EDUCATION GUIDE
AJA is the only preschool through 12th grade Jewish day school in Atlanta
Reggio-Emilia inspired Preschool Program Dual Curriculum Etgar (Gifted and Talented) STEM Program 10 Advanced Placement Classes Problem Based Learning Electives 2nd—12th grade
Congratulations Zoe Ogden! Class of 2015 After a gap year in Israel at Migdal Oz, Zoe will be entering Barnard College (affiliated with Columbia University) next fall.
Prague, he says the trip really centers around the visits to the concentration camps. Murphy says he grounds his class, as well as the trip, in a mission statement that provides direction and reminds students what they are trying to accomplish. The statement reads: “Bearing witness is a humanizing endeavor, a journey through the past that helps us reconsider how we understand ourselves as human beings. It’s a subject that should engage the heart, help develop better judgment and teach empathy.” Students do a lot of preparation for the trip. They research and make presentations on sites they will see to share with the group. They visit the Breman Jewish and Holocaust Museum in downtown Atlanta, where a Holocaust survivor shares his story. “These stories are really important so that when we get to a place like Auschwitz, the kids can then put a name and a face and an experience to that terrible place,” Murphy said. To help these students understand the importance of the sites they are seeing, Murphy asks various people to write letters to the students to be read to them as they are on the journey. Konzen, Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson, and even President Obama have written letters to
the students. Kyle Coughlin, a member of the class of 2017, said the letters added to the importance of the trip. “The whole idea of the trip is to bear witness, because shortly there will be no living survivors. My favorite one was probably from Archbishop [Wilton] Gregory [of Atlanta] because he wrote a very inspirational letter about questioning where God was during this time,” Kyle said. Throughout the journey, particularly while visiting concentration camps, students are asked to keep track of their thoughts in a journal. The goal each year, Murphy said, is to have students return with a new view of the Holocaust. “They come back different,” he said, “changed, with a greater understanding about their own potential for good -- or for evil -- for that matter.” One thing that is consistent from year to year is a “bearing witness promise” students create toward the end of their trip. Murphy asks students to consider one thing that they can do differently upon their return to Atlanta to make the world a better place. “I like the idea of the ‘bearing witness promise’ because it makes me feel confident that the trip was worthwhile,” Murphy said.
Connecting learning to life at every level. We THINK BIG.
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SPECIAL PHOTOS
Top, Sean McVay, left, and Nolan Daniels at Dachau. Above, Marist students also visited Auschwitz. Left, for the past seven years, Marist history teacher Brendan Murphy has led Spring Break trips to Holocaust sites.
In July, students explored the Kalahari Desert during an Isdell Center for Global Leadership (ICGL) study tour to Namibia and Botswana. Photograph by TRISH ANDERSON ICGL Director
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