Mental Block: Teaching WWII

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I live in a fantasy world (not just in sports...) and would like to believe there is a way to create a situation where HS students will wonder and ask questions that will lead to learning about WWII.

My two cents:

Create a novel problem.  Present them with a situation (or set of situations, small groups, individual assignments, pick a question to answer, whatever suits your style), BUT, to be novel, remove the names of countries, people, and the time/year.  Give them a circumstance, and ask them to solve the problem.

Perhaps, with some great facilitation on your part and a dose of luck, they may "reinvent the wheel" and give an idea that actually happened.  Ex:  give them the social, economic, and political conditions that Germany faced, wrecked economy etc., and see what they try to do.  Will someone suggest a need for national pride, like a sports team or winning the Olympics or something (1936), or some other forms of creating nationalistic pride (military strength), or look to unite behind a common (real or perceived) oppressor?

Some context will be needed eventually, as annexing territory seems really crazy now, but colonialism and expansionism were both standard happenings until WWII, and certainly within the lifetime of those in power at the time.  The whole thing ends up being an explication of different ways of solving the problems presented at first.

Good luck.  I'd never want to teach HS.  I prefer the latitude of postsecondary ed...

[Thruthelookingglass]

Sorry, this ended up being quite a long ramble, but I lived in Berlin as a child and studied WWII for years as a hobby.  Hats off to you cdif911 for considering the "more" that is out there.

I glanced at the outlines (are those the state requirements?), but I would want to work backward from the question "What do we learn from this?"  It sounds like you have taken up the challenge to help your class synthesize the message of history.

My own questions about the rise of National Socialism have always been how did it rise?  The Nazi hold on power in Germany was quite ruthless and supported only by a minority.  The Nazi's share of the popular vote had started to decline when they parlayed the Reichstag fire into dictatorship.  Yet they pursued conflict and the Final Solution with their bone-chilling results.

The "scientific" theories of racialism certainly played a part in National Socialist ideology.  Anti-semitism was not shocking or novel then.  So did the emergence of faith in "isms."  Were there common themes in the Spanish Civil War, in Mussolini's rise to power, Stalin's campaigns against his own people, and the sordid rise to power of Adolf Hitler?

The second question is how to reach your target audience.  Is National Socialism still worth discussing?  Are the gas chambers and ovens a thing of the past?  Absolutely not.  The world has not learned.  Europe has not learned.  And there are plenty of modern examples -- racist skinheads, virulent middle eastern regimes, and European politicians who seem to walk a fine line between nationalism and racism.

For me and I think many others, the study of WWII was the big lesson that there IS evil in the world, and as the cliche goes, that all it takes for evil to triumph is that good men stand idly by.  A lesson still worth learning.  Good luck to you and your students!!!

[Truck Lewis]

i took an entire course based completely on the holocaust and one of the coolest (to a 16 year old boy) and educational parts was reading the Maus books. They are two books that tell the story of the holocaust using a comic book format...they are amazingly informative and entertaining for an easily distractible age group

http://www.amazon.com/Maus-Survivors-Father-Bleeds-History/dp/0394747232/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268103585&sr=8-1

[cdif911]

i took an entire course based completely on the holocaust and one of the coolest (to a 16 year old boy) and educational parts was reading the Maus books. They are two books that tell the story of the holocaust using a comic book format...they are amazingly informative and entertaining for an easily distractible age group

http://www.amazon.com/Maus-Survivors-Father-Bleeds-History/dp/0394747232/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268103585&sr=8-1

great book, we looked at it in an undergrad course I remember, have to see if our library has it on hand

[cdif911]

Sorry, this ended up being quite a long ramble, but I lived in Berlin as a child and studied WWII for years as a hobby.  Hats off to you cdif911 for considering the "more" that is out there.

I glanced at the outlines (are those the state requirements?), but I would want to work backward from the question "What do we learn from this?"  It sounds like you have taken up the challenge to help your class synthesize the message of history.

My own questions about the rise of National Socialism have always been how did it rise?  The Nazi hold on power in Germany was quite ruthless and supported only by a minority.  The Nazi's share of the popular vote had started to decline when they parlayed the Reichstag fire into dictatorship.  Yet they pursued conflict and the Final Solution with their bone-chilling results.

