As far as students this year in teacher Lionel Allen’s history class are concerned, the 1920s were nearly non-existent. Same for the Depression.
The Oak Park and River Forest High School educator says he’s had to make some difficult curriculum choices to ensure that students receive a smorgasbord of historical topics.
“Why does it have to be a give and take? Time,” said Allen, who focused on both World Wars, including the Holocaust, and the Vietnam War. “I think that’s a challenge that every history teacher has to deal with.”
It’s a common dilemma among Illinois educators who must incorporate a slew of required topics into already jam-packed curriculums. This legislative session, Illinois lawmakers have proposed more than 40 bills that could require even more of schools, including several that would lengthen the list of must-teach subjects.
One proposal, which the House passed, would broaden an existing mandate that requires that high school students get a unit on the Holocaust. The measure, which is awaiting Senate action, would also require schools to add instruction on other recent occurrences of genocide, including the slaughter in Rwanda in the 1990s and the atrocities done to Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s.
“Every year they add new requirements that teachers have to teach, and students have to learn and they never increase the school day or school year,” complained Ben Schwarm, associate executive director of the Illinois Association of School Boards. “That’s why they have to impose each one, one by one. It’s drip by drip but pretty soon the bucket gets full.”
Out of bounds?
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The genocide bill has educators discussing how far lawmakers in Springfield should be allowed to step into their classrooms and if they are qualified to legislate teacher curriculums.
“It’s always an interesting quandary when non-professionals consistently dictate what professionals in the field are doing,” said Lorie Cristofaro, a Glenbard East High School teacher for 11 years, said. “That’s our job as social studies teachers, to make (students) more aware of things going on in the world.”
What is especially frustrating to some educators is that, while districts are wrestling with budget deficits and overcrowded classes, legislators are talking about adding more things to teach.
Already swamped by the pressure to comply with state testing standards, some teachers say added teaching mandates will only siphon off more time from classroom instruction.
But supporters of the genocide bill argue that failing to teach students about the prevalence of ethnic and political killings would be more detrimental than the strain of increasing teacher workloads. Awareness could be a key factor in stopping future acts of genocide and curbing indifference, they say.
“This is a lesson that has never been learned. It’s entirely appropriate guidance,” said Steve Buenning, a world history teacher at Fremd High School in Palatine. “I don’t think it’s unnecessarily burdensome at all.”
Illinois was at the forefront of national education policy in 1990 when it required schools to incorporate study of the Holocaust into curriculums. If the new measure is passed, Illinois will join select states, including California and Rhode Island, trying to broaden education about genocide.
In addition to Cambodia and Rwanda, the bill would require teaching about genocide in Armenia and Ukraine as well as more recent atrocities in Bosnia and Sudan. Proponents say that schools should not limit discussions to those tragedies but include others as well, such as the disappearances of political dissenters in Argentina and Chile; or human rights violations that have occurred in places such as El Salvador.
Movie highlights issue
The recent Oscar-nominated film “Hotel Rwanda” highlights this problem in its depiction of the United States and much of the world turning a blind eye a decade ago to the slaughter of 800,000 Rwandans by their countrymen during a 100-day killing spree.
“Genocides are still happening, and we need to expand our knowledge on it, ” said Katya Mischenko-Mycyk, a board member for the Ukrainian Genocide Famine Foundation, a Chicago group that supports the bill. “It’s almost unfair to students just to see a small piece of the historic picture.”
Rep. John Fritchey (D-Chicago), the bill’s sponsor, said incorporating recent events into classroom lessons would resonate with students who live in a fast-paced world where today’s technological advances are ancient history tomorrow.
“I have a 9-year-old daughter. In her mind, learning about something that happened 60 years ago is the same as learning about something that happened 200 years ago,” he said. “This brings the reality of genocide much closer to home for them and they’re much more able to grasp what it is they’re being taught and that’s really what this is about.”
Other lawmakers argued that schools already desperate for cash would have problems covering the costs of supplies for new topics. However, Fritchey said that non-profit organizations already have pledged to donate literature and volunteer speakers.
Instead, some opponents suggest that lawmakers consider more sensible solutions that wouldn’t bog districts down with unfunded rules.
Rep. Suzanne Bassi (R-Palatine), a former educator who was one of the 11 House members to vote against the bill, said she agrees with the spirit of the legislation but is against the lack of funding to help carry it through. She suggests educators be taught how to incorporate the subject of genocide in their lessons as a more reasonable fix.
“They can bring it into our classroom without writing a state law for it,” she said.
Glenbard East’s Cristofaro says that she and many of her peers are already doing this. At the beginning of each class, she engages her students in a brief discussion on current events, including the ethnic strife in Sudan.
“It is imperative that we treat educators as professionals and trust that they are teaching these human-rights issues in the classroom,” she said.
While many educators say that is a laudable goal, they also say it is made that much harder every time the legislature orders schools to teach something specific.
“We’ve not extended the school day, we’ve not extended the school year,” said Deanna Sullivan, director of governmental relations for the Illinois Association of School Boards. “When is it too much?”
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