This seems the perfect moment to share a project we did with the Columbus Jewish Day School, led by Ms. Vilensky and performed by her incredible students Rony, Zeke and Jonah.

It all started in the summer of 2020 when I presented an idea of a project in a professional development session for teachers. The idea of the project was to engage students in the debate about historical monuments by providing guidelines for research, discussion and action items. You will find the outline of the idea here.

I offered to help Ms. Vilensky with the implementation of the small project in her classroom. She decided to focus on some of the Columbus’ statues present in Columbus, Ohio. As you will see in the outline provided, students start by gathering very basic information about the chosen statue, then they dig deeper to get a holistic idea of why and how the monument was erected.

The next step is to engage students in a discussion about the monument. Did the decision to install them included all voices in the community? Does it tell a full and complete picture of the represented subject?

Finally, students are encouraged to make recommendations about what to do with that monument (should it stay as is, be removed or should more elements be added to it?). To finalize the project, we recommend students to take an extra step by sharing their new knowledge and recommendations with the rest of their school and/or by reaching out to their local historical society or museum organizations to work with them to ensure the whole story is told.

As you can imagine, the tricky part of a project like this is finding reliable sources first, and then leading a discussion about the topic without letting your personal biases direct the outcome of the discussion.

I hope that this inspires you to bring this discussion to your class. The outline of this little project can be used for any monuments or historical markers in your community. It doesn’t need to be around Columbus. It’s better if you choose a historical figure or event that is relevant to your classroom, school or community.

Below is a list of interesting articles and other resources that I shared with Ms. Vilensky. I also added a video that she shared with me. If you have more resources on this subject, please share them with us in the comment section!

In our next blog post, I’ll share the amazing results and insights we got for Ms. Vilensky’s students. I was blown away by their thoughtful perspective, the conclusions they arrived at, and how they incorporated their faith and cultural heritage in their recommendations. You don’t want to miss that. Stay tuned!