Combatting Hate Through Exhibit/Peer Learning

Community Safety

Other:: 10 LAUSD (existing partnership) and other public and private schools across LA County

Expand existing project, program, or initiative

In November 2021, the US Government Accountability Office reported a disturbing increase in hate-based behaviors in K-12 schools, with students and staff being targeted on the basis of religion, race, ethnicity, immigration status, gender, sexual identity. This hostility reflects the environment outside of school in our polarized political and social media culture. Fortunately, there is a proven way to build compassion and inclusion in our classrooms. A study in the UK of students aged 9-15 demonstrated that learning about Anne Frank and the Holocaust is highly effective in addressing not only antisemitism, but prejudice in general. Furthermore, a 2020 study by Lucid Collaborative LLC and YouGov shows that Holocaust education in high school resulted in more empathetic, tolerant, and engaged students. In fact, when presented with a bullying scenario, the students who had experienced Holocaust education reported being more likely to offer help and were 50% less likely to do nothing.

Anne Frank LA will bring the international traveling exhibit, Anne Frank - A History for Today, to 10 middle and high schools in 2023-2024, reaching a minimum of 5,000 learners aged 11-18 years. Developed by the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, the exhibit includes 32 beautifully photographed panels, with text in English and Spanish, depicting the history of the Holocaust and WWII through the experience of the Frank family. The exhibit is in residence at each school for two weeks. In a powerful peer-learning component, AFLA brings certified educators from the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and/or Anne Frank Center USA in South Carolina to train up to 20 students from each school to become student docents and lead their schoolmates through the exhibit. During two days of workshops, the student docents acquire historical knowledge as well as the leadership, communication, and advocacy skills necessary to engage their peers in conversations about prejudice, discrimination, and exclusion, the importance of democracy in protecting the rights of all citizens, and how they can stand against hatred wherever they see it. The program combats bullying and creates connections at school for students who are increasingly isolated. We also bring Holocaust Survivors to meet with the learners, building empathy, and providing a first-hand experience of history that benefits both generations.

Through engaging, experiential, peer-led Holocaust education rooted in Anne Frank's life story, AFLA will help to create safer, more compassionate, more inclusive school environments at 10 middle and high schools in LA County. Guided by their peers, students will learn to recognize the dangers of prejudice, discrimination, and exclusion, the connections between past and current events, and feel empowered to stand up to injustice. Interacting with Holocaust survivors will create a more empathetic student body, one of the keys to combatting bullying. The story of Anne Frank is also the story of those who helped Anne and the others to survive for over two years in the Secret Annex. This program underscores the importance of being an ally, an upstander rather than bystander. The leadership, communication, and critical thinking skills acquired during this program help to develop more engaged youthful citizens.

In 2023-2024, we will evaluate the impact of this program through interviews with teachers and administrators and via student docent questionnaires which have been created in collaboration with the Anne Frank House. The student docent questionnaires track perceived strengths and weaknesses of the training workshops, acquired historical knowledge, gains in confidence, insight into contemporary relevance, growth in empathy, attitudinal shifts, and personal connections to the issues explored. We will also provide a short survey to all learners who visit the exhibit during a peer-led tour. The visitor survey tracks acquired knowledge about Anne Frank, the Holocaust, and WWII, impressions of the peer learning experience, personal connections to the material, and acquired insights about relevant contemporary issues. We also define success based on student engagement during and after the program, and schools' continued interest in further collaboration.