The Museum of American Armor will field an Education Day for Long Island’s high school students that connects history to headlines
Stating that today’s headlines about Russia’s war on Ukraine were written some 80 years ago as a grim legacy of World War II, the Museum of American Armor, the Long Island Living History Association (LILHA) and Nassau County Department of Parks, Recreation & Museums will conduct a joint educational field program that will allow thousands of Long Island high school students to strengthen their understanding of World War II and the shadow it continues to cast nearly a century later.
The event will be held on Friday, May 13, and pre-registration is now open to social studies classes across Long Island. The program integrates classroom curriculum with operational armor, military field tactics, and mock small arms in open woods reminiscent of World War II France.
Lawrence Kadish, president and founder of the museum, said, “There has been a deliberate reduction in class time assigned to teaching history, and World War II in particular. As a result, many students have no context for what the world is seeing in Ukraine and how Putin is repeating Hitler’s playbook almost to the letter. We need to appreciate that today’s headlines were written by history and this program seeks to address that.”
Gloria Sesso, the Armor Museum’s education coordinator and co-president of the Long Island Council for the Social Studies, explained, “This program creates an immersion program for students that integrates classroom study guides with an extraordinary field experience. As the classroom returns to normal following COVID this program regains the ability to tell the story of World War II, its legacy, and why the chilling scenes we are seeing in Ukraine are yet another chapter written by that conflict.”
Dr. Libby O’Connell, History Channel Chief Historian Emeritus and Chairperson of the NYC World War I Centennial Commission, said, “This day-long program has the means to become a statewide model for field trips that place students in a period of time that remains a pivotal moment in world history. Those school districts that participate should be commended for going above and beyond the curriculum that seeks merely to `teach to the test.’”
School districts may register for the event by emailing tvanwickler@nassaucountyny.gov or by phoning 516 572-8409.
