If you need to use coloring books to keep kids' attention while teaching about the Holocaust, then maybe the kids aren't ready to handle it.
Nothing surprises me anymore. I recently stumbled across this Anne Frank dot-to-dot on my local newspaper’s education page. Aside from the fact that it is a ludicrously designed dot-to-dot — I mean, why not just draw more of her face and body and leave nothing to connect — this is not the best way to introduce the Holocaust to children.
I have no doubt that the Universal Press Syndicate’s Mini Page has the best of intentions to share Anne’s life story. However, to toss it in the mix with peanut butter pudding recipes, word searches and other activity book games and puzzles only trivializes the tragedy.
Perhaps the most outrageous part of this “Fun Page,” is the Holocaust Word Search. Hey kids, can you find the phrases FINAL SOLUTION, GENOCIDE and DEATHCAMP? Are you kidding me?
Holocaust education is not supposed to be fun. If you have to placate kids with coloring books and puzzles, they are probably too young to learn about it in the first place.
What do you think? When and how should kids first be introduced to the Shoah? And are dot-to-dots and word searches offensive in this context or am I the one who is off-base here?
18 comments
Comments feed for this article
January 14, 2010 at 3:02 am
Amy
I agree with you Stacy. The word search is ridiculous. And the connect the dots is pathetic. The students should take the Facing History and Ourselves Holocaust and Human Behavior course which teaches the Holocaust through a human behavioral lens. This is NOT a fun class but the students watch film clips, analyze artwork and discuss behavior that allowed the Holocaust to happen. No games.
January 14, 2010 at 1:38 pm
Shari
I am not offended per se, but I think it is completely the wrong approach to teaching this subject. Like you said, if they are so young that they need dot to dots and word searches to keep their attention, they are too young to learn about this subject. I cannot believe this was actually printed in the newspaper!!
January 14, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Stacy Milbouer
It’s hard to believe this is even for real, but unfortunately I know it is. Being a poet, I can’t help but be struck by the layers of metaphorical folly this represents. In the end, Anne Frank connected the dots for so many of us. I went to her house in Amsterdam twice in hopes of paying some kind of homage to her profound effect on me and the world. I don’t pray but standing there trying to evoke her spirit was as close as I came and I failed because it was all just too tragic and being a German Jew born in America with all the freedoms that entails, made me unable to grasp even an iota of what Anne endured. This post coming at the time of Miep Geis’ death just makes it all the more poignant. I trust Jewish educators like you will keep an eye on such dreck.
January 14, 2010 at 4:17 pm
Laura Rodman
To me, this “fun stuff” is making a joke out of the Holocaust. It is offensive and certainly not the way I would have wanted my children and now my grandchildren to learn about history.
January 14, 2010 at 4:27 pm
Emily Andreano
I am going to hope that this dot-to-dot does not really come from some coloring book somewhere, and that it was drawn specifically for the Mini Page, addressed to a Gentile readership. While this doesn’t make it much better, I am guessing that it is their well-meaning, if completely lame attempt to bring this story to a wide audience. Give them credit for trying! At our school, we don’t even introduce the subject of the Holocaust until 7th grade, precisely in order to avoid the icky, dumbed-down stuff you find for younger kids. Count on Stacy to see the absurd in this and to write about it so effectively!
Emily Andreano
Temple Emanuel
Andover, MA
January 14, 2010 at 5:21 pm
stacyshalom
Emily, this was created specifically for the syndicated kids’ Mini Page, which is published in newspapers across the country. In essence, it is meant to be a mini-coloring book for the kiddies, while still trying to educate them. I also don’t think it matters whether the kids are Jewish or not. As one of my friends put it, you would never see a slavery-themed dot-to-dot!
January 14, 2010 at 10:00 pm
Emily Andreano
Stacy,
You are so right! Unless there is a Harriet Tubman dot-to-dot out there somewhere…..
January 14, 2010 at 5:30 pm
Janet Nirenberg
You are absolutely correct. Any child who needs this kind of activity to learn about the Holocaust is too young to learn about the atrocities perpetrated by man. Learning about it young doesn’t necessarily carry through except in nightmares. This is a case of good intentions, etc…etc.
Poor judgement though.
Nice blog. Thanks for including me.
January 14, 2010 at 7:25 pm
Shari
I like that analogy, Stacy…”you would never see a slavery-themed dot-to-dot”
January 14, 2010 at 10:46 pm
David
Wow. Well, to be honest, it’s only the cuddly little bears that bother me. Or the cute little doggy who is so moved by Anne Frank’s diary. That is a little too much pandering.
I don’t even know if I think it’s distasteful, just a little ridiculous.
But I don’t think it’s totally out of line to teach kids about the Holocaust in ways that engage them — say, a tastefully animated Anne Frank story (sans cuddly bears, with realistic drawings).
