Teaching about the Syrian Refugee Crisis:
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What makes the issue even more compelling for educators is that the Syrian revolt was started Daraa by a group of 9 to 12 year-old boys, who brazenly wrote on the side of their school “The government must go!”. The students’ efforts were followed by other Syrian children who courageously pressed their painted green hands against the walls of their community as a sign of symbolic protest. These were young kids, but for them social justice and activism were a necessary means to survival itself.
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For educators around the world who help develop students’ understanding of social justice, the situation begs a number of questions: What can I do in my classroom to help explain the situation in Syria? In an age where I am increasingly judged by my test scores rather than the relevance of my lessons, why should I bother raising the issue in the first place? And, how can I help students understand social activism as not just a part of history, but a relevant tool today?
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At first glance, the teaching of complex international situations such as Syria seems daunting. But when looking back at Rwanda in 1994, it seems like malpractice that more classrooms weren’t emphasizing that was happening there was wrong and needed to be stopped.
The good news is that since then, the digital revolution has provided teachers with the access to the materials, tools, and know-how to help their students understand what is happening in Syria while also inspiring them to help make a difference. It’s a relief to know that teaching the basic facts about the crisis need not be overly complicated, or take up more than a forty-minute class. A short video or summary of the situation can do wonders. Likewise, our interconnected world also allows our students to see that they don’t just have to admire a problem—but can reach out today to take action, standing up to injustice in our time.
One way to do this is to have your class join the “I Am Syria” campaign, started in 2012 by a group of young New Yorkers. Students and teachers can like the group’s Facebook page, then upload pictures and videos of themselves saying “I Am Syria,” sending a powerful message to the Syrian people that they are not alone. Other activities include a Walkathon for Syrian Refugees or a Day of Silence in which students get pledges to refrain from using cell phones, computers, video games, or even just talking—all to raise money for relief efforts.
Why is all this important? The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has a saying that “What you do matters.” In short, when one human being suffers, it affects us all. As American teachers, we celebrate the role that foreigners such as the Marquis de Lafayette and General Casimir Pulaski had in assisting our American Revolution. Now with our students, let us in some way return the favor for our brothers and sisters in Syria in their moment of need. Doing so becomes a “ripple of hope” that Bobby Kennedy said “would build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
Likewise, in an age where we as teachers face increasing constraints to our profession, teaching about Syria is not only important in its own right, but helps cultivate the social awareness and moral leadership so important to the future of our pluralistic world. And while teaching global situations in real time will never be perfect, it nonetheless can offer students the opportunity to see their world differently, appreciate that it is fragile, and, most importantly, to speak up when it is at risk.
Andrew Beiter and Joseph Karb are Social Studies teachers at Springville Middle School in Springville, New York. Beiter is also the Director of the Summer Institute for Human Rights and Genocide Studies of Buffalo, which co-sponsored the I Am Syria campaign. More information on how you and your students can get involved is available at www.iamsyria.org
This article is an updated version of a piece that initially was published on the Syria Deeply webpage, October 15, 2012.
The good news is that since then, the digital revolution has provided teachers with the access to the materials, tools, and know-how to help their students understand what is happening in Syria while also inspiring them to help make a difference. It’s a relief to know that teaching the basic facts about the crisis need not be overly complicated, or take up more than a forty-minute class. A short video or summary of the situation can do wonders. Likewise, our interconnected world also allows our students to see that they don’t just have to admire a problem—but can reach out today to take action, standing up to injustice in our time.
One way to do this is to have your class join the “I Am Syria” campaign, started in 2012 by a group of young New Yorkers. Students and teachers can like the group’s Facebook page, then upload pictures and videos of themselves saying “I Am Syria,” sending a powerful message to the Syrian people that they are not alone. Other activities include a Walkathon for Syrian Refugees or a Day of Silence in which students get pledges to refrain from using cell phones, computers, video games, or even just talking—all to raise money for relief efforts.
Why is all this important? The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has a saying that “What you do matters.” In short, when one human being suffers, it affects us all. As American teachers, we celebrate the role that foreigners such as the Marquis de Lafayette and General Casimir Pulaski had in assisting our American Revolution. Now with our students, let us in some way return the favor for our brothers and sisters in Syria in their moment of need. Doing so becomes a “ripple of hope” that Bobby Kennedy said “would build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
Likewise, in an age where we as teachers face increasing constraints to our profession, teaching about Syria is not only important in its own right, but helps cultivate the social awareness and moral leadership so important to the future of our pluralistic world. And while teaching global situations in real time will never be perfect, it nonetheless can offer students the opportunity to see their world differently, appreciate that it is fragile, and, most importantly, to speak up when it is at risk.
Andrew Beiter and Joseph Karb are Social Studies teachers at Springville Middle School in Springville, New York. Beiter is also the Director of the Summer Institute for Human Rights and Genocide Studies of Buffalo, which co-sponsored the I Am Syria campaign. More information on how you and your students can get involved is available at www.iamsyria.org
This article is an updated version of a piece that initially was published on the Syria Deeply webpage, October 15, 2012.
Part of I Am Syria Series;
Stand For Syrian Refugee's
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About
Beiter & Karb
Joseph Karb and Andrew Beiter are the Education Directors of I Am Syria, and are nationally recognized educational leaders who teach Social Studies at Springville Middle School outside of Buffalo, New York. In addition to being selected the 2011 National Middle School Social Studies Teacher of the Year, Karb is the founder and Co-Director of the NYSUT/Robert F. Kennedy Speak Truth to Power Human Rights Video Contest. Beiter is the Director of the Summer Institute for Human Rights and Genocide Studies in Buffalo, and is a Regional Education Coordinator for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. In September 2013, he interviewed Secretary of State John Kerry about the U.S. response to chemical weapons attacks in Syria through a Google Hangout with journalists Nicholas Kristof and Lara Setrakian. Both serve as Education Directors for the Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown, New York, and are also the managers of the website The Warning Signs of Genocide.
Website: http://help4refugees.org/
Website: http://help4refugees.org/
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