Adam Cohen
News Reporter
Each year Newton South offers students and teachers a chance to travel across the world on several learning expeditions, enabling them to explore historical relics, while also expanding their worldview.
This past April vacation, a handful of South students and several teachers took trips to Prague and Argentina. This Prague trip focused on the Czech Republic’s oppressive rule under the Nazi regime, especially concerning the death of Reinhard Heydrich. The Argentina trip similarly explored Argentina’s complex history of colonization and revolution.
The Prague trip’s main destinations were Prague, Berlin, and a stop in Dresden, all targeted towards students being able to visualize the events they had learned about in their history courses.
While exploring the Jewish section of Prague, students visited a synagogue devoted to showcasing the horrors of concentration camps, and thus allowing the students to witness firsthand the horrors of the Holocaust.
Isabel MacGinnitie, a sophomore at Newton South, discussed her experience visiting a powerful monument in Berlin, The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which remains a collection of vast concrete blocks forcing tourists to experience a sense of anxiety similar to that of the Jews.
“The most valuable learning experience of the trip was walking through the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe at night. It was scary, but also deeply moving,” MacGinnitie said.
In fact, much of the trip was dedicated to viewing various Nazi atrocities such as the leveling of the village of Lidice where 340 innocent civilians died as their village was ransacked and buried.
MacGinnitie felt strongly impacted by the leveled village, and thus sees trips similar to that of this Prague one as invaluable experiences for all students.
“These trips are a very valuable tool for education. We can learn lots of the history, and form strong connections to these places and events, so we have a deeper and longer lasting understanding of historical events,” MacGinnitie concluded.
History teacher and Chaperone of the Prague trip Robert Parlin agrees with MacGinnitie about the benefit of visiting the historical sites students read about.
“In Prague, Dresden and Berlin we had the chance to place the events that students had studied about in history classes in their physical contexts,” Parlin commented.
Parlin then noticed his students contextualizing history with real life issues and culture. Thus, he advocates for these programs because he sees how visiting foreign countries challenge students to step outside of their comfort zone.
The Argentina trip explored similar themes of establishing connections between textbook readings and real life. On the trip, students experienced various aspects of Argentinian culture including the country’s history, politics, economy, environmental crises and geography.
Specifically, students studied how the colonization and revolution of Italian immigrants shaped Argentinian society.
English teach Jasmine Lellock, served as a chaperone for the trip. She, like the students, not only learned about Argentina’s history, but also “felt more of a sense of community with these students.”
Adding on, Parlin states how these trips not only expand students’ worldview, but allow all attendees to “imagine how others experience this complex, ever-changing world.”
Ultimately, Lellock corroborates both MacGinnitie’s and Parlin’s claims on the great impact these trips can have and encourages all students to consider traveling abroad.
“Experiences abroad can help us all feel our connectedness with each other by taking us out of the sometimes stressful classroom and school environment, and into a space where we can learn and explore together with a sense of fun and even joy,” Lellock added.
