Grade 6 teacher Jordan Tucker called the Tour for Humanity’s Holocaust information workshop one of the best he’s seen.
“This was real,” Tucker told StratfordToday, after he and his students exited the megabus in the parking lot of Stratford Intermediate School. “This was empowering … It’s important that we learn about our history so that we’re sure not to repeat it.”
Tucker’s class, from Avon Public School, was one of the classes that attended the Holocaust information workshop by Tour for Humanity, a mobile human rights education workshop from Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC).
The Tour for Humanity bus is a classroom on wheels: a 30-seat, wheelchair-accessible, and state-of-the-art bus. It is on a tour across Canada and finishing up its journey through the AMDSB.
Although today at Stratford Intermediate, it also visited schools in Exeter, St. Marys, Mitchell, Wingham, Clinton, Listowel, and Goderich.
As part of the tour, AMDSB students participated in workshops on the Holocaust and discussions around stereotypes, racism, and prejudice.
The tour encourages students to take a stand against hate and create positive change.
Louise Puevas is one of the instructors for the workshop. It was her first time in Stratford and explained that because she and the tour go to places across the nation, they need to be aware of different levels of education surrounding the Holocaust.
“Understanding that each board, teacher, and student is different,” she said. “We don’t know what students know or not.”
Puevas said that the response from students has been positive and that response is so meaningful for her and the Tour of Humanity team.
The bus has been on the move. They have visited hundreds of schools across Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
Since its launch in 2013, more than 175,000 students and educators have been reached.
The Tour for Humanity is heading for the GTA, where it will finish its tour at the end of the school year. This September, it once again begins a Canada-wide tour.
