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Leslie Skantz-Hodgson started the topic Becoming a Holocaust Educator in the forum Becoming a Holocaust Educator 2023 Summer Seminar Responses: due JUNE 18 (or earlier) 10 months, 2 weeks ago
I took heart in reading about how other teachers initially felt they didn’t feel fully qualified to teach the Holocaust, for a variety of reasons. I have felt that way, too. Once the teachers pushed through those feelings and accepted that “the more you learn about the Holocaust, the more questions you have,” the teaching and learning flowed.
My…[Read more] -
Leslie Skantz-Hodgson started the topic Perl & Krug in the forum Looking at Perl & Krug: due JUNE 15 (or earlier) 10 months, 2 weeks ago
While Perl was visiting a country/people she was taught to hate, Krug was interrogating her homeland – her heimat. As a Jew – someone who would have been victimized if she’d been in Austria during Hitler’s rule – Perl wanted to know how such horrors could have been inflicted; how people who had to have known what was going on nonetheless turned a…[Read more]
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Leslie Skantz-Hodgson replied to the topic Perl and Krug in the forum Looking at Perl & Krug: due JUNE 15 (or earlier) 10 months, 2 weeks ago
Lisa, I had the same reactions about owning our history (and vowing to do better), and anxiety over how right-wing extremists seem to be on the rise. The two seem to go hand-in-hand. When we don’t acknowledge and learn from our darker side in history, we risk repeating it, to horrific results.
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Leslie Skantz-Hodgson replied to the topic Oops from St. Louis! in the forum 2023 Summer Seminar Participant Introductions: due MAY 15 10 months, 3 weeks ago
I posted in the wrong place too, and was bummed because it was one of the few times I met a TOLI deadline 🙂
You teach quite a variety of classes – prepping for each course must be a challenge.
I’d love to hear more about the Holocaust and Genocide awareness club when we meet in NYC.
See you soon! -
Leslie Skantz-Hodgson replied to the topic Belonging Reflection in the forum Belonging 2023 Summer Seminar Responses: due JUNE 8 (or earlier) 10 months, 3 weeks ago
I also was very interested in Nora’s research process, and thought the use of phone books very creative. I also hardly ever read graphic novels – any “graphic” I read is usually nonfiction, like John Lewis’s March trilogy.
I can also kind of relate to Krug’s self-consciousness. There’ve been times in my life when I travelled to other countries…[Read more] -
Leslie Skantz-Hodgson replied to the topic New Thinking in the forum Belonging 2023 Summer Seminar Responses: due JUNE 8 (or earlier) 10 months, 3 weeks ago
I can relate! I too scorn where I grew up (a suburb of Boston). This is a town that made it clear to Bill Russell, then a player on the Boston Celtics, that he should not buy the house he was interested in buying (He was Black). He ended up buying a house in a neighboring suburb as a result. But when I hear the thick Boston accent (the accent is…[Read more]
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Leslie Skantz-Hodgson started the topic Belonging in the forum Belonging 2023 Summer Seminar Responses: due JUNE 8 (or earlier) 10 months, 3 weeks ago
I also enjoyed the fact that this memoir was written in graphic novel form, and I don’t even like to read graphic novels that much! I liked the photos, drawings, clippings, and the “Things German” that made the author homesick.
I was struck by how complicated political/personal life was during the war years, for example Krug learning that her…[Read more] -
Leslie Skantz-Hodgson replied to the topic Reflecting on Sondra Perl's "On Austrian Soil" in the forum On Austrian Soil 2023 Summer Seminar Responses: due MAY 30 10 months, 4 weeks ago
Hi Eduardo,
I see that you are from Florida, where the “Woke” act could tempt teachers to steer clear of controversial topics for fear of being sued for causing guilt or anguish among some students. I think the idea of using personal narratives is a great and powerful “work around” to that law: students sharing their stories, hearing the stories…[Read more] -
Leslie Skantz-Hodgson started the topic Re-visiting "On Austrian Soil" in the forum On Austrian Soil 2023 Summer Seminar Responses: due MAY 30 11 months, 1 week ago
To revisit On Austrian Soil, I went back to look at what I wrote almost three years ago. I wrote then that I was struck by the quote, “You are not responsible for the past. But…we all have a responsibility to the future….The Ability to respond. The ability and the willingness to take another person’s words and questions seriously. Not to turn ou…[Read more]
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Leslie Skantz-Hodgson replied to the topic Cheers from the Mile High in the forum 2023 Summer Seminar Participant Introductions: due MAY 15 11 months, 1 week ago
Hi Kelly,
You (and so many others in this cohort) have a lot more experience with Holocaust education than I do. I’m starting to feel inadequate! Your proposed course in comparative genocide sounds really interesting and I’d like to hear more about it when we gather in June.
