply aren't sure how. So, too few do. The result is that too many Quebec students graduate ignorant about the darkest chapters in human history, a sad comment on our efforts to ensure such atrocities never happen again. Berger has been campaigning for the study of genocide to be part of history courses for years. Her motivation is intensely personal. Berger's mother survived the Holocaust in Poland, witnessing the rape of her best friend, the firing-squad execution of her father and brother, and the murder of her mother. After immigrating to Quebec, she didn't speak much about her ordeal. But in her later years, she began sharing her story with young people who were the same age she was when she lived through the Holocaust. She visited high schools and recorded her testimony for Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation. After her mother died of cancer in 2006, Berger, a documentary filmmaker, felt compelled to continue her work. Berger brought her mother's story via video to students in Quebec. But only in response to invitations. What began as a one-woman crusade to change the curriculum has morphed into a movement since Berger started the foundation. It now counts several experts and educators as board members and has gained powerful political allies. But the effort to convince the Quebec government to do something has at times been an uphill battle. Former education minister François Blais and his deputies were disinterested when approached. In contrast, current Liberal Education Minister Sébastien Proulx was sympathetic when they first met him two years ago. "It helped that he's a history buff himself," Berger recalled. "He said, 'I never learned about genocide in school, I learned about it in movies.'" Since then, Liberal MNA David Birnbaum tabled a petition in the National Assembly with 3,000 signatures the foundation gathered. And the group has captured the ear of Anne-Marie Lepage, the deputy minister of primary and secondary education. After a meeting in October, the government set up the working group to create the genocide teaching resources. A guide might encourage more teachers to address this difficult material, even without changing the curriculum, although it won't make it mandatory. Berger said she is optimistic it will pave the way to a pedagogical day dedicated to training teachers on how to broach the disturbing subject. Expanding young Quebecers'awareness of genocide - and, crucially, to recognize precursors - is urgent in the era of fake news, social media echo chambers, identity politics and attempts to undermine democracy. "It's not enough to hear a testimonial. They have to learn about the steps that lead to genocide ... There's classification, separation, stigmatization, dehumanization, justification, elimination," Berger said, rhyming off some of these preconditions. "They have to learn the critical-thinking skills around it." Education is the key to combating racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and radicalism - dangerous forces that have contributed to the massacre at a Quebec City mosque last January, the rise of far-right groups and an uptick in hate crimes. It's essential for people to realize genocide is not a concept consigned to the history books. The Rohingya are being annihilated by the army in Myanmar. The Yazidi were systematically slaughtered by Islamic State terrorists in Iraq. And the cultural genocide against Indigenous Peoples in Canada continues to play out in ways big and small. The stakes could not be higher. Each time terrible things happen, we wonder why and ask ourselves how to prevent a repeat. The answers are often simpler than we expect. Youth must be educated about the grave mistakes of the not-sodistant past. And teachers need to be taught how to bring these imperative lessons into the classroom. But the curriculum must also be changed to reflect the importance of history to society - present and future.