Most days during the school year, the Museum serves as a classroom, supplementing the curricula offered by hundreds of public and private schools in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.
In 2009, the Museum’s educational programs touched the lives of more than 30,000 students.
To help prepare educators to teach the Holocaust and its lessons, the Museum-as a certified provider of Continuing Professional Education by the Texas Education Agency-presents numerous workshops and orientations throughout the year.
In 2009, the Museum presented 16 full-day topic-oriented workshops for teachers, as well as eight two-hour Museum Orientations, attracting a total of 424 teachers. In addition, Museum staff presented at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Dallas Forum for the fifth straight year, an event attended by 200 educators, and the Texas Education Agency Region VII’s Social Studies Summit in Kilgore for the third straight year, an event attended by 175 teachers.
Jewish resistance, the Auschwitz death camp, and other genocides of the 20th century are among the Holocaust curricula topics presented by the education staff of the Museum. The Museum staff has authored six different curricula, one in collaboration with the other two history museums in the West End Historic District of downtown Dallas—The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza and the Old Red Museum of Dallas County History & Culture. A new curriculum on “Upstanders in the Holocaust and Other Genocides” will be completed in 2010.
The Museum provides the means for teachers of varied disciplines to receive credit for continuing education, but in particular, teachers of social studies and English/language arts. Educators in the areas of performing and visual arts, communication, and religion are also seeing the relevance of Holocaust education in their spheres of instruction, and are increasingly attending the Museum’s seminars.
Since July 2004, Kathy Chapman has been Director of Education and Programming at the Museum. A veteran classroom educator for 32 years, Mrs. Chapman is responsible for facilitating, scheduling, and promoting the Museum’s educational programming for the public and for professional educators.
