DENVER, Colo.— Justin Voldman was happy to see the Genocide Education Project’s (GenEd) resource booth at the annual conference of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), held in Denver on Nov. 12-14. “I use your lesson plans in my classroom,” said Voldman, a high school history teacher from Maine, who said she welcomed the useful teaching materials provided by the Genocide Education Project, a nonprofit organization that assists educators in teaching about human rights and genocide, particularly the Armenian Genocide.
Voldman was one of thousands of educators from across the U.S. gathered at the NCSS conference. The Genocide Education Project’s education director, Sara Cohan, led a workshop entitled, “Best Practices in Genocide Education.” Participants were guided through lesson plans created by the Genocide Education Project and heard about ways to broach the sensitive subject of genocide in the classroom. Educators asked how to handle the problem of genocide denial in the classroom and commented that after the session they felt better prepared to bring the Armenian Genocide into their curriculum. Educators were exposed to various approaches for teaching about genocide and analyzed how to combine the study of particular historic events with discussions on genocide prevention today.
Also representing GenEd at the NCSS conference were its executive director, Raffi Momjian, as well as Pauline and Ara Getzoyan from GenEd’s recently established Rhode Island branch.
“The number of American educators that flocked to our exhibit booth asking for information about the Armenian Genocide was remarkable,” said Pauline Getzoyan, co-chair of the Rhode Island branch. “To witness the interest American educators have in teaching about the Armenian Genocide was inspiring.”
The conference provides an important venue through which the Genocide Education Project can communicate face-to-face with teachers, professors and school district leaders to discuss the work of the organization. GenEd provides lesson plans, resource lists, and reading materials about the Armenian Genocide free of charge to each interested educator at the conference. “Our discussions with teachers here confirm that they greatly value education about the Armenian Genocide and genocide prevention. Our task is to ensure they have the training and materials necessary to teach this vital subject,” said Momjian.
The Genocide Education Project is already preparing for next year’s conference in Washington, D.C. and looks forward to reaching more educators.
For more information, visit www.genocideeducation.org.
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