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Sagemont’s middle and high school students recently turned their gymnasium into a museum as part of the 4th Annual Holocaust Memorial and Museum for Human Rights. Sixth and seventh graders at this private school located in Broward County Florida were asked to focus their presentations on the Holocaust while students in eighth-twelfth grade could choose any human rights issue or injustice that interested them. The projects were on display April 21 to coincide with Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day. Principal Gayle Iacono said, “The study of the Holocaust and human rights violations are life- long lessons that all students should be knowledgeable about so that they can be instrumental in making sure history does not repeat these kind of atrocities.“
Sixth grader Katherine Ackermann, resident of Weston Florida, created a painting that represented a child’s devastation during the Holocaust. It is impossible to tell if the child is a girl or a boy because the Nazis shaved off their hair. Across the child is a sequence of numbers with the letter J in the beginning. She also wrote a poem about how some children never lost hope. Ackermann said, “My topic was children’s lives during the Holocaust. It’s very important to know what these small kids accomplished in their troublesome lives. Also, the horror of being separated from their families was very interesting to me and I wanted to learn more.”
Some of the other projects displayed included the Berlin Wall, Rwanda, Darfur, child labor, human trafficking and segregation.
Before creating their projects, each grade read a different book on human injustice. The books included The Diary of Ann Frank, Night, The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World, A Lesson Before Dying, Dante’s Inferno, The Crucible, and Regeneration.
Seventh grade English teacher Bridget Wolff created the Museum project four years ago. “It is important for students to draw connections between the horrors of the past with the injustices that are currently happening around the world. Above all, our hope is for the students to understand that intolerant behavior can lead to devastating results. They can make a difference just by being more accepting of their peers who might appear or act differently than themselves.”
The Sagemont School (sagemont.com) offers a college prep curriculum and operates two campuses in Weston, Fl. In Pre-K through Grade 5, The Sagemont School offers core concepts in a creative environment combined with weekly specials that include science, art, music, Spanish, swimming, PE and media and technology. From middle school through graduation, Sagemont students choose from a variety of regular, honors and AP course work. In addition, students share in a networked wireless laptop community and participate in a comprehensive guidance program for college entrance.
For more information on The Sagemont School contact Dr. Brent Goldman, President or E: bgoldman[.] sagemont.com.
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mackermann[.]sagemont.com 
