Today is the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and I'm using this opportunity to connect my students to an often forgotten part of history. We often times get bogged down in the TEKS, and, while genocide is something I'm supposed to teach about, the emphasis is usually more on the Holocaust and less on Darfur, The Balkans, and Armenia. Men were forced into labor camps and women, children, and old people were forced to march in the desert until they died. That is something that deserves at least a moment of silence and some quiet reflection. We have to remember. We can't let ourselves as human beings, citizens of the planet, forget these events.
Why is this important? There is the classic argument that if we don't understand our past we are doomed to repeat it, but the other argument is that respecting and understanding that just because something isn't talked about doesn't mean it isn't important is something that can translate into education as a whole. For teachers, have to understand that there are events that happen in our students lives that make them who they are in our classrooms that we may have no idea about. For students, it's important to understand that there is more to history than what is on the test and there is more fun to learning than just what can be taught to you in the classroom.
Why is this important? There is the classic argument that if we don't understand our past we are doomed to repeat it, but the other argument is that respecting and understanding that just because something isn't talked about doesn't mean it isn't important is something that can translate into education as a whole. For teachers, have to understand that there are events that happen in our students lives that make them who they are in our classrooms that we may have no idea about. For students, it's important to understand that there is more to history than what is on the test and there is more fun to learning than just what can be taught to you in the classroom.
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