by George J Elbaum
Libby Center is a public school with enrollment of 488 students in grades K-8. Student demographics are: White 70%, Hispanic 13%, two or more races 9%, Asian or Pacific Islander 6%, Black 1%, and 1% unspecified, and 24% of students are from low-income families. The school rates very high in academic performance: student scores in Math are 84% vs. 40% state average, in English 90% vs. 53% state avg. and in Science 95% vs. 49% state avg. Math scores of low-income students of Libby Center are at or above the state average for all kids, suggesting that this school is doing a good job of teaching low-income students.
My presentation was to 8th grade English class whose current unit focused on learning about Holocaust history using resources on the US Holocaust Memorial Museum website and Seattle’s Holocaust Center for Humanity. It involved reading and analyzing narratives about people during the Holocaust, and discussing how the people in the texts show that self-expression communicates identity from the perspective of displacement. My audience was 17 gifted and highly-capable students (and all of them musicians!). Learning this, I was simultaneously pleased and disappointed: pleased because I could expect intelligent and even challenging questions, which make the Q&A the most satisfying part of any presentation; but disappointed because the total time allowed for the event was only 40 min. vs. the typical 55 – 75 min. I usually request, and that meant much less contact with the students. (Indeed, the key question asked was very broad: what were the difficulties of “adjusting to a normal life” after a Holocaust childhood?)
The event was organized by Andrew Olmsted, English Department Lead of Libby Center – Odyssey Program, and my participation was arranged by Lexi Jason, Education Program Manager of the Holocaust Center for Humanity.
(Photos to follow)
