by KYW's Dr. Marciene Mattleman

Human Rights is one of the themes being highlighted at the annual conference of the National Council for Social Studies next month and more than a dozen sessions will focus on the teaching of genocide.

According to an article in Education Week, such emphasis is probably a result of policies in eleven states that direct schools to include the Armenian genocide in history courses and more than thirty states that mandate teaching about the Holocaust.

Televised reports of the situation in Darfur, in which several hundred thousand people have died as a result of tribal warfare, make teaching about genocide real.

There are several recommended materials for such topics concerned with how much young people can absorb. “Facing History with Ourselves” is a good starting point.

Talking about identity, asking students questions about themselves - Who is in their universe of obligation?, Who would they stick their neck out for? - are questions from that curriculum.

A Lexington, MA teacher using that approach, believes that there is great value in talking about history in the context of human behavior. It hits students in a different place and they begin to think about the choices they make in their everyday lives.