Dec 3

Today we watched what was to me a quite moving video in tribute to the four victims of the Birmingham Church bombing in 1963, the one that was mentioned in the book we're reading. As I was watching I was wondering whether the video makes any impression at all on these particular students, who are now a couple generations removed and who have no knowledge of any of these issues. As I wasn't born until 1974, I myself feel somewhat removed, and I can see it when I look at the faces of the paraprofessionals who remember those times. The video interviews the girls' parents and other relatives, and I would say it was probably made in the '80s. It seemed a bit old to me. What can we do to make this more realistic for children, esp perhaps those in rural, isolated all-white settings such as this? Just yesterday I confiscated something on which a student had fun writing KKK, Nazi symbols, n-word, etc. Does he know what that means? Do I? Can a video change that? What would change that? A visit to a museum? More graphic photos? A curriculum? We need to figure out how we can really teach history. As they say, those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.