What happens when a trusted source publishes an incredibly problematic article? We refute it.

In this episode, Virginia Council for the Social Studies President, Sam Futrell, is joined by Matt Simpson from the Virginia Holocaust Museum to break down Dara Horn's poorly researched attack against Holocaust education. Published in the May 2023 issue of The Atlantic, Horn's piece "Is Holocaust Education Making Anti-Semitism Worse? Using Dead Jews as Symbols Isn't Helping Living Ones" leverages the work of educators in museums and classrooms around the country to get clicks.

Also featured in this episode:

Jennifer Goss, Echoes and Reflections

Kelley Szany, The Illinois Holocaust Museum

Echoes & Reflections Survey

ADL Study, Antisemitic Attitudes in America

Are you a teacher looking to participate in professional development this summer? Want to make the most out of your summer as a teacher? Don’t feel overwhelmed by the application process. We can help Our panelists - Ben Boyce with the Jack Miller Center, Sarah Harris with the National Constitution Center, and Jeff Scott with the Freedoms Foundation - are insiders with nationally renowned institutions who share with us their firsthand experiences and all the tips you need to get accepted into the program of your dreams! 

Register for the 2023 VCSS Conference!

NEH Institutes

• Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge offers summer teacher workshops each year at their Valley Forge campus. Join the over 14,000 educators who have enriched their knowledge and their classrooms through our critically acclaimed and accredited seminars. For over 50 years, teachers like you have connected with our course content taught by extraordinary scholars and thinkers.
• This March the Foundation will offer complimentary acceptance to one lucky attendee at the VIrginia Social Studies Conference in Richmond. Register to attend the conference: https://sites.google.com/view/vcss-2023-conference/home?authuser=2
• Summer Workshop Link: https://www.freedomsfoundation.org/teachers/
• The National Constitution Center recognizes not only the importance of primary sources, but also the importance of engaging with teachers across the nation. Throughout the year, and particularly during the summer months, NCC offers their Summer Educator Institute series. Every summer, the National Constitution Center hosts educators from across the country in its summer institute series, bringing together top educators and ideologically diverse constitutional scholars. Through both weeklong in-person sessions and three-day virtual sessions, educators work with content experts throughout these programs to deepen their knowledge of constitutional topics and their historical contexts and modern understandings. While working with teacher facilitators and the Center's education team, participants discover and develop innovative, nonpartisan ways to make the content relevant to their students. Educators gain new content knowledge, teaching tools, classroom-ready resources, and skills for improving constitutional literacy.
  • Summer Educator Institute Link: https://constitutioncenter.org/education/professional-learning-opportunities/summer-educator-institutes
• The Jack Miller Center website offers a variety of resources for learning more about American political thought and development. These include articles, videos, useful websites, and fellows’ publications. Each summer the Center builds and provides collegial-level educational opportunities for teachers to engage in academic discussions relating to political and governmental topics. The incentive to support educators is derived from the will to build a movement of civic educators to reach the next generation with the principles of equality, liberty, and opportunity that lie at the heart of the American political tradition. Summer workshop offerings will be available soon on the Jack Miller Center website.
• Jack Miller Center Link: https://jackmillercenter.org/

At their November 17, 2022 meeting, the VBOE declined to accept State Superintendent Jillian Balow’s redraft standards and asked for a combined standards document that brings together the respective strengths of the original August 2022 standards with the November 2022 redraft standards, along with consideration of public comment. On December 20, 2022, a joint work group of the Virginia Social Studies Leaders Consortium (VSSLC), the Virginia Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (VASCD), and the American Historical Association (AHA) released a set of collaborative standards for History and Social Science Education and submitted their draft to the Virginia Board of Education (VBOE).

Join VCSS President and host Sam Futrell as she discusses Virginia's social studies standards with members of the Virginia Social Studies Leaders' Consortium, Dr. Ma'asehyahu Isra-ul, Beau Dickenson, and Dr. Taylor Snow. 

Links for this episode:

Attend the 2023 VCSS Conference!

Listen to Leading by History 

Follow us on Twitter:

@sam_futrell1

@HCPSSnow

@beaudickenson