Holocaust Museum Houston Digital Newsletter November 2015

Students made origami during Family Night at Ikea to learn about “The Art of Gaman,” the Museum’s exhibit on Japanese-American internment during World War II.

EDUCATION

In an increasingly challenging educational environment, Holocaust Museum Houston works within the context of our mission to meet the needs of teachers, students in schools and other learning settings, as well as members of our community. Cooperation with community partners is an important and exciting part of the Museum’s work and of spreading the message of the Museum’s mission. Partnerships this year included programs with the Girl Scouts of the San Jacinto Council, the Houston Independent School District’s (HISD’s) Division of Global Education, the Houston Symphony and Literacy Through Photography. In special programs developed at Holocaust Museum Houston, members of Girl Scouts of the San Jacinto Council can now earn their Social Innovator Skill-Building Badge while learning about social cruelty and responses to address it. Girls participating can attend workshops and learn how to be an advocate for change through the Social Innovator or Public Policy Badge. In another workshop, scouts learned about social injustices in the world today as they do Scouting Journey work, and girls learned how to be an advocate for positivity in their community through the Science of Happiness Badge. The Education Department staff worked with colleagues at the Houston Symphony on four sold-out middle-school concerts, held in October. “Music in Context: From the Holocaust” welcomed more than 10,500 middle-school students from the Houston region to hear and reflect on music from the Holocaust era. Education staff created a presentation with informative historical images and captions and writing prompts for use post-concert. After the concerts, HMH offered each of the students attending an invitation to visit the Museum, along with one free adult admission.

Based on previous work together, new opportunities are underway with the HISD Division of Global Education that will bring many students to HMH, Asia Society and the Buffalo Soldier’s Museum. At HMH, fourth-grade students will learn and write about the juxtaposition of experiences and choices as they study the book “The Whispering Town,” learn about the Danish rescue and view the Museum’s Danish boat and Holocaust-era railcar. Continuing the work begun in 2014-2015 by Literacy Through Photography instructors Kelly Webeck and Rebecca Hopp, with Webeck’s work being supported by the Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission (THGC), the Holocaust and upstanding will again be a part of in-school work done by photography instructors who work in local schools. These fascinating and engaging interactions allow the mission of HMH to be woven meaningfully into school, Museum and community-based learning experiences.

Survivor Edith Mincberg gave her testimony to attendees at the Max M. Kaplan Summer Institute.