EDITORIAL: Famine-Genocide curriculum (08/14/05)

EDITORIAL

Famine-Genocide curriculum

For some 70 years now Ukrainians have had to contend with a sentiment that mollified the impact of the Ukrainian Famine Genocide of 1932-1933. This sentiment has often implied that the Ukrainian famine was somehow less an appalling crime against humanity than any of the other 20th century genocides.

As it unfolded in the early 1930s, few people outside of Ukraine knew what was happening. Then there were those who either worked to cover it up or downplayed the impact it had on the Ukrainian people.

But even now some refuse to acknowledge that it happened. There are still those people who deny that 7-10 million Ukrainians were brutally and knowingly starved to death.

And then there are those who simply don't know it happened. Sadly, students throughout North America still are only topically taught about human rights abuses committed during the 20th century. This is most unfortunate, because, as has been said many times in the past, learning about history helps us to avoid repeating past mistakes.

But, in fact, there is a move now to ensure that students in the United States do learn about the Ukrainian famine, as well as other human rights abuses that previously garnered little attention in high school history classes. We applaud the efforts of the community to educate a wider audience about the Famine Genocide and encourage them in this vain.

Teachers, parents and students should be made aware of the curriculum guide on the Famine-Genocide of 1932-1933 prepared by Dr. Myron B. Kuropas, an educator and historian. The guide was made available recently by the Ukrainian National Association with the goal of spreading it throughout the community.

It is important to note that the original curriculum guide, created in 1983, was used at several teachers' workshops in Chicago, Detroit and Newark, N.J. An updated and revised guide was first used at a 2003 workshop on the Famine-Genocide for New Jersey's high school teachers held at Rider University, and later employed at a major workshop for secondary school teachers on the topic of the use of food as a political weapon that was held at the University of Denver.

More recently, the Boston Ukrainian community sponsored a presentation about the Ukrainian Famine-Genocide for teachers gathered at the Northeast Regional Conference on Social Studies held at the Boston Plaza Hotel in March.

In these instances, and in others like them that have gone unreported, the organizers have recognized the importance of including study of the Famine- Genocide in school curriculums.

Taking this yet a step further, we urge that parents learn what educators are teaching their children. In many state public high schools it is required that children learn about genocide, though schools often focus narrowly on only one or two genocides. Schools that do not include Ukraine on their list should be pushed by parents to do so.

States have begun mandating that schools teach in more depth about crimes of the 20th century, and we encourage those that haven't passed such legislation to do the same. In one instance, we learned recently that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed a bill requiring public schools in the state to teach about genocides, including, but not limited to, "the Armenian Genocide, the Famine-Genocide in Ukraine, and more recent atrocities in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Sudan."

Teachers and other school officials involved in teaching about history need to know about the Ukrainian Famine-Genocide of 1932-1933. Obviously, the first step we can all take is to ask teachers and school officials whether they are aware of and teach about the Ukrainian Famine.

However, there are those critics of the expanded Famine curriculum who have argued for the status quo, saying, effectively, that things should be left the way they are. But the status quo, in this regard, discredits the millions of innocent Ukrainians and others who died as victims of a willful and deliberate policy of starvation.

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