The "scientific" theories of racialism certainly played a part in National Socialist ideology.  Anti-semitism was not shocking or novel then.  So did the emergence of faith in "isms."  Were there common themes in the Spanish Civil War, in Mussolini's rise to power, Stalin's campaigns against his own people, and the sordid rise to power of Adolf Hitler?

The second question is how to reach your target audience.  Is National Socialism still worth discussing?  Are the gas chambers and ovens a thing of the past?  Absolutely not.  The world has not learned.  Europe has not learned.  And there are plenty of modern examples -- racist skinheads, virulent middle eastern regimes, and European politicians who seem to walk a fine line between nationalism and racism.

For me and I think many others, the study of WWII was the big lesson that there IS evil in the world, and as the cliche goes, that all it takes for evil to triumph is that good men stand idly by.  A lesson still worth learning.  Good luck to you and your students!!!

lots of good points here - whenever you can connect to today it makes it more meaningful.  We've done a good deal with socialism and communism, even with it's rise in the US pre-war (and many argue FDR himself was a socialist) - and yes those are the state requirements to work off of

[cdif911]

I live in a fantasy world (not just in sports...) and would like to believe there is a way to create a situation where HS students will wonder and ask questions that will lead to learning about WWII.

My two cents:

Create a novel problem.  Present them with a situation (or set of situations, small groups, individual assignments, pick a question to answer, whatever suits your style), BUT, to be novel, remove the names of countries, people, and the time/year.  Give them a circumstance, and ask them to solve the problem.

Perhaps, with some great facilitation on your part and a dose of luck, they may "reinvent the wheel" and give an idea that actually happened.  Ex:  give them the social, economic, and political conditions that Germany faced, wrecked economy etc., and see what they try to do.  Will someone suggest a need for national pride, like a sports team or winning the Olympics or something (1936), or some other forms of creating nationalistic pride (military strength), or look to unite behind a common (real or perceived) oppressor?

Some context will be needed eventually, as annexing territory seems really crazy now, but colonialism and expansionism were both standard happenings until WWII, and certainly within the lifetime of those in power at the time.  The whole thing ends up being an explication of different ways of solving the problems presented at first.

Good luck.  I'd never want to teach HS.  I prefer the latitude of postsecondary ed...

your scenario actually reminds me a bit of a made for tv movie called the wave.  I've used it in my sociology classes in the past, and the point gets made easily, how could normal people play into the nazi propaganda and become so blind to what was going on around them.

[Tnerb02]

Everything I know about WWII, I learned from playing Day of Defeat.

[Spilling Green Dye]

The savagery within humans.  I think it is was is most shocking from WWII. 

On a semi-related note, if you ever get a chance to read "Constantine's Sword", I highly recommend it.  It essentially traces back all of the undertones of anti-semitism, highlights various watershed moments, and concludes with the creation of Death Camps while prominent religious figures (mostly the Catholic Church) looked the other way.  It is a moving and deep book, but more than anything it has a ton of historical research and references. 

[Truck Lewis]

i am jealous of your students......the kids are lucky to have a teacher that is so invested in his subject and knows the importance of making it fun.....

my sophomore history teacher in HS changed my entire outlook on education and the world...and i think it is so cool when a teacher can have such a strong effect on students

[Redz]

i am jealous of your students......the kids are lucky to have a teacher that is so invested in his subject and knows the importance of making it fun.....

my sophomore history teacher in HS changed my entire outlook on education and the world...and i think it is so cool when a teacher can have such a strong effect on students

I wish my teacher had CelticsBlog too 

[snively]

How much of a U.S. perspective do you have to take on WWII.  There was an awful lot that went on before we got involved (I know you know this  ), but really there is a huge distinction between the US History aspect, and the World History aspect.

