climate-gallery-walk

Students and members of the Hanover Park community learn about caring, tolerance and respect through a “gallery walk,” the service learning portion of the high schools’ semester-long Genocide Studies course.

The Gallery Walk program involves students at Hanover Park and Whippany Park high schools, and the two campuses alternate hosting the event each year. Visitors enter under a replica of the Auschwitz “Arbeit macht frei” gate, and then weave through classrooms with displays, created by students and staff that recall various genocides. The walk culminates with a performance in the school theater. The event is open to all students during the day, and community members are invited in the evening.

Holocaust survivor Maud Dahme, a former long-term State Board of Education member and a recipient of NJSBA’s lifetime education achievement award, has taken part in the program.

The Gallery Walk has had a widespread impact on the community. It has fostered respect for other cultures and their past, and has reconnected many students with their own family history. Students have developed a sense of unity, and a greater connection to the whole community. The Gallery Walk also sparked cross-curricular discussions and activities within the school, and helped inspire other student-generated service learning.

Information

Contact: Maria Carrell, director of curriculum, instruction & assessment, [email protected]

Submitted by school district, January 8, 2015