I mean, there is something to be said for easing kids in to some of the darker aspects of the world without scaring the crap out of them.
January 15, 2010 at 1:31 am
Lisa
Not sure if I am offended….but really surprised that anyone would think it was a good venue for the topic. Of course, many of us do have those kits with the twelve plagues where we are letting young children learn about the horrible events by eating gummy frogs and locust and using puppets of sick cows and dead babies. Maybe both ideas are not good ones, although the Holocaust seems to be a more serious topic….maybe because it happened in recent history.
January 15, 2010 at 2:32 pm
Adam Sherer
I agree with the comments so far. When I teach it, we go through three phases of learning:
* How it started — the intent is to shock the kids into not taking our democracy for granted because that’s the government Germany had prior to the Nazis.
* Magnitude — with the sixth graders I find that the more horrific details aren’t needed and some children have a tough time with it but the magnitude drives the points home
* Resistance, compassion, and rebirth — I also believe it is important for the kids to recognize those Jews and non-Jews that resisted the Nazis and protected victims and the rebirth that followed with the survivors.
If we are to train the next generation to be wary of this ugly side of humanity they need to know the signs and have the inner strength to fight it.
=Adam Sherer, teacher and dad
January 16, 2010 at 3:46 pm
Rachel
I’m honestly speechless. And also a little nauseated. I mean, on the one hand, it’s good that the newspaper is introducing Anne Frank to kids, but the way they chose to do it is unbelievable. In my opinion, no one should EVER be looking for the word “Hitler” in a word search! I have to believe that the mini-pages people had good intentions, but in my opinion, this is really inappropriate and disgraceful.
As far as when to teach kids about the Holocaust – well, my background is a little different than most because I was introduced to it at an extremely young age, with very graphic images and a fear-of-the-Holocaust obsessed mother (I was convinced by age 5 that any day the gestapo would come knocking on our door in suburban America) so I’m of the opinion that kids should not be taught the details of any of it until at least 6th Grade. The photos and the films of the really atrocious stuff should be saved until later than that, I think, because I don’t see any reason to give kids nightmares over history. Yes, they need to know what happened and the state of the world at the time, but not too early in their young and impressionable lives. Finally, I think that the concept of these horrors never happening again is important to convey to assuage any possible modern-day fears.
Stacy – this blog is fantastic! Keep it up!
January 17, 2010 at 4:11 am
stacy
When I read your comment, from my mouth came a gentle propulsion of air, coming from a place of incredulity. The same emotion and audible noise that emanated from my mouth when I first came across this stuff in my local paper. You know, because you were feeling the same “You have got to be kidding me” feeling when you read my blog.
I vividly remember my 9th grade Holocaust class with Rabbi Yales at Temple Isaiah, Lexington. I was 13-14 years old, and I remember the film “Night & Fog.” While very different from the scope and sequence of today’s Facing History and Ourselves curriculum, Rabbi Yales first set the scene by having us study the history of Germany, the social, economic, and political landscapes that contributed to the rise of anti-Semitism. We read many books, including Elie Wiesel’s “Night” and Simon Weisenthal’s “The Sunflower,” but we also watched “Night & Fog” with all that black and white archival footage of the atrocities of the Holocaust.
At the time I thought I was mature enough to learn about this piece of darkness. This class jump started my interest; I became a voracious reader of Holocaust books. Perhaps at 9th grade we were past word games and dot-to-dots, but Rabbi Yales never presented us with this stuff. Even in 9th grade, I am sure we all would have felt that it was inappropriate.
January 20, 2010 at 4:03 pm
Debbi
This is so ridiculous – connect the dots and word find!!! How much more can we desensitize and whitewash the Holocaust so it is PC and unintrusive! Our Holocaust unit for 7th graders is taught with the students watching films such The Pianist, Schindler’s List and others — and speakers when available. This year the students heard a talk given by Ernie Weiss (Out of Vienna – Eight Years of Flight From the Nazis). They were so moved by his speech. Every student wanted to buy a copy of his book right then and there. This is what makes it real. This course is a lead-in to the second half – the creation of the State of Israel.
January 22, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Robin
Stacy, Kol Hakavod to you. I am very impressed with your blog and I hope that you keep up the good work. I live in Israel and I have the good fortune of being able to live my Judaism every single day. We don’t take it for granted living here while we have so many enemies surrounding us. Just, keep up the good work. Robin
February 8, 2010 at 1:18 pm
stacy
Robin-
Thank you for your feedback. A message that I always relay to my students of all ages is that although our history is a lachrymose one, that unlike many ancient civilizations, we Jews are still here.
February 7, 2010 at 4:23 am
So what is the appropriate age to teach children about the Holocaust? « Learning, Laughter & Light!
[...] discovering this outrageously inappropriate Anne Frank dot-to-dot puzzle and a full kids’ activity page of Holocaust word searches and games, I sent the link to a few respected educational institutions for their [...]