Anyhow, just from a layman's perspective, things that stick out - in no particular order:

Pearl Harbor
Axis Powers
Allies
D-Day
Hiroshima / Nagasaki
Midway
Battle of the Bulge
Iwo Jima

hmmm...it is a big topic

another big problem, I'm teaching it to a US class who supposedly had it in World (but how much did they really get)

yeah the mass frameworks are huge:


World War II, 1939-1945 
USII.14 Explain the strength of American isolationism after World War I and analyze its impact on U.S. foreign policy. (H)   

USII.15 Analyze how German aggression in Europe and Japanese aggression in Asia contributed to the start of World War II and summarize the major battles and events of the war. On a map of the world, locate the Allied powers (Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States) and Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan). (H)

A.   Fascism in Germany and Italy 
B.   German rearmament and militarization of the Rhineland
C.   Germany’s seizure of Austria and Czechoslovakia and Germany’s invasion of Poland
D.   Japan’s invasion of China and the Rape of Nanking
E.   Pearl Harbor, Midway, D-Day, Okinawa, the Battle of the Bulge, Iwo Jima, and the Yalta and Potsdam conferences

Seminal Primary Documents to Read: President Franklin Roosevelt, “Four Freedoms,” speech (1941)


Seminal Primary Documents to Consider: Justice Robert M. Jackson’s opinion for the Supreme Court in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943) and Learned Hand’s The Spirit of Liberty (1944)

USII.16 Explain the reasons for the dropping of atom bombs on Japan and their short and long-term effects. (H)

USII.17 Explain important domestic events that took place during the war. (H, E)

A.   how war-inspired economic growth ended the Great Depression
B.   A. Philip Randolph and the efforts to eliminate employment discrimination
C.   the entry of large numbers of women into the workforce
D.   the internment of West Coast Japanese-Americans in the U.S. and Canada

My advice as a history-lover who was bored to tears by the standard history classes I received in my public education: introduce some contrarian perspectives to exercise their brains a little bit.  History is far more controversial and interesting than those tedious outlines would suggest.

Right now I'm reading Pat Buchanan's book on WWII, called Churchill, Hitler and the Unnecessary War.   He puts the lion's share of the blame for the epic scale of the war not on Hitler's militarism, but on Britain's war guarantee to Poland, and disputes WWII's reputation as the "good war."

It's interesting stuff so far, certainly more thought provoking than my freshman US History class's treatment of WWII.

[tenaciousT]

Don't know how long a period of time you have to teach on the subject but...

A major tactical error was Hitler fought a two front war... and lost.

Interestingly enough, the U.S. fought a two front war... and won.

If you are pursuing it from the American perspective, there is a spectacular, but largely untold story of America's incredible transition to a war time machine (including for our allies) and transition from peacetime/isolationist to full blown commitment in a very short period of time.

Already having a burgeoning manufacturing infrastructure helped us convert to weapons production unbelievably quick. GM, Ford, and Chrysler all converted from making cars to making tanks, airplanes, and engines for both.  

We turned out ships at astounding rates through re-inventing assembly line thinking.

A number of other good suggestions have been made already.

Expansion of women's roles and government and industry sponsored child care got a huge boost.

Rights for blacks were moved forward (with a struggle).

It ended the Depression.

America could no longer return to being an isolationist country.

The war in the Pacific was given secondary priority to winning in Europe (to Hitler's surprise - after he pressured Japan to attack America, he thought we would go after Japan first)

A move from rural living was accelerated toward cities.

Most don't realize it, but the first concentration camps started long before the war. Dachau opened in 1933.

The U.S. suppressed any movies that would 'antagonize' Germany for most of the 1930s.

Coincidentally, there was a documentary on the Warner Brothers tonight on TCM that dealt with that aspect.

Have a survivor (concentration camp or military) come and speak to the class while you still can. They are dying off quickly now.

best of luck with a subject that affects us today in ways we don't even realize.

[tenn_smoothie]

can you show some segments from "Band of Brothers" in class ??

for me, that HBO series takes the viewer back in time - to really see what our men went through in that war. for me, better even, than "Private Ryan." i think it would make a huge impression on your students ................ and believe me, they need to know what people went through to build this country and to save freedom for the world.

you can get "BoB" at blockbuster - the entire series as one rental.

[RockinRyA]

all i remember from my history class about WWII was about Gen. Douglas MacArthur and his return 

[cdif911]

day 1 down, did some introductory stuff, set up a blog/message board for the kids to post discussion and questions on. Tomorrow we hit Pearl Harbor to try and figure out how we got there and *gasp* did FDR know

I also took Maus out of our school library - we have 4 copies, I'm thinking of assigning it as enrichment on a rotating basis...

thanks for all the ideas so far will try to keep this one updated, I'm excited to work with new material