History teacher to develop Holocaust curriculum

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This article was published 03/07/2024 (768 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Westwood Collegiate history teacher has been selected by the Manitoba government to help develop a new Holocaust curriculum for the province’s students.

Kelly Hiebert, 39, has been seconded for two years to the Department of Education and Early Childhood Learning to create a new unit for Manitoba’s Grade 11 students. He’s also been asked to assess current Holocaust lessons from kindergarten to Grade 10 and make recommendations to update the curriculum.

“It’s a huge honour and privilege to have been asked to do this,” said Hiebert, who has been a teacher for 17 years.

The Grade 11 unit will focus on events leading up to the Holocaust in the Second World War, the Holocaust itself and its aftermath, including denial and misinformation.

Topics will include antisemitism in Canada before and after the war, the quota on Jewish medical students at the University of Manitoba, at private clubs in the province, and restrictions on cottage ownership by Jews at Victoria Beach.

Along with a focus on the Holocaust, Hiebert also wants students to learn about historical discrimination against other groups in Canada, including Indigenous people.

His goal is to make the curriculum accessible and easy for educators to use. “Teachers often don’t get the time and training to teach new curriculum properly,” he said, noting his secondment includes time to help teachers with the lessons.

About Hiebert’s new role, a spokesperson from the provincial government said “we are very happy to have such an accomplished individual to the team … he’s a leader and exemplar in the field.”

Hiebert’s interest in the Holocaust is partly due to his own Mennonite background — his mother’s family came to Manitoba in the 1870s after fleeing persecution from the Russian Empire. His father’s family escaped the Soviet Union in the 1920s. Their experiences “helped me see the importance of standing up for minorities,” said Hiebert.

His goal through the new curriculum is to help students “learn from the past to develop a better future. We need a lot of healing in the world today.”

He also knows the importance of teaching.

“Nothing will change without education,” Hiebert said. “As educators, we have an important task.”

Hiebert hopes to have the curriculum ready by early in 2025.

Belle Jarniewski, executive director of the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada, applauded Hiebert’s appointment.

“Kelly is an exemplary educator who understands the importance of Holocaust education,” she said. “He has inspired both students and colleagues alike with his devotion to utilizing best practices to engage students on this complex and difficult topic.”

In 2021, Hiebert received the Governor General’s history award for excellence in teaching and the Manitoba excellence in education award; in 2023 he was named a recipient of the Prime Minister’s award for teaching excellence.

In addition to teaching about history, Hiebert has organized student trips to Europe to tour concentration camps and other Holocaust-related sites and worked with students to produce a documentary of interviews with Manitoba Holocaust survivors titled Let the Survivors Speak: The Rise in Hate and Antisemitism in Canada Today.

In addition to Manitoba, other provinces that are including Holocaust education in their curricula are Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, B.C. and Quebec.

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