Homelessness in America

This week in the ninth grade we're looking at the question of homelessness in America. Through articles from the New York Times, local newspapers, clips from CNN and youtube, students will gain multiple perspectives on causes and solutions.

We will also be learning about Liz Murray, the remarkable young woman who grew up homeless in a family with drug-addicted parents—yet threw herself into her public school education, eventually attending Harvard on a full scholarship (and graduating with honors). Here are links to her talking about her memoirs and the charity she helped to found:

Here are links to the movie that was made about her life:

Here is another story on CNN about young African American teenage boy in a similar situation:

Bearing Witness: Holocaust Testimony

We're reading Art Spiegelman's The Complete Maus in the eleventh grade. These two graphic novels are the non-fiction account of Spiegelman's listening to his father, Vladek Spiegelman, as he bears witness to what he lived through during the Holocaust.

You can read about Maus here.

We are examining Holocaust in a variety of forms: poetry; documentary; historical literature; first-person written testimony; video testimony; theatrical drama; children's literature; art; music; and memorials.

We will be reading psychological theory on bearing witness by Yale professor, survivor and psychologist Dori Laub while we finish Maus and also watch testimony from the Yale Fortunoff Holocaust Video Archive.