Dr. KUROPAS: I, from the very beginning, have felt that one of the major roles of our Commission would be to make the American educational system aware of the famine, as quickly as possible, and to that