What a Class!

I don't know if any of you in English II read this, but man... what a class you were! I felt kind of guilty at times because I could not quit laughing at your (immature!) actions! You all really did enjoy life (and each other... and me... and talking!) sooooo much! I appreciate your hard work (well, some of you, at least) and the laughs. You guys are nuts!!! Love ya!

Reflections on Holocaust Lit

Wow, guys, I can't believe the end is here. I told you most of the mushy stuff in your letters, but here are a few of my own reflections. Each of you has contributed so much to the experience of the class. Probably the day that affected me the most personally, and the day I found it hardest to get through, was the day of the lesson on the Lodz Ghetto and the Rumkowski speech. The book I enjoyed most (reading) was The Cage. The seminar I enjoyed most was the last one over The Hangman and Wiesel's speech. The best work I saw from you all was your ecphrastic poems (the first one, based on The Little Polish Boy photo). I was most impressed by the artistic responses and your final projects. The lesson that surprised me most (the one I really created just to give you something to do while I was in DC) and ended up getting SOOOO much out of was the Memorials Research. It was such a great assignment!!! I was most disappointed by your reactions to Farewell to Manzanar. I know it was the end, but I wish you had stayed with it a little more and I think that is an important book. My favorite movie was Europa, Europa. Your responses to The Sunflower surprised me most. I am most proud of the blog idea. It was totally and completely my own and I think it went SOOO well. I know some of you probably didn't like it, but I think I will keep it, in some way, in all of my classes in the future. I feel worst about the Memorial Garden. I feel like the timing was so off and I am sorry I let you down. It will happen, I just wish it were sooner.

You know how much I loved the class and all of you and I will never forget this semester with you!

Congrats to the Seniors!

Congratulations to our most recent CHS grads, the Class of 2008!!! I enjoyed getting to know each and every one of you and I wish you the very best. AP Class, you all were genuinely good people and I had fun with you!

Seniors in Holocaust Lit: Thanks for being part of that experience with me! Each of you were an integral part of the class being what it was. I meant every word of the letter I wrote the class. Kieley, Stephen, Allison, Bethany, Amy, and Brock, I hope you all will take the life lessons from this class with you into your futures. It is now your responsibility to Remember and to ensure that it happens Never Again. Good luck guys! Love you!

Poem by a Holocaust Survivor

The title above is a weblink to an amazing poem I found tonight by a survivor. Let me know what you think.

UPDATE to Memorial Garden

Hey guys, if any of you are checking tonight, I got the estimate from the Illinois Company. It is going to be $2,687. That is just the planter, not any flowers or anything else. I am checking today with a couple of companies in Cleveland. Thoughts, anyone? I have called Rose Stone Company and a builder I know has mentioned being willing to build a form (not for free), then we could fill it. What do you all think???

Washington, D.C.-- better late than never!!!

Our trip to Washington, D.C., was great fun. I had a lot of fun and I appreciate all of those who helped in the fundraising. My co-chaperones were WONDERFUL (Mrs. Crump, Coach Collier, Ms. Hines, and Ms. Barbara) and the kids were so good (as far as I know...). We saw a little of everything on the trip, from our day at the monuments and memorials (Lincoln, Jefferson, Vietnam, Korean, FDR, Einstein, WW II) to the Smithsonians, the Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the National Archives. We even worked in a little fun at the ESPN Zone, the Hard Rock Cafe, and King's Dominion. And what is a trip without SHOPPING (the Potomac Mills outlet mall was AWESOME!). I worked hard for us to get to go and lots of people helped make it happen.

The Limits of Forgiveness

Wow guys, I enjoyed reading the responses to The Sunflower probably as much as I have enjoyed anything of yours I have read this semester. I just can't get over the amazing writing skill of this class. There was not a poor response in the whole bunch. Amazing. Interestingly, there were seven of you who said you would not offer forgiveness, one who very convincingly straddled the fence, and eighteen who would have forgiven. I read one review of this book who said that her Christian students tended to forgive and her Jewish students tended to not. I wonder if that is a religious difference or the fact that the Jewish students related differently since it was their people. Most of the ones who would have offered forgiveness did offer religious reasons as to why in our class. I am not going to put any entire responses on here, but here were a few powerful thoughts.

