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I believe deep play to be an actual state of mind that one is in that allows him/her a certain level of freedom to create something new. Whenever the Holocaust is introduced the focus is on WHAT the horrors were, the murders, the evil. But for students to truly understand HOW those horrors, murders & evil occurred they have to understand WHY Adolf Hitler was even in a position to commit these acts in the first place. This introduction is playful because it focuses on something different, it focuses on the HOW, the WHY rather than the WHAT. I was able to take something standard, a simple introduction to an involved topic and change the game. In this introduction I purposely play on my students emotions, pushing them to empathize with an experience. Understanding emotions is how you can begin to understand a population of Germans believing in and conforming to Adolf Hitler’s ideas. This is one of the most engaging pieces I’ve created throughout the course, as it should be. An introduction is meant to capture students attention and I think this will do just that. There is also a lot of TRUTH in what I say and show in this video and that makes it a very meaningful activity. Something I haven’t talked a lot about is the potential for students to think this conversation regarding the nazi buy-in isn’t as important as what actually happened. They might see it as a fluff, as ridiculous to think we should feel any sort of sympathy or empathy for the German people. If I can get my students to understand the reality of the situation in Germany then I think they can walk away from this unit learning more than they or I could have even imagined. If this introductory video serves as a part of that, then how could it not be meaningful. In a way I am surprised that “play” came last in our modules and in Sparks of Genius. I say this because I feel as though “play” applies to everything we have been doing in this course this semester. We have put ourselves in this state of mind that allows us to have “breakthrough discoveries and insights”. I’ve found ways to portray ideas in ways that I never would have thought possible, I’m in a playful state of mind every time I sit down to work on an assignment. I always feel a sense of freedom even when there are certain rules & requirements to the assignment. I wanted to create something that captured the essence of what I have been doing throughout the course of the semester. At the end of the day the conversation about the Nazi buy-in, is a conversation about emotions. So how do I get my students into a state of mind where they can empathize with those emotions while at the same time questioning the road we are about to take. There is no doubt that students will be curious about the idea of Germans seeing hope in Adolf Hitler and that is right where I want them to be as we begin the unit. This introductory activity isn’t necessarily an “activity” however I think it still does its job in not only easing students into the topic at hand but getting students to think. And I can easily break the video down into sections and create a reflection along the way so it doesn’t JUST become something students view, but rather something students experience. Modeling is presenting an idea in a new way in order for the intended audience to see it in more realistic terms.
I recently had the opportunity to listen to a young man from Nigeria speak to our students at school. Something he talked about was an idea known as cognitive dissonance. When we experience something that doesn’t fit with what we expected, it doesn’t fit in the pre-categorized box, we don’t understand it and could potentially lead us to dislike this experience. When discussing Adolf Hitler and the atrocities he and his followers committed students always wonder “How could they let him get away with it?” or they lump all Germans together as being horrible people because they “allowed” him to do what he did. So presenting the ideas I’ve established so far in this course are most likely not going to fit into their “box” of “this man was bad and so was everyone who followed him”. Now I of course am NOT arguing that Hitler wasn’t bad, but it’s important to look at the issue dimensionally. By modeling the topic of the Nazi buy-in the way I have it allows students to see the different levels of what is actually going on that fuels the fire of the Holocaust. When looking at this topic it is important to look at different perspectives. One of those perspectives is that of the German people, the other is the perspective of people now, after learning about what happened. These are the dimensions we discover when looking at these perspectives. We realize that in fact, there are layers upon layers of feelings and emotions and reactions that must be considered to understand what actually happened in the 1930’s in Germany. From the perspective of the Germans, they get a sense of relief when Adolf Hitler comes to “save” them from the evils of the Treaty of Versailles, drawing on the pride people have in their country. They feel inspired by his words and can finally feel some hope that Germany will survive the post-World War I emotional and economic depression it was experiencing. They were angry about the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and fearful of what was to come. Adolf Hitler became a hero to the Germans and their ignorance of what his philosophy really was allowed for Hitler to gain their support. All of these emotions and feelings help to fuel the fire that is the disbelief, horror, and evil of Adolf Hitler’s genocide. This led to quite simply create a graphic representation of these different feelings, emotions, reactions by placing the words themselves over an image of a campfire. The words that represent the German people’s perspective are at the edges of the fire while the perspective of people TODAY are in the center of the fire. I’ve thoroughly explained why these words were chosen specifically. The placement is of course intentional, the reality of what is happening is at the center of the fire, while the “fuel to the fire” that is Adolf Hitler surrounds the edges of the fire. My hope is that students will look at this graphic representation and be able to look upon it as a realistic representation of what is really happening in Germany. Aspect: Conformity, Represented in a poem Here He Stands Alone Will He Withstand On His Own He Can Tell They Are Watching Waiting For His Next Move His Heart Is Beating No Longer In A Groove His Face Feels Warm He Can No Longer Hear The Violent Storm He Just Wants To Disappear At The End Of The Day He Knows He Won't Change Not Unless He Finds A New Way To Fit In And Not Be Strange But He Wants To Belong So He Will Ignore What He Saw All Along And Just Close The Door Embodied thinking is being able to feel through all possible senses as we experience something.
