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.
EDUCATION
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.
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.