Auschwitz Exhibit Helps Southeast High School Students Build Reading Skills, Understand Past

Press release from Kansas City Public Schools:

January 13, 2022

For Southeast High School freshman Quazell Pickens, visiting “Auschwitz: Not Long Ago, Not Far Away” at Union Station stirred up many emotions.

“They had a lot of stuff from back then,” Quazell said. “There was blood on the clothes. It was scary.”

Quazell said he knew that Auschwitz was a death camp where Jews were killed during the Holocaust. But seeing the exhibit with his class drove home the brutality of the Nazi guards.

Karyl Michel, the reading interventionist at SEHS, organized the field trip for her ninth grade reading intervention students. Students in her class have gaps in reading skills, often in background vocabulary.

“If we’re able to draw connections from what we’re reading in class to what happens outside of class, students are more engaged in their learning,” Michel said.

Michel helps her students make those connections with field trips into the community.

“They’re freshman, so they’re still learning the ropes of being a high school student,” Michel said. “They set goals for themselves in academics, attendance and behavior.”

In November, Michel took 21 students who met their goals to see the Holocaust exhibit. They read texts about World War II, Nazis and the concentration camps to prepare for their field trip.

Freshman Jada Franklin felt sad after seeing the exhibit.

“We learned about the Holocaust and how us learning about it can better our future so that it won’t happen,” Jada said.

This press release was produced by Kansas City Public Schools. The views expressed here are the author’s own.