Understanding history rarely comes down to one concept, it frequently requires the understanding of several concepts. This is the case when it comes to understanding the buy-in the Nazi party experienced from every day citizens. I’ve talked a lot about pride but something I haven’t talked about, which to be fair can be tied to pride, is conformity. I chose conformity for this particular assignment because it is a psychological response. Conformity can be a reaction to something that makes us physically uncomfortable. It is something that can be felt. The feeling of not fitting in; the feeling of upsetting someone; the feeling of what its like to not have to think for yourself. If we were to “see” somebody conform we would learn a lot about who they were, and who they were not. We tend to think of conformity as a bad thing, it shows weakness. Yet, ironically enough, conformity is perhaps one of the most empathetic emotions we have. We have all been there. It could be the most minor decision such as what to order at a restaurant (ie everyone’s ordering a salad, you wanted a burger but order the salad instead). It could be the most major decision such as what college to attend (ie your parents both went to Michigan State University, University of Michigan is your preference but you choose MSU anyways). We all understand what it’s like to conform. We all understand how that feels. We rarely think about conformity as an emotion, but often conformity is the result of an emotion, or emotions. Emotions are a great tool to use when trying to help students comprehend something that has happened in history. So often the events and actions that have taken place in history are emotionally charged. The colonists are angry about being taken advantage of by the British and so they rebel, claiming their independence. Students can understand and empathize with different emotions. If they can understand the emotion, perhaps they can understand the action. If they can understand the emotion behind conformity, perhaps they can understand the why so many people followed and agreed with Adolf Hitler. Thinking about this particular aspect of my topic opens up ideas of others ways to present the information to students. I could create a simulation in which they are pressured to conform. This would simulate the emotion and feeling, allowing them to think with their bodies. This isn’t something that I often think to do and when we present history in new ways it not only makes it easier for students to grasp but also makes it more interesting. They might begin to see the comparison between the Nazi buy-in and other examples of support for dictators such as Stalin or Mussolini. It opens up doors so I am not conforming (see what I did there) in the way in which I teach. The Nazi Buy-In --> PRIDE. In One's Country Representation of Pride #1: American Flag Representation of Pride #2: German Propaganda "What would YOU do...to restore Germany's former glory? Imperial German Flag: marcatalar.com Note: This particular German flag is the flag of Germany from 1871 to 1918, a period of time that Hitler wants to restore Germany to. Abstracting is the process one goes through to take an idea, process, thing, etc. and simplify it to a more basic form or element.
The abstraction I chose for my topic of the Nazi buy-in was PRIDE. Students always ask “How could the Germans allow a man to rise to power who was so clearly evil?” After discussing the idea that there was no way to know right off the bat that he was up to good (to put it lightly), I try to convey, as I have through the “How Do I Love Thee” assignment the state of Germany when Adolf Hitler first began to rise to power. They were in bad shape (to put it lightly). Germany had intentionally been put in a position where the ability to recover post-WWI would be extremely difficult. They had suffered countless deaths in World War I, they had been forced to take responsibility for initiating WWI, and were therefore paying war reparations putting them even further into debt. In every possible way the Treaty of Versailles made sure Germany suffered and felt defeated and deflated. All they had left, was PRIDE and in my opinion they were bound and determined to hold on to that PRIDE. These conditions led to an increase in a desire for an authoritarian leader, someone like Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist Party. Breaking the idea of support for the Nazi party down to a matter of PRIDE can help students begin to understand how the Nazi party gained support within Germany. This abstraction serves the understanding of my topic because it breaks the topic down to a basic element that students can relate to. Thinking of a time one was proud of their family, themselves, their school, their state, their nation, that’s an easy thing for most people to do. Finding examples people making compromises BECAUSE of that pride is just as easy. Someone doesn’t want to admit defeat in a game they are clearly losing because of their pride. Someone doesn’t want to ask for help because of their pride. Someone participates in a prank they know is a bad idea because of their pride. There are so many examples in daily life. If students can identify examples in their own life and find a way to empathize with the Germany people it will help to understand and answer “How German could allow a man to rise to power who was so clearly evil” (and yes I will once again explain that Hitler didn’t jump out of the gate explaining to the people his plan to murder the Jews of the world). People are willing to believe anything when there is an feeling of desperation, that desperation is linked to our pride, and everyone in their life at some time (or many times) has felt desperate. Patterning is the process of finding and/or making connections within an idea(s). These connections are repetitive and allow us to organize this information. Unfortunately finding patterns in history is quite easy. Those patterns can be found in successes and failures. For example, we could look at the pattern that exists in discrimination and the policies that go along with it, laws are passed or actions are upheld by