As Holocaust Remembrance Day approaches on Jan. 27, a cross-section of Missouri schools are using a new framework for Holocaust education. The pilot program of up to 25 school districts is the result of legislation signed into law by Governor Mike Parson in July 2022.
The Holocaust education bill was sponsored by Rep. Adam Schwadron, R-St. Charles, and Sen. Brian Williams, D-St. Louis County, with bipartisan support mandating Holocaust education in Missouri schools. The pilot program began last fall and will continue through the 2024-2025 school year. A full roll-out to all Missouri schools will begin in the 2025-2026 school year.
St. Louis area schools participating in the pilot program include educators from Affton, Riverview Gardens (Westview Middle School) and Hazelwood. They are using a curriculum framework for studying the Holocaust utilizing materials developed by the Missouri Holocaust Education and Awareness Commission, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum. The education framework will serve as a resource to help educators integrate Holocaust education into their existing curriculum to best meet the needs of their students.
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) will obtain feedback from those school districts and other participants throughout the state on the teachers’ use of the new Holocaust education framework and its accompanying materials, according to DESE spokesperson Mallory McGowin.
“Responses to the professional development were overwhelmingly positive,” McGowin said.
Teachers who participated in an Oct. 2023 professional training workshop described themselves as being “empowered,” “confident” and “excited,” according to Dee Dee Simon, chair of the Missouri Holocaust Education and Awareness Commission, who hosted the workshop.
“The teachers who are participating in the DESE pilot are an absolutely wonderful group of professionals,” Simon said. “Their enthusiasm and passion for teaching the Holocaust provided for enlightening and engaging conversations.”
Participants left the workshop with ready-to-use lesson plans and materials to support them in their classrooms, she said. A follow-up workshop is being planned by the commission for May 2024, when the success of the pilot program will be evaluated.
In the year and a half since the Missouri Holocaust education legislation was signed into law, six additional states have passed mandatory Holocaust education legislation, with another four pending. Currently, Holocaust education programs are in place or in the early stages in 26 states. 10 states have no Holocaust education legislation at this time. The Missouri law also designated the second week in April as “Holocaust Education Week.”
