Just Bones

My students have spent the past several weeks covering WWII, the Holocaust and the effects of propaganda.  As part of their studies they learned what life was like in the countries affected by those events.  We spent days covering the history, the people, the places, the names, the faces, the key events.  The numbers of individuals murdered before and during the war are astounding:

~6 million Jews

~5 million others

and hundreds to thousands more not documented.  All the facts and figures aside what really hit home with my students was that genocide still happens today.  

Some of the countries battling genocide today have lost as many to more citizens in days, weeks, or years in comparison to the Holocaust.  Any of these events are despicable, but what is even more difficult to understand is that it is STILL happening TODAY!  DRC, Sudan, South Sudan, Burma, Syria, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan are just some of the places in our globe battling Genocide today.  All of these countries are covered in our 7th Grade Social Studies Curriculum.

OUR WORLD just can't seem to TOLERATE DIFFERENCES! 

As part of our studies, my students participated in a project for an organization known as ONE MILLION BONES.  In an effort to raise awareness about Genocide, One Million Bones is a group of artists who want to construct a memorial in Washington D.C. made of One Million Bones.  My seventh grade social studies students have made around 185 bones from clay, model magic, duct tape and paper mache' to ship to Washington D.C. to be added to the memorial that will be constructed on June 8th, 9th, and 10th.  Schools and organizations from around the globe have helped in the creation of bones for the memorial.  I believe the memorial will hold more than 1,018,000 bones crafted out of various materials.

                                           

One of the best class discussions I had with my students focused on this:

 "When you peel back the layers of my skin, what would you see?"  After some crazy answers my students finally got what I was aiming at.  "BONES."  "That's right, bones.  And my bones are not a different color than your bones.  My bones are white.  They contain no magic fairy dust.  They hold no great value.  They are just bones.  When we all peel back our clothes, our make-up, our hair, our ethnicity, our beliefs, we are made of just bones.  If we can all only learn to look past our differences to get to what we have in common, then maybe one day Genocide will end."

I can't wait to see our bones added to the memorial in Washington D.C. in June.  I hope all who view it will be moved to help end genocide.

For more information on this project, please visit
www.onemillionbones.org