the Supreme Court that allows for discrimination against a particular group. Then after slowly changes are made and the majority of the population questions why those laws ever existed. For the purposes of my topic, the Nazi buy-in, I will need to broaden my horizon a bit to the rise of leaders, in this case the rise of Hitler. So what patterns exist in leaders coming into power? The pattern of leadership has changed over time. First, the pattern was birthright, in some cases leaders got power because of violence inflicted on another group, and when democracy began to thrive leaders were elected. Within elections there are patterns. We typically have two to three different people with two to three different ideas about what direction the city, state, or country should go in. People affiliate themselves with one and the “most popular” gets chosen. It’s pretty simple these days. But I think if we look deeper at democratic elections we will see a different pattern take place. By taking a look at different elections throughout history where a major change takes place within the country, in this case the election of Adolf Hitler which ultimately led to the murder of 6 million Jews, we can find a new pattern. First, there is an event that drastically changes the country. It could be an economic downturn, a major war, a rise in tensions between different groups of people. This event creates a need for change among the people, they are looking for inspiration. In the rise of Adolf Hitler that event is World War I and the Treaty of Versailles harsh consequences on Germany. Next, a party or leader of a party begins to speak to that need, acknowledging the change that is necessary and details how they see “fixing” the problem. For Adolf Hitler, it was the Nazi party and his speeches promising a better future and a return to the glorious pre-World War I Germany. Once that party gains popularity they begin to gain seats within the legislative body, the Nazi party gained 33% of votes in the 1932 election. Due to the success of the Nazi Party, Hitler is then chosen as Chancellor, the head of Germany. He continues to preach the ideas of the Nazi party and people blindly follow, believing he is the savior to the depression they’ve been living in since World War I came to an end.
The key to this pattern is being able to compare it to other examples in history. This will help students see that the rise of Adolf Hitler to power and the support the Nazi party received is not a rare event in history. It just happened to have a much more shocking and disastrous outcome. Re-imagining History. Perceiving is a tool that can be used to see and understand a hidden message in everyday life. Whether it's an object, an image, a song, etc. We can always find, through perception, something deeper. Original Observation People look on as Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi party, and depending on the year of the photograph, leader of Germany, greets soldiers. There are salutes, most likely shouts of "Heil Hitler". It is very crowded so perhaps he just got done with a speaking engagement. The man who appears to be in the car with him is most likely one of his right hand men, perhaps Rommel. People are looking at Hitler as if he is a hero, they are happy to see him and the smiles show more than just respect for a higher rank. The key to understanding history, is the key to understanding history. We cannot understand, lets say the Progressive Era in the United States, without understanding what led to the Progressive Era (the Industrial Revolution to simplify matters). To help us understand why Germans bought into the Nazi Party, it's ideas, it's political philosophy, etc, we must understand what led to the start of the Nazi Party in the first place. Consider a country who, depending on how you look at it, is less than 50 years old at the time of the first World War. Without getting into too much detail, following a devastating war this country is blamed and they have to take responsibility and are therefore severely punished for the start of World War I. Allied nations own interests are the root of certain punishments. The country as a result experiences an economic depression along with a myriad of other issues. This country's pride is washed away with the blood of it's soldiers. Enter a man with a ideas. A man who believes he knows how to make this country great again, how to make this country the most powerful country in the world. He shares his ideas, they spread, people listen and like what they hear. By 1933 this man has a position in the government and his power begins to grow, a chance for him to execute this plan. To save the people of this emotionally and economically depressed nation. Wherever he goes people show him respect with a salute and seem genuinely happy to see him. To many people, he is a hero. The country, Germany. The man, Adolf Hitler.
By re-imaging the photograph above of Adolf Hitler it helps me see how I should portray him as I teach World War II, particularly the time between World War I and Hitler's invasion of Poland. The challenging part of teaching the rise of Nazism in Germany post-WWI is that most students come to class with a preconceived notion, an expectation of what they will see, hear and feel when we talk about Hitler. It's difficult for them to comprehend a country supporting a man who is perceived to be so evil. By re-imaging it as I did in the paragraph above, perhaps they will feel the emotion that must have been felt by the German citizens post-WWI, instead of the shock they feel for what he has done. History, after all, changes based on the point of view you are looking at. So by changing that point of view, by re-imaging this photograph, I can help students understand how Hitler was able to gain so much support in Germany, gain so much power in a country struggling to breath. This new perception I have on the reality of Adolf Hitler as a hero to his people helps to frame the work I will do in the future on this particular topic in this class. |
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December 2014
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