robert

=**Representative Robert (D-CT)**= Does human life matter to you? Did you know that **11,000,000** people died at Nazi concentration camps, but only **53%** of American secondary-school students can correctly identify the Holocaust? Does this matter?

Yes. //Genocide// is the deliberate and systematic destruction of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group. Currently, only **six** states in the country require secondary schools to incorporate genocide into their social studies curricula. We cannot allow ignorance of major historical genocides to fester within our country. We must educate our students of where and how these tragedies originate. We must identify where prejudice begins and nip it in the bud.

Genocide is not a partisan issue. Vote YES to the **__Increase Genocide Awareness Act__** (IGAA). Nationalize genocide education. Nationalize genocide prevention.

1st Session**
 * Model Congress


 * H.R. 1301**

To require that all American secondary schools incorporate genocide education into social studies curricula.

February 21, 2008**
 * IN THE MCGEHEE CONGRESS

Sponsored by Ms. ROBERT (For herself, Rep. YOUNG, Rep. ZEITZER, Rep. SOOMRO, Rep. KOCK, Rep. BAKER, Rep. HUBBARD, Rep. O’QUINN, Rep. ZEMANEK, Sen. KENDRICK, Sen. CONRAD, Sen. BROWN… I haven’t finished lobbying yet!)

A BILL

To increase knowledge and awareness of genocide among secondary school students. //Be it enacted by the Members of the McGehee Congress of the United States of America in Congress assembled,// This Act may be cited as the “Increase Genocide Awareness Act.” (1) To require every secondary school to incorporate genocide (including historical examples, causes, and effects) into its social studies curriculum; (2) To prevent prejudice and bigotry among secondary-school students; (3) To promote diversity and cooperation by educating students of their benefits; (4) To provide funding to schools whose budgets and educational departments have been restricted due to the No Child Left Behind Act; (5) To ensure that future genocides are prevented. (1) Only 53% of American secondary school students can correctly identify the Holocaust. (2) Only six states in the country require genocide education. (3) Surveys show that nearly 80% of Americans support required genocide education in secondary schools. (4) The unfunded mandate of the No Child Left Behind Act severely limited many schools’ curricula and teaching facilities; social studies courses, in addition to many others, have in fact worsened since the passage of NCLB. (5) Countries like France have set the precedent for mandatory genocide education; President Sarkozy recently passed a law requiring every 5th grade student in France to learn the life story of one French Jewish child killed by Nazis in order to sharpen children’s understanding and awareness of the Holocaust. (6) Special interest groups like the Anti-Defamation League, the Genocide Education Project, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum have developed their own curricula for promoting awareness and prevention of genocide; these programs have been widely successful in all instances. (7) Erin Gruwell, founder of the Freedom Writers, demonstrated with her own work and independently developed curriculum (which included //The Diary of Anne Frank//) that genocide education may help reduce gang violence and criminal activity. Every secondary school that receives federal funding shall be eligible for and required to adhere to this bill. (1) Federal government shall supply all secondary schools with necessary curriculum resources for implementing this program. (2) The IGAA curriculum shall be incorporated into pre-existing social studies courses; new courses, teachers, and classrooms will therefore be unnecessary. (3) An annual survey shall be administered to all of the nation’s schools by the federal government in order to monitor schools’ adherence with the program. The survey shall provide room for schools to indicate grade levels (5-12) at which specific topics (including the Holocaust, prejudice and discrimination, conscience and moral responsibility, resistance and intervention, and bystanding) are being taught, as well as teachers’ level of training. (4) States’ Departments of Education shall examine the annual surveys and act accordingly to enforce rules and to ensure that every school is meeting national standards. (5) It shall be left to each school’s discretion which topics are taught to which grade levels, as well as how many grades receive genocide education; however, each school shall teach genocide or a related topic to at least one grade level. (6) The national social studies core curriculum standards shall be modified to include genocide education (including what genocide is, its causes, and its effects).
 * SECTION 1. TITLE.**
 * SECTION 2. PURPOSES.**
 * SECTION 3. FINDINGS.**
 * SECTION 4. ELIGIBILITY.**
 * SECTION 5. TERMS AND BENEFITS OF SERVICE.**

