Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Cincinnati Freedom Center



Today we went to visit the Underground Railroad Freedom Center. In each person's blog, he or she discusses a part of the exhibition that affected him or her most. Most of the students nominated the videos as the most affecting exhibits, and three mentioned that the tunnel and the night noises was very affecting, along with the docent urgently telling every one they "had to move". When comparing this museum to the holocaust museums they were exposed to as children, they said that the Freedom Center was a little more emotional because it had sounds and video, but that visiting the concentration camps was more affecting because it was a real place, whereas the museum was all exhibits. One student explained that it is important to learn about past violence so that we can make sure it never happens again, and another quote Vera Cruz, in reference to what we should do, where Vera Cruz writes, "If not now, when? If not you, who?" Everybody agreed that it was unclear what kind of action the museum was prompting audiences to take because the "taking action" room was very small compared to the rest of the museum, although one person did point out that just remembering was a big thing to do. Ultimately, everybody agreed that it was important to teach children about the violent events of the past so that the evils of history will not be repeated.

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