thedrifter
12-04-07, 07:01 AM
MHS students go to ‘boot camp’ to better understand Holocaust
By Mark Alewine
of The Daily Times Staff
“How many of you still think this is funny?”
The shouts echoed through Maryville High School campus as four Marines put students through an hour-long boot camp of grueling military training in an attempt to give them a better understanding of the atrocities of the Holocaust.
Junior English teachers Morgan Hodson and Steve Feather have been teaching their classes literature pertaining to World War II, namely Elie Wiesel’s “Night” and Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel “Maus.” “Night” is Elie Wiesel’s story of his time in Auschwitz (a German concentration camp) as a young boy and is widely regarded as a benchmark work of the Holocaust era. “Maus” is a Pulitzer prize winning biography of its author’s father, who was in Auschwitz as well. The book is especially unorthodox in that the story is told through comic book form.
“In order to make the stories more real to their students, Feather and Hodson brought in Marines to give the students an idea of what is was like to lose control and be treated like less than human.
“I think the best way to talk about the Holocaust is to experience oppression,” Feather said.
Feather came up with the idea during his time at a school in North Carolina. He felt his students didn’t understand the extremes the Jewish people in World War II Europe had faced and weren’t taking it seriously enough, so he brought in Marines to help his students sympathize and have a picture of what concentration camps really were.
After coming to Maryville, he brought the program with him and has worked with Hodson on it for the last two years.
For an hour, students are taken from their normal, everyday setting and become prisoners of Auschwitz. They did push ups, crawled in mud, ran in place while bringing their knees up, lied on their backs and did bicycle kicks and ran sprints. They also get a healthy dose of Marine style encouragement (a.k.a. Lots and lots of yelling).
Despite the extremes the students endure, though, the response has been more than positive.
“This is the one project each year that students say meant the most for them,” she said. “We’ve had kids who did it and beg to come back and do it again.” Hodson added parents and faculty have been incredibly supportive as well.
Student participation in the event is completely optional and they may stop at any time, said Hodson. Through this, though, they begin understanding the true strength needed for someone to endure persecution and the limits people can be pushed to.
“It’s not about physical strength. It’s about mental strength,” Hodson said.
Student Courtney Brice, who completed the entire hour of training, was relieved to be finished but felt affected by the experience.
“I tried to imagine myself in those people’s position ... I feel a lot more educated now,” she said. When their hour of boot camp ended, the students that lasted the entire time lined up together to the applause of their teachers, peers and the Marines themselves. Hodson added the number that started was around fifty, while the number who finished was far less.
“Those of you who finished should be proud of yourselves,” Feather said. As they sat in the classroom, muddy, sore and out of breath, Feather emphasized the gravity of what they had experienced and hoped this had given them a glimpse into lives of these people.
“I hope you have a greater understanding.”
Originally published: December 03. 2007 3:01AM
Last modified: December 02. 2007 11:28PM
Ellie
By Mark Alewine
of The Daily Times Staff
“How many of you still think this is funny?”
The shouts echoed through Maryville High School campus as four Marines put students through an hour-long boot camp of grueling military training in an attempt to give them a better understanding of the atrocities of the Holocaust.
Junior English teachers Morgan Hodson and Steve Feather have been teaching their classes literature pertaining to World War II, namely Elie Wiesel’s “Night” and Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel “Maus.” “Night” is Elie Wiesel’s story of his time in Auschwitz (a German concentration camp) as a young boy and is widely regarded as a benchmark work of the Holocaust era. “Maus” is a Pulitzer prize winning biography of its author’s father, who was in Auschwitz as well. The book is especially unorthodox in that the story is told through comic book form.
“In order to make the stories more real to their students, Feather and Hodson brought in Marines to give the students an idea of what is was like to lose control and be treated like less than human.
“I think the best way to talk about the Holocaust is to experience oppression,” Feather said.
Feather came up with the idea during his time at a school in North Carolina. He felt his students didn’t understand the extremes the Jewish people in World War II Europe had faced and weren’t taking it seriously enough, so he brought in Marines to help his students sympathize and have a picture of what concentration camps really were.
After coming to Maryville, he brought the program with him and has worked with Hodson on it for the last two years.
For an hour, students are taken from their normal, everyday setting and become prisoners of Auschwitz. They did push ups, crawled in mud, ran in place while bringing their knees up, lied on their backs and did bicycle kicks and ran sprints. They also get a healthy dose of Marine style encouragement (a.k.a. Lots and lots of yelling).
Despite the extremes the students endure, though, the response has been more than positive.
“This is the one project each year that students say meant the most for them,” she said. “We’ve had kids who did it and beg to come back and do it again.” Hodson added parents and faculty have been incredibly supportive as well.
Student participation in the event is completely optional and they may stop at any time, said Hodson. Through this, though, they begin understanding the true strength needed for someone to endure persecution and the limits people can be pushed to.
“It’s not about physical strength. It’s about mental strength,” Hodson said.
Student Courtney Brice, who completed the entire hour of training, was relieved to be finished but felt affected by the experience.
“I tried to imagine myself in those people’s position ... I feel a lot more educated now,” she said. When their hour of boot camp ended, the students that lasted the entire time lined up together to the applause of their teachers, peers and the Marines themselves. Hodson added the number that started was around fifty, while the number who finished was far less.
“Those of you who finished should be proud of yourselves,” Feather said. As they sat in the classroom, muddy, sore and out of breath, Feather emphasized the gravity of what they had experienced and hoped this had given them a glimpse into lives of these people.
“I hope you have a greater understanding.”
Originally published: December 03. 2007 3:01AM
Last modified: December 02. 2007 11:28PM
Ellie