...The fact that an SS man is begging for forgiveness from a Jew is quite ironic, especially since he joined the SS voluntarily...
...I would turn to him and begin to tell him my story...
...Apathy is what I have been given and apathy is what they will receive...
...He believes that forgiveness is going to make up for the thousands that he voluntarily killed...
...He would have his sunflower on his grave while millions of innocent people would have nothing and be forgotten...
...I will never grant him forgiveness no matter what he does before his murderous life ends...
...the one that matters is God's forgiveness...
...he may have (originally) been a good man, a man of integrity, but I cannot forgive him, for he did nothing...
...How dare he beg and plead for some feeling, some compassion out of me, when no similar emotions surface towards the millions of murders for which no crimes were committed?...
...I cannot forgive you because I cannot speak for all Jews, but you are only asking forgiveness from me... I forgive you...
...The Jews and Nazis who walk past his grave, his sunflower, will see the symbol of forgiveness, a promise that will bind this man's story and mine forever...
...In the end, it comes down to the person's beliefs, thoughts, and ideas...
...It doesn't matter what you have done, when someone asks for forgiveness it is from a heart...
...As I am looking at the sunflower laying across his chest, I think of life...I forgive you...
...If he took the time to ask me for my forgiveness, he really had to have truly meant it...
...He must be forgiven. To not allow him the dignity or mercy of dying being forgiven would make me no better of a person than he...
...I would probably have forgiven him (personally), but not all SS guards...
...I am just glad that he has come to recognize the things he has done as bad things...
...(In the minds of the SS) he is lowering himself to ask my forgiveness...
...I honestly don't understand why I have been chosen to come and talk to him, but I do know God picked me for a reason...
..."Thank you," he said, then he died, finally at peace. The peace that all men deserve to die with...
...No deed is too horrible for its wickedness to be overcome...
...I am glad you are sorry for what you have done and I will forgive you...
...Would God forgive him for all that he has done?...
...I forgive you, though you deserve none. I am better than those who kill my people. I can't let hate and anger continue. Someone must stand up and I intend to...
...Deep inside myself, I felt a new sense of strength. I looked at his bandaged hand and I said, "You are forgiven."...
...I forgive you. What you did was wrong, but I am just as human as you are-- rotton to the core...

I think one consideration that none of you brought up is the fact that he was in the middle of the situation when he was asked to forgive. This is not years later, at a trial, when the murderer of your family asks you to forgive him or her. This is a situation when a murderer has just killed your family in front of you, is holding a gun on you, and asks you to forgive him or her. Does that make a difference? To me, yes it does. And I will say, I would have been one of the seven who said no. I respect those of you who said that denying him forgiveness would make you no better than he was, but I would have just had to lower myself to his level because I don't think I could have said yes while wearing my prison clothes and going straight back into the pit of despair and danger.

Really good and thoughtful responses from all of you. I got pretty sad tonight when I realized that I won't be reading anything from most of you again and not for a long time from some of you. Maybe you all could write some papers for fun over the summer and next year and send them to me? :)

Imperial Dreams a Success

After much sleep in recovery from yesterday's almost 24-hour day, I just wanted to say that, from our perspective, the prom was a raging success. The guests seemed to have fun, the food was good, the music was good, it looked AMAZING, and the kids were (as far as we know) relatively well-behaved. Aside from the strange moment of discovering a CHS alum as a scuba diver outside the boat (don't ask), it was a great prom. Any congratulatory comments you all have :) or any constructive suggestions for next year would be acceptable on here. Thanks to all of the faculty sponsors, chaperones, and our wonderful executive committee for all those hours after school and on Saturday morning making pagodas and dragons!

Newsweek article

I will probably read this article aloud to you tomorrow, but I thought it was so striking when I read it, especially in light of our recent discussions on the aftermath of the Holocaust. Use this post as a forum to comment on that article.

The title is a link, by the way.

Best Class Ever?

I had one of you tell me when we returned to the classroom today "that was our best class this whole semester!" I don't actually remember who said it, and the more I thought about it later, I am not sure if I should be offended or not! :) However, I agree with you that the opportunity to dialogue with Gillad, Dima, and Arik was amazing. I enoyed it as well. What struck you the most from this discussion? There were so many quotable moments from the talk and most of the ones I noted were from Dima. I thought what he said about a Holocaust denier only needing to sit down with a survivor for one hour and it would cure all denial as such a great point.

Senior Countdown...

Seniors, only one more week and two days of classes!!! You are on the final stretch of what has been a very long and, for some of you, difficult at times, journey. Enjoy this last week of high school life as much as you have time to do. Last prom, last week of classes, last studying for finals, last exams, last time together as a class... and you can all breathe a collective sigh of relief one week from tonight when it is all said and done. You are probably all in that normal senior mindset of "can't wait to get out of here, leave all this, etc", but don't let that distract you from the end of the task at hand. You may be surprised how much you end up missing high school! Have a good day tomorrow!

And congrats to Kieley for getting to speak at graduation!!!