With the goal of training local teachers in ways to educate students about the Nazi genocide, the Teacher Workshop on the Holocaust will be offered Monday, Aug. 8 through Friday, Aug.12 at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) for the second consecutive year.
“This workshop will bring high-school teachers on campus for curriculum development workshops that will enable them to teach students about the Holocaust in an age-appropriate way,” said Jeffrey Blutinger, an associate professor of history and CSULB’s inaugural Barbara and Ray Alpert Endowed Chair for Jewish Studies.
“Holocaust education is a state standard usually taught in the 10th and 11th grades. Part of the instruction comes in history and part in language arts, but those who instruct [about] the Holocaust may not have taken a class in the subject. Their knowledge may be limited to whatever movies they’ve seen or whatever world history textbook they read at university,” he explained. “What we are doing is providing them information about the subject, including a general overview accompanied by binder material prepared by the Anti-Defamation League titled Echoes and Reflections.”
Teachers taking part in the workshop receive a $100 stipend to pay for food and parking and may receive up to two units of service credit.
Holocaust survivor Gerda Seifer and her husband, Harold, approached the CSULB Jewish Studies Program in 2009 with the seed gift that created the teacher workshop. “There’s nothing like it available in Southern California,” Blutinger noted. “It was a chance to fill a major need, and it gives Jewish studies at CSULB a chance to increase its visibility. We are currently raising endowment funds that will make the workshops a permanent fixture on campus.”
For more information, call (562) 985-2196.
