Recently. I had the opportunity to attend an event that highlighted another one of MEF's grant recipients. Middle School Teacher, Jean Roesner, wrote a grant that allowed for the purchase of books for students and community members that were related the Holocaust and the impact that it had on each of the authors, Elie Weisel and Viktor Frank. There were two sessions on this day; one in person during the day with the students and the another in the evening over zoom. I asked Jean to write a brief description of the event and her account is as follows:
Our study of the books, Man’s Search for Meaning and Night, culminated in a Community Conversation that took place at school recently. This book-club-style event brought together about 20 community members and 60 students to talk about how these books impact our thinking about history and our futures. Students developed the book club questions and facilitated the discussions. Mr. Rick Wilson, a member of the Maranacook Education Foundation Board wrote this about the experience, “The students showed tremendous insight into their learnings from the readings and led the groups in very hard discussions about the books. Many of the adults reported that we had never been given reading assignments when we were in school about the Holocaust and expressed great admiration for our school district for presenting this opportunity for our kids.” Thank you to the Maranacook Education Foundation for this opportunity to connect our community and our school in learning from one another.
Students also had a writing prompt about their experiences with the Community Conversation.
Here’s some of what they had to say:
I would like to thank you for sharing all of your stories and everything.
I learned more about the book after talking about it with them.
I enjoy talking to the them because they have lots of knowledge and past experiences that are interesting to hear about.
...the world seems to be incapable of learning from catastrophe. The world learns slowly.
I really liked our discussion as there was a lot of talking not just about these books but also about what happened and if it could happen again.
Thank you for coming and talking with us about the books. Thank for you taking the time to talk with us for an hour.
Elders have seen our world differently. In different times, different places, and have a different perspective. They see things differently than us, therefore it is important to also listen to what they have to say as well as other students.
I would like to do it again. In the zoom meeting, I like how everyone was talking about the hard stuff in the book.
I would say that I'm grateful that they came and getting their insight on a topic like this because their perspectives can be the same as the kids or may be different, it's pretty interesting.