On a different note, I love swing dance! (and salsa, and tango, waltz,…[Read more] -
Leslie Skantz-Hodgson started the topic Greetings From Northampton, MA in the forum 2023 Summer Seminar Participant Introductions: due MAY 15 11 months, 1 week ago
Greeting from Northampton, MA!
I am currently the librarian at the oldest vocational school in Massachusetts, but when I started here 30 years ago, I was an English teacher. As I had learned very little about the Holocaust in school, I wanted to make sure it didn’t get short shrift where I taught (and I didn’t learn about Japanese internment unt…[Read more] -
Leslie Skantz-Hodgson started the topic Greetings From Northampton, MA in the forum 2023 Summer Seminar 11 months, 1 week ago
I am currently the librarian at the oldest vocational school in Massachusetts, but when I started here 30 years ago, I was an English teacher. As I had learned very little about the Holocaust in school, I wanted to make sure it didn’t get short shrift where I taught (and I didn’t learn about Japanese internment until I took a course taught by How…[Read more]
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Leslie Skantz-Hodgson's profile was updated 11 months, 3 weeks ago
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Leslie Skantz-Hodgson started the topic From school-skipper to skipper of the school. in the forum We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom – 2021 Summer Seminar Responses 2 years, 11 months ago
I am the youngest of six kids – the “baby” – and I don’t know for certain, but I think that has something to do with why my mother didn’t send me to kindergarten. By the time I entered first grade, the other kids had known each other for a year. My mother always told people, within my earshot, that I was shy, so I behaved shyly. By second grade,…[Read more]
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Leslie Skantz-Hodgson replied to the topic HomePlace: Hope and Resistence in the forum We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom – 2021 Summer Seminar Responses 2 years, 11 months ago
I know how you feel about being complicit just by being part of the system. I often feel that way myself. But then I wonder how I can use my position within the system and my knowledge of the system to create some resistance. It’s tricky though: be too forceful in your resistance and you risk the very real possibility that higher ups will make…[Read more]
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Leslie Skantz-Hodgson started the topic Reflection #2 in the forum On Austrian Soil – 2021 Summer Seminar Responses 3 years, 9 months ago
The Thomas Lux poem brought to mind so many different thoughts. (That in itself is remarkable, because I am not a big fan of poetry). It was appropriate for the research class, of course, but also for the understandings Sondra and Margret and their families were striving for, and for what we all should be striving for today. When I saw the word…[Read more]
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Leslie Skantz-Hodgson replied to the topic What is our role as teachers? As humans? in the forum On Austrian Soil – 2021 Summer Seminar Responses 3 years, 9 months ago
Safe spaces are so important in order to promote understanding. So is listening. In these polarized times, people seem to want only to state their views and not listen to others. I think asking questions from a stance of genuine curiosity could be a good way to promote a dialogue (after the class sets some discussion norms). I liked Sondra’s…[Read more]
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Leslie Skantz-Hodgson replied to the topic Response-ability in the forum On Austrian Soil – 2021 Summer Seminar Responses 3 years, 9 months ago
So re-reading this I realize I need to clarify that my colleague’s initial comment was “I’m not sure I’d want to be hired over other candidates because of the color of my skin,” hence my reply about wishing that white people hired because they were white shared her feelings. I couldn’t find a way to edit my original post; how do we do that? (Or is…[Read more]
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Leslie Skantz-Hodgson replied to the topic Being "morally neutral" as an educator in the forum On Austrian Soil – 2021 Summer Seminar Responses 3 years, 9 months ago
Oh, Eric, your comment about our young people not being challenged as thinkers is spot on! I could go on and on about how I feel high-stakes, standardized testing and the pressure to “get through” an entire curriculum has resulted in formulaic teaching and demonstration of “learning,” but I won’t. (Not here, anyway). We do not have enough…[Read more]
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Leslie Skantz-Hodgson started the topic Response-ability in the forum On Austrian Soil – 2021 Summer Seminar Responses 3 years, 9 months ago
I was struck by the same quotes that some others were; the passage on page 84 “You are not responsible for the past. But…we all have a responsibility to the future….The Ability to respond. The ability and the willingness to take another person’s words and questions seriously. Not to turn our backs. Not to be silent.” And also, the question…[Read more]
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