__**MODEL CONGRESS RESEARCH GUIDE:**__ //1.) What is the history of your issue?// Several precedents have been set in which the federal government tried to step in and regulate nationwide education. No Child Left Behind is an infamous example of the federal government setting a national standard and failing. The first and most important reason for this is that NCLB is an unfunded mandate. The rules and requirements it set for schools across the country, whether it was possible to meet them or not, were not backed by adequate funding from the guys passing the legislation. In fact, this has notoriously worsened conditions in many schools, which end up cutting corners and bending rules simply for the purpose of meeting the federal government’s requirements. Other such bills have also been passed, and they are listed below. On a much smaller level, seminars focusing exclusively on ethnicity, genocide, and reconciliation have been initiated and fully funded at major universities and institutions. In 2004, Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad gave a $68,000 to California State University at Sacramento for a five-week seminar in this area (7). The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is established to work at a global level on issues including education. It is a proponent of HIV/AIDS education in secondary schools. Of course, this group regulates and advocates education on a universal level. Though the group has no stance right now on mandating genocide education because this is a purely national issue, it does set an important and significant example (6). Genocide is, by definition, “the deliberate and systematic destruction of an ethnic, racial, religious or national group” (5). The word was coined by one Raphael Lemkin Major examples in history include, most obviously, the Holocaust, as well as the 1915 Armenian genocide, the 1994 Rwandan genocide, the 1992 Bosnian genocide, the 1975 Cambodian genocide, and, most recently, the events in Darfur (9). In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which established international laws that explicitly define genocide and establishing it as a serious crime (5).
 * Section 1: Background**

//2.) When did this issue gain national attention?// Quite frankly? It hasn’t… yet. Dun dun dun…

//3.) Have there been current events which are affecting this issue?// The genocide in Darfur has attracted massive media attention and many sympathizers. However, the startling thing is that, despite the amount of liberals who throw their support behind the murder and rape victims of the Darfur region, startlingly few know exactly what’s going on – it has become more of a cause célébré. The goal of this bill is to enhance students’ understanding of genocide so that genocides like this resonate with them and ring bells with their educational experience. When students and people feel alienated and ignorant to what’s going on, action cannot be taken and future instances cannot be prevented. Across the Atlantic Ocean, though – all the way in France – things are a bit different (13). Most coincidentally, President Sarkozy has recently revised France’s school curriculum, mandating that each 5th grader learns the life story of one of 11,000 French children who were killed by Nazis. The goal behind this is the same as it is here: to foster a deeper sense of true understanding over a quick brush-up of the basic facts. It is controversial: some psychiatrists predict that it will be a traumatic project for 10-year-olds, or other ethnic groups in France may feel neglected or ignored. However, the proposal has been groundbreaking regardless, and it could end up a role model for this bill.


 * Section 2: Political Party Research**- Nixed because I couldn’t find any solid information.

//1.) Use the THOMAS web site to identify two recent bills on your issue.// Prevention First Act: sponsored by Mr. Reid and a plethora of others (must I list them all?! I can if necessary…) including big names like Clinton! Obama! Boxer! Kerry! Kennedy! WOW! The purpose of the bill is not only to improve access to sexual health care and education. It sets equity in health care as a goal; it establishes a sexual education program for teenagers that promotes both abstinence education as well as education about contraceptives, STDs, etc. – essentially, in this area, it says that, yes, abstinence education is important, but if it does not occur in concert with other methods, the APHA should repeal funding for schools’ sex ed programs. It has a heavy focus on demographics and numbers – HIV infections, teenage pregnancies, etc. (1)
 * Section 3: Current Legislation**

No Child Left Behind Act: Obviously, this bill would be a counter-example of what I’d like to accomplish. It was sponsored by a Mr. Burr with his friend Mr. Gregg. The bill has a hefty agenda, but theoretically, its agenda is to improve children’s chances of success in school by upping literacy rates, providing incentive for AP courses, training and recruiting faculty, and the list goes on… (2)

FIT Kids Act: This bill, sponsored by Mr. Harkin, aims to decrease obesity and increase health in the United States by ramping up physical education programs: making the classes more challenging, more frequent, mandatory, etc. (3)

Improving Head Start Act of 2007: To be honest, I can’t find the sponsors anywhere on the page. However, I know that the bill targets lower-income children and proposes to provide them with a more well-rounded curriculum that includes “language, literacy, mathematics, science, social and emotional functioning, physical skills, and approaches to learning” (4).

//1.) Are there Supreme Court cases which relate to your issue? If so, record the case, the constitutional question, and the Supreme Court’s decision.// Not as far as I know of…
 * Section 4: The Constitution**

//1.) What is the federal government currently doing to address your issue? On a wider level, what is being done now? Take a look at the appropriate Cabinet department to find out about existing programs/policies.// The government is currently doing nothing to address the issue at a national level. However, there are a few individual states that have made it mandatory for the history and study of genocide to be incorporated into secondary schools’ curriculum. New Jersey is a perfect example. State law there requires that the Holocaust and other such genocides be taught (at the appropriate time and in the appropriate setting) in elementary and/or secondary schools.. In order to monitor compliance with and execution of the requirement, a survey is administered to all New Jersey public schools (11) (it’s worth checking out). Schools must indicate at which K-12 grade levels different themes are being taught, specific topics that may be taught (including scapegoating, conscience and moral responsibility, the bystanders, or acceptance and respect for diversity), and the degree of the schools’ teachers’ training. This method helps the state to monitor each school as best it can, and it ensures that children are educated about both the detrimental effects as well as the sometimes unpredicted and sneaky beginnings of genocide.
 * Section 5: Current Programs & Other Proposals**

//2.) Locate at least ONE interest group concerned with your issue.// Anti-Defamation League (8): Founded in 1913 to combat anti-Semitism, ADL is committed to “stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all”. Its mission has expanded; today, it is a leading defendant of civil rights and combatant of bigotry and prejudice. Its Education page offers information on how to address cyberbullying; diversity in classrooms; and the World of Difference Institute, which will be a major point of reference for the bill. World of Difference provides anti-bias education to students and trains students to recognize/fight prejudice, racism, and bigotry within their own communities.

