Welcome to Our Cross-Atlantic Discussion!
The Participants:
Hunterdon Central Regional High School, Flemington, NJ, USA
West Amwell Elementary School, Lambertville, NJ, USA
Liceum V, Krakow, Poland
Lucjan Rydel Elementary No. 93, Krakow, Poland
The Project:
How do members of majority and minority groups in two societies understand one another and seek to solve problems rooted in their unique histories?
This is the central question that motivates students in New Jersey and Poland to engage in ongoing electronic discussions that began in September 2003. Funded by a grant from the Verizon Foundation and collaborating with Drs. Eric Davis, Jan Kubik and other members of the faculty and staff at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, as well as Dr. Annamaria Orla-Bukowska of Jagiellonian University in Krakow, students at West Amwell Elementary School and Hunterdon Central Regional High School began electronic discussions and related exchanges with partner schools in Poland during fall 2003. Students of Mrs. Martha Kubik at West Amwell Elementary School engaged in a year-long set of activities with their partners at Lucjan Rydel Elementary No. 93, focusing on majority-minority relations and a set of interdisciplinary projects ranging from language arts to science and social studies. Students of Paul Gorski and Dr. William R. Fernekes in the social studies course “The Holocaust and Human Behavior” at Hunterdon Central Regional High School interacted with partners at Liceum V High School about the historical and contemporary significance of the Holocaust, as well as cultural relations between Jews, Romani (Gypsies) and majority populations in Poland and the USA.
This year, a group of nine Hunterdon Central students and two teachers will travel to the Czech Republic and Poland to further their Holocaust studies. We hope our electronic discussions, exchanges of visual artifacts, and other contacts will enrich your understanding of these complex issues and we welcome your comments about our project.
