My dear friend Russ Weiskircher, just emailed me this morning and here is an excerpt from his letter. As many of you may know, Russ is the co-chairman of the Georgia Holocaust Commission and takes a VERY active role in the education of our school children. He is such a wonderful person. We should all have his drive, great intentions and good will.
...Incidentally I am working on a history project now with the middle school seventh grades and I have assigned them various group study sections of your website, of Al Panebianco's website and several others. They study, they outline, they make up questions Jeopardy style and we stage contests among the local schools.
And we don't just use a few smart kids, we involve every student if every history class. The local merchants and the chamber of commerce kick in with pizza parties and prizes. We call our project "DUO" stands for Do Unto Others...we stress the need to honor and cherish basic freedoms, that freedom was not, is not and never will be free.
We started wth the third graders 15 YEARS AGO BUT NOW WE HAVE WHAT AMOUNTS TO A YOUNG KIDS PROJECT AND AN OLDER KIDS PROJECT. WE USE VETERANS, SURVIVORS, LIBERATORS, WITNESSES...AND WE DRAG OUT THE MEMORABILIA AND PICTURES, IT'S FUN To GET THE NEXT GENERATION HOOKED ON HISTORY...