A small private school in a small Canadian town is taking on a big project — to collect 6 million pebbles to commemorate the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
Inspired by “Paper Clips” — a documentary that chronicled a campaign initiated in 1998 by the staff and students of Whitwell Middle School in Whitwell, Tenn., to collect a paper clip for each of the 6 million Jewish Holocaust victims — the staff and students at the Goodwin Learning Centre in Trenton, Ontario, began their own quest to better understand “what 6 million looks like.”
Linda Goodwin, principal and found- er of the school — which has fewer than 50 students — and teacher Melissa Mikel are heading the project, which involves all the students from kindergarten to eighth grade.
Mikel said studying World War II and the Holocaust as a way to demonstrate the importance of good character has always been a part of the curriculum.
When trying to teach kindergarteners about such sensitive material, Mikel said teachers speak to them about people who weren’t treated fairly and try to teach them how to be good to people.
As the students get older, they read Holocaust literature, including “Number the Stars” by Lois Lowry and “Night” by Elie Wiesel. Holocaust survivors have also visited the school as guest speakers.
But after seeing “Paper Clips,” Mikel said the staff wanted to take Holocaust education to another level.
“The question ‘what is 6 million?’ has often come up with the kids here. After watching the film, we were trying to think of a way to demonstrate that,” she said.
“We thought of the pebbles, and that it is a sign of respect [in Jewish tradition] to place a pebble on the tombstone of someone who has passed away. We have several students in the school who are Jewish, and there are two girls whose grandmother just passed away and they had been talking about putting the stones on her grave.”
Having just started collecting pebbles in September, the staff and
students at the Learning Center are still trying to figure out how to display the pebbles.
“We don’t have an idea of what the 6 million are going to look like yet, so at this point … we’ve got them neatly in a bin,” Mikel said.
Initially they thought to build a memorial path as an extension of the school’s peace garden, but each of the pebbles has meaning to the students, so they are still contemplating the best way to exhibit them.
“A lot of kids are coming in with stories as well, so we’re [marking them and] keeping a journal just to remember everything,” Mikel said.
“At this point, we have 5,447 rocks. We are trying to get a rock from every single province and territory in Canada, and from as many different countries in the world.”
Students have also brought back pebbles from countries they’ve visited.
Since the staff began sending out letters to spread the word about their campaign, pebbles have been coming in from local members of Canada’s Parliament, famous authors and Holocaust survivors.
Mikel said she is excited about the project and isn’t discouraged by the fact that 5,447 pebbles is a long way from 6 million.
“It’s going to take a while, but we’re going to stick with it. It is such an important part of the school and what we do every year. I don’t foresee that it will lose steam.”
To contribute a pebble to the project, send it to Goodwin Learning Center, 149 English Settlement Road, RR #4, Trenton, Ontario, K8V5P7.