DALLAIRE INSTITUTE: TEACHING TEACHERS ABOUT GENOCIDE
By Bob Klanac
Western News, Canada
Aug. 10, 2006
They say those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Those words
are doubtless first and foremost in the minds of the organizers of
the annual General Romeo Dallaire Genocide Institute, taking place
at Western, August 14 – 18.
The Dallaire Institute hosts 40 teachers and focuses on teaching
them the lessons of the Holocaust, Armenian and Rwandan genocides,
as well as how to teach the stories in the classrooms.
"We want to teach them how to teach those lessons in such a way that
it isn’t a lesson about history but a lesson of history," notes Rich
Hitchens an Associate Scholar of the Holocaust Literature Research
Institute in Western’s Faculty of Arts & Humanities. "We want them to
go back and use what happened to teach students moral lessons. It’s
character education."
True to the issue of character, the institute was named after General
Romeo Dallaire for his heroism and idealism.
"We wanted to recognize what General Dallaire accomplished in Rwanda in
trying to prevent and stop the genocide there in 1994 which included
saving tens of thousands of people," Hitchens explains. "His actions
are representative of the messages that we wanted to convey through
teacher to students: tolerance, human rights and helping others in
needed. His actions in Rwanda, and since, embody those messages. It
just made perfect sense that we would try and honour him in this way."
Although one could be forgiven for considering that Holocaust education
is currently at an appropriately high level, Hitchens notes that it’s
an incorrect perception.
"Around the world, genocide education, especially the Holocaust, is
very much the vanguard of teaching about tolerance and human rights
but Canada is very far behind on that. The Dallaire Institute is the
only annual institute for teachers. And it’s quite unique in that
it’s focused on genocide in general, and not just the Holocaust.
"This has become very much the beacon of genocide education in Canada,"
says Hitchens.
The institute uses material about the Holocaust and the genocides in
Armenia and Rwanda. Because of the currency of the latter two examples,
living witnesses to these genocides are a featured component of the
Institute’s curriculum.
"On Wednesday night we have a survivor of the Rwandan genocide
coming. He is a graduate of the French PhD program at Western who now
teaches at Queens," notes Hitchens. "This guy was saved by the guy who
ran Hotel Rwanda and he’s one of the people saved by General Dallaire."
Hitchens adds that Dallaire will be teaching Monday night and is very
involved in the Institute, coming every year to teach.
"Frank Chalk from Concordia University in Montreal is widely considered
the pioneer of genocide studies in the world," Hitchens says. "The
teachers will actually get to study with Frank Chalk.
That’s like a physicist studying with Newton."
Although the institute’s 2004 inaugural year included local teachers
only, this year the invitation was extended to instructors in many
major cities throughout the country. Despite the national reach,
the Dallaire Institute still only accepts 40 teachers for the summer
session.
"We haven’t increased the numbers because we don’t want it to be so
large that teachers don’t get the interaction," Hitchens explains.
"But teachers in coming years will return to do advanced seminars
on the Holocaust, Armenia and Rwanda. This introductory institute is
like first year at university."
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