Oklahoma Teachers Get Free Training On Holocaust Education At Conference in Tulsa

Teachers around Oklahoma are getting training and resources to help teach students about the Holocaust.

It is part of the ongoing mission of a coalition that helped pass the bill that made Holocaust education mandatory starting in sixth grade.

Talking about the Holocaust, especially with students, often leads to a lot of questions.

“Why didn't they resist? Why did others cooperate? And why did we not do anything to start with?" shared Linda Uselmann, a history teacher from Oklahoma Union in Nowata County.

She joined dozens of teachers from around the state to get the tools they needed to teach the Holocaust.

The Eva K Unterman Conferences for Holocaust Education is named after Tulsa's own Holocaust survivor.

Organizers said this free training, which also gives teachers professional development credit, focuses on those who teach English, visual arts and social studies.

"We're empowering teachers, we're providing resources and we're giving teachers insight on how to teach this very important subject to the next generation of students," Waldron said.

State Representative John Waldron from Tulsa co-authored Senate Bill 1671, which was passed in 2022.

The law requires the Holocaust to be taught starting in the sixth grade.

"We're teaching students lessons about man's inhumanity to man but also our incredible resilience and we're trying to promote compassion and understanding so tragedies like this won't happen in the future," Waldron said.

Experienced teachers like Uselmann said this training helps remind them that they too need to constantly be learning.

"Talk to people, read the stories, expand your knowledge," Unselmann said.

The conference will be in Norman next Monday and Lawton next Wednesday. There are also resources online to help teachers.