STAND (14): This is a group for students that was started in response to Darfur but has since widened to an anti-genocide message. Because its top goal is to raise student awareness and activism, it could feasibly be a big supporter of the bill; the website itself actually has an entire “Educate” system where visiting students can learn more about Darfur, Burma, or the history of Sudan.

Various Violence Prevention Coalitions situated across the country- in L.A., for example.

Freedom Writers: It started when a teacher who was fed up with hostility between different students, gang members, and ethnicities within her classroom mentioned the Holocaust. None of the unruly, troublemaking children even knew the term – so she incorporated The Diary of Anne Frank into her English curriculum and urged the students to draw parallels to their own lives. The class made a wild turnaround and, with the teacher, met great success; they then started this foundation, which promotes diversity and tolerance within the classroom.

The Genocide Education Project (10): Its mission statement for education is nearly identical to mine. The Genocide Education Project believes that it is imperative that children don’t just know the definition of genocide or the number of deaths from the Holocaust. Rather, it says, children must understand what happened and its implications. They must know what caused it so that they can connect it back to current events and recognize developing genocides before it is too late, as it was in the Holocaust. To quote a supporter of the Genocide Education Project, Illinois senator Jacqueline Collins, “by studying these tragic lessons from history, we can help our children understand the importance of freedom ... When they recognize that crimes of genocide continue in some corners of the world, even in the twenty-first century, it will raise their awareness and help them understand what can happen when you judge people by their race, their homeland or their beliefs” (12).

U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (15): Working with STAND and the Genocide Intervention Network, the USHMM has hosted a Genocide Prevention Leadership Summit that offered an intensive three-day seminar to top activists and leaders using an outline very similar to that of this bill. The workshop set an agenda for activists pushing for genocide education, suggested different pathways of action, and enumerated several model resources.

There is also a plethora of grassroots state-based education reform organizations that would be likely to support the bill.

//1.) So why do I want to do this? What are the advantages?// a. It will raise and promote awareness of the most devastating genocides in history – many students, particularly in lower-class families at poorer schools, have insufficient knowledge of what happened in the Holocaust, Darfur, Rwanda, Armenia, etc. b. By increasing students’ knowledge, gang violence may be decreased – students will be more accepting of others who are different from them and will learn to coexist more peacefully. c. The bill will set an important precedent for federal government’s intervention with education: whereas NCLB spoke poorly for the federal government on this issue, this bill will provide funding. It will also emphasize the magnitude of this issue- it simply cannot be treated on a state-by-state basis and must be implemented accordingly. d. Today, only six states in the country have mandatory genocide education; however, surveys show that nearly 80% of Americans support it (16). Clearly, this is not a proposal that is irrelevant to or ignorant of constituents’ wants and needs. e. 53% of students cannot identify the Holocaust; this startling statistic illustrates clearly the fact that students today have inadequate knowledge of major events simply because they are distant and/or in the past (16). f. Even schools that would be interested in incorporating genocide into social studies curriculum have difficulty doing so due to the strains caused by NCLB. By passing a bill that would provide federal funding, schools could expand their social studies departments.
 * Section 6: Etc…**

1. [|http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c110:1:./temp/~c110gLvXVk:e0]: 2. [|http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c110:36:./temp/~c110G5PjKB:e0]: 3. [|http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c110:13:./temp/~c110G5PjKB]:: 4. [|http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c110:1:./temp/~c110KYiJpv]:: 5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide 6. http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=28028&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html 7. http://iris.ed.gov/iris/ieps/grantshow.cfm?award_Number=P021A040083&printGrant=yes 8. http://www.adl.org/education/ 9. http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/ 10. http://www.genocideeducation.org/index.html 11. http://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/news_topics_issues/monitoring_compliance.pdf 12. http://www.genocideintervention.net/educate 13. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/16/world/europe/16france.html?_r=2&th&emc=th&oref=slogin&oref=slogin 14. http://www.standnow.org/educate 15. http://www.ushmm.org/conscience/action/events/2007-03-24/show_workshop.php?content=wk_24_21 16. http://www.ushmm.org/conscience/action/events/2007-03-24/show_workshop.php?content=wk_24_21
 * Works Cited**