AUGUSTA — The Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine has opened its summer seminar series for teachers with a seminar, Teaching the Malaga Island Story in the Classroom. The seminars are held at the Michael Klahr Center on the campus of the University of Maine at Augusta, 46 University Drive.
Malaga Island was an interracial Maine island community destroyed by order of Maine Gov. Frederick Plaisted issued in December 1911. Residents were forcibly evicted, and one fifth of the residents were incarcerated at the Maine School for the Feebleminded in New Gloucester.
The two-day seminar will equip teachers with tools for teaching about Malaga Island in the classroom. Presenting guests include the Maine State Museum and the Maine Historical Society. The center also has erected a temporary exhibit at the Michael Klahr Center highlighting the Malaga experience for members of the public.
“Teacher training is core to our mission of promoting universal respect for human rights through education,” said Shenna Bellows, executive director of the Holocaust and Human Rights Center, in the release. “The summer seminars are designed to help teachers explore new ways to teach about challenging issues including racism, Holocaust history and immigration that are so important in these turbulent times.”
Additionally, the center will offer two other seminars, including Holocaust and Human Behavior in partnership with Facing History and Ourselves, Wednesdays and Thursdays, July 25-26; and Yearning to Breathe Free: The Immigrant Experience in Maine Aug. 1-2.
Workshops are designed for middle and high school teachers of history, literature and the humanities.
To register, visit hhrcmaine.org or call Assistant Director David Greenham at 621-3531.
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