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Illinois
Teacher Awarded 2006 Aharonian Award For Excellence
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - The Genocide
Education Project is pleased to announce the first recipient of
the Aharonian Award for excellence in the teaching of the
Armenian Genocide, Mr. Ronald Levitsky of Northfield, Illinois.
Mr. Levitsky is an extremely accomplished educator who has
received countless awards for ground-breaking work in the
classroom and serves on various local and national educational
committees.
The 2006 Aharonian Award is the
first time that a national award has been offered to secondary
level educators who teach about the Armenian Genocide. "We
know that teachers all over the country are teaching about the
Armenian Genocide in unique and interesting ways," stated Raffi
Momjian, Executive Director of The Genocide Education Project.
"Now we have a chance to recognize and reward the important work
educators are doing on the subject."
Mr. Levitsky's curriculum project
was based on an action alert issued by the Armenian National
Committee of America, suggesting people submit a new design for
a postage stamp to the Citizen Stamp Advisory Committee.
The postage stamp activity became
a springboard for studying the Armenian Genocide as well as
America's response to it. Levitsky noted, "Because
adolescents have a sense of justice and sensitivity to cruelty,
students need to believe that, in the midst of genocide, people
can act affirmatively." The lesson includes background
readings on the Armenian Genocide as well as information on
America's response to the Genocide, which is culled from the
research of Peter Balakian and Merill Peterson. Students not
only learn the details of the history of the Armenian Genocide
but they are also required to write journal entries examining a
variety of related topics from "why people bully" to exploring
ways to stop genocide. Finally, designing a stamp allows
students to express the ideas and issues they have learned about
in an artistic manner. Levitsky's approach ensures his students
will learn both the history of the Armenian Genocide and the
responsibility of all people to respond to genocide in more
effective ways.
The Aharonian Award was inspired
by Avedis Aharonian, a prolific Armenian writer, public servant,
and one of the founders of the first independent Armenian
Republic in 1918. Aharonian wrote, "If evil of this magnitude
can be ignored, if our own children forget, then we deserve
oblivion and earn the world's scorn." By sponsoring an
award in his name, The Genocide Education Project hopes to
inspire more U.S. educators to teach about the Armenian Genocide.
Additional information about the
Aharonian Award and the full criteria for submitting a lesson plan
can be found on The Genocide Education Project's online resource
library at
www.TeachGenocide.org. Winners of the Aharonian Award
receive teaching resources on the Armenian Genocide, a cash
award, and the publication of their lesson plan
on
www.TeachGenocide.org. A
set of resources is also provided to the award recipient's
affiliated institution's library.
The Genocide Education
Project is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization that
assists educators in teaching about human rights and genocide,
particularly the Armenian Genocide, by developing and
distributing instructional materials, providing access to
teaching resources and organizing educational workshops. |
