Teacher Education Institute

Questions of Conscience: Teaching about the Holocaust and Genocide

Sunday, July 26 - Friday July 31, 2009 

Teacher Education Institute is a 3 credit University of Richmond graduate. The class is a five day course designed to educate middle and high school teachers in Holocaust and genocide. It provides them with excellent tools necessary to teach such sensitive subjects to their students.

The course addresses many sections of the Virginia Standards of Learning for history, English, civics, economics, biology, art and music. Teachers will have the opportunity to delve into a wide range of topics, from the History of anti-Semitism, the Rise of Hitler and the Nazis, to Defining Genocide in the Contemporary Era. The course is taught by both classroom teachers and history professors.

I am delighted the University of Richmond and the Virginia Holocaust Museum have established this important partnership that expands each organizations’ efforts to local educators. We are proud to be associated with an institution that does such brave and remarkable work.

Edward L. Ayers, President University of Richmond

The course includes textbooks, such as:

1.  The Holocaust and Other Genocides: History, Representation, Ethics by Helmut Walser Smith;

2.  Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman

3. Columbia Guide to the Holocaust by Donald L. Niewyk and Francis R. Nicosia;

4. War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust by Doris L. Bergen;

5. Izzy's Fire by Nancy Wright Beasley; and

6. The Gazebo (Alexander Lebenstein as told to and edited by Don Levin).

The seminar was a great experience. Professors gave profound, informative, and enthusiastic lectures; teachers from all over VA worked together and shared ideas and lesson plans, guest speakers (survivors and museum curators) were inspirational. I left with a plethora of ideas and materials that I use in the classroom. The students love it!  

Michelle Harrison, Carver Middle School

To register, see the (brochure) and (registration form).