Educational Programming
Our staff provide educational programming for students grades 9-college level. Lectures on the history of the war, through the eyes of individual prisoners, are available for students in single classrooms or in a auditorium setting. These programs entitled “Wars’ Voices ~ Are You Listening?” have been provided to veterans groups throughout the United States, including a presentation for the Waterman Alumnae Group at the University of Michigan.
In December of 2017 through April of 2018, Wars’ Voices programs were presented in 22 high schools across Wyoming. For the most part these programs were held 51 classrooms, some in auditorium settings. Over 3,000 students heard this programming. An additional 13 public programs were completed during this series. Hundreds more individuals were touched by the Wars’ Voices programming.
These programs are available for hire, and are adaptable for any audience. Please contact us with questions you may have regarding scheduling and programming. Programs include information of both European and Pacific POW’s experiences.
Coursework on Teaching Research of Primary Resources is available for small groups. A series of 327 Radio Tokio [Tokyo] Letters are used to teach students and adults alike how to research documents to tell the story of prisoner of war (POW) held in the Pacific. Programming for European POWs is also available.
In the fall of 2016, our executive director Val Burgess co-taught with Dr. Jane Wohl, four sections of English 1010. The students were taught writing and Pacific POW history. Two texts were required reading. Daily throughout the semester the students were required to write about war and why it is important to learn about those that experienced such extreme difficulties. The student were also required to select a POW. Throughout the semester, they were taught primary research of that prisoner, through online searches, such as ancestry.com, nara.gov and loc.gov, texts, access to oral histories and copied information on the pow’s capture, internment camp, forced march, and liberation. Their final project was to write a paper about their prisoner and to give a five-minute monologue as that prisoners, sharing the POW’s experience.
Since 2017, Burgess has taught incarcerated youth at Wyoming’s schools for court appointed youth. For three days she works with the students. An opening program provides a basis for the three day learning. Meeting with each English class section, the causes for war are introduced. Students are required to write about that topic. The second day the students watch a video of a former prisoner, are taught ways to research that POW, including how to find clues that lead them to valuable information. They begin their research. Class discussions focus on the story of the POW. By sharing additional information is added. The students are then required to write about, “Why is it important to learn about someone that experienced such tragedy.” The final day the students have a lecture about Abstract Expressionist artists and draw an image relative this learning. They are to show how this learning affected them, represented their lives or how the lesson made them feel. The drawings completed are profound. Below is an image created by a very talented artist that speaks of this youth’s life experience.
