In 2016, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed legislation mandating the teaching of genocide in all public schools in the state of Michigan. As a result, the Governor’s Council on Genocide – a 15 member council appointed by the governor for a two-year period to create lesson plans and an informational website – was created.
The council is composed of 10 members of the Jewish community and five members of the Armenian community. Vera Andrushkiw, Olenka Danylyuk and this writer, all members of the Detroit Ukrainian American Holodomor Committee, have been attending all council meetings held at the Holocaust Center in Farmington Hills.
Our presence, unfortunately, was only as audience participants, but to date we have made inroads with council members to ensure that the Ukrainian Holodomor was included wherever possible. Images of the Ukrainian famine, as well as links to resource materials, were provided for the council’s website. We have also attended many of the Governor’s Council-sponsored seminars on genocide, both at the Holocaust Center and the St. John’s Armenian Church complex in Southfield.
In the spring of this year, the Michigan Council of Social Studies held its annual state conference at the Macomb Intermediate School District in Clinton Township. There, Vera Andrushkiw, Maria Zarecky and I met with Sean O’Grady, social studies consultant for all of Macomb County. Mr. O’Grady expressed great interest in getting our information into the hands of teachers in the 21 school districts he oversees. Future workshops are planned.
Also earlier in the year, the Michigan Department of Education (MDE), in conjunction with the ACLU, invited several groups of minorities to workshops in Ann Arbor. The objective was to instruct participants to create lesson plans for “EduPath,” a teacher online resource, aligned with the Social Studies standards and benchmarks. The new C-3 (College, Career & Civics) Curriculum is inquiry-based, with students learning through the use of compelling and supporting questions. Our Holodomor committee has diligently been working on teaching units that will provide Michigan teachers with historical data, maps, charts, online resources, images, oral histories, books, film and video resources about the Holodomor. The MDE, so far, has been impressed with the “incredible” amount of information available on the Ukrainian Famine. Our lesson plans are now finished and submitted – a huge endeavor successfully completed.
Every 10 years, public school curriculum in our state is reviewed and revised. This year, the Michigan Department of Education began the process of revising the K-12 social studies curriculum. Approximately 30 pages were deleted from the existing curricula by a politically motivated “focus group.” In the process, the Ukrainian Genocide was removed from the “7.1.3 Twentieth Century Genocides” section. Local Ukrainians were urged to contact their legislators to encourage the Department of Education to intervene to correct this major error, especially in light of the governor’s mandate of 2016.
Both Sen. Steve Bieda and Rep. Patrick Green wrote every member of the State Board of Education on our behalf to resolve this unacceptable development in the new Social Studies curriculum. We are deeply indebted to them for their tremendous support of the Ukrainian community. As a result, the MDE is creating a new work force to revisit the curriculum and promises to take all the public comments under advisement.
Plans are coming to fruition for the Holodomor commemorations in November in the Detroit area.
On November 4, the Ukrainian American Archives and Museum is hosting an exhibit and ceremony, “Light a Candle” at 1-4 at their new location in Hamtramck.
On November 15, a special Holodomor commemoration film event will be held at the Detroit Film Theater at the Detroit Institute of Arts. A reception at 5:30 p.m. in the Crystal Gallery will precede the films, Dr. Borys Buniak’s “When We Starve” and George Mendeluk’s “Bitter Harvest,” to begin at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free. Due to its educational content, the Detroit Institute of Arts will be contacting all districts in Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties about our event.
Our small committee in the Detroit area is made up of selfless, dedicated Ukrainian women who are compelled to inform the world and its younger citizens about the immoral deeds of the past and the warning signs of genocide for the future. These crimes against humanity must come to an end, but it is only through the educational process that we can begin to understand the stages that bring these atrocities to fruition. Genocide, never again.
Doris Duzyj is a retired social studies content specialist with Warren Consolidated Schools in Warren, Mich.