...a handful of girls from Uniontown High School who introduced the world to Irena Sendler, the female version of Oskar Schindler, of Schindler’s List fame...
As student Megan Felt explains, Sendler’s name intrigued the girls in her history project group.
As student Megan Felt explains, Sendler’s name intrigued the girls in her history project group.
Yet despite extensive searching, they were unable to find out much about her, due to Communist suppression of the story after the war. Megan Felt remembers:
That’s a rare occurrence these days.
“Irena’s story was very much a light in my life, something that gave me encouragement that I need as a 14-year-old, that if she could walk into the Warsaw ghetto every day, not even being 5 feet tall, walking pass the German officers with a child sedated in a gunny sack over her shoulder saying, ‘They are dead from disease, I’m going to go get rid of the body,’ what if the baby would have whimpered a cry? She would have been shot immediately along with the child. … So, Irena’s story, I think very much impacted all of us in a very special, deep way.”In other words, Sendler’s story made history come alive for a handful of girls from Kansas who learned to apply the lessons of the past to their present struggles.
That’s a rare occurrence these days.
- Many Americans have become convinced that history is no longer relevant to modern life, a fact reflected in the scores of American high school seniors, which show that 88 percent are not proficient in history.
- Is it time we made the past more of a priority in today’s public schools?
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