Another film that we viewed in class was "Paper Clips". This film is about how one social studies class was able to make a difference around the world. It all started with one simple question...What is six million? The class had been studying the Holocaust. When the class was told how many people had died from the Final Solution, one student could just not picture what 6 million people looked like or was. To help the students understand, the teacher decided to make a class activity. They were to collect 6 million papaer clips, each would then represent one person that died during the Holocaust. The outcome of the project was something that the teachers had not imagined. People from around the world started sending paper clips and soon they exceeded the amount they were out to collect. The project then started to become personal. Students wanted to learn more about the Holocaust and the people that were affected. The students got a lesson that they would never be able to get inside the classroom. They received a lifelong lesson that they will never forget.
Having students involved in real world experiences will make students more interested in learning. If the students at Whitwell Middle School had not asked one simple question, they would have never been able to talk to survivors in person and have the experience of seeing a box car that was used for transporting the Jews.
This lesson became much more than just the Holocaust. It was about the human lives that were lost and the people that we never had the chance to meet. Like the video stated, we might have had the person to discover the cure for a disease die during the Holocaust, we just will never know.
Below is a blog about teaching tolerance and acceptance to children.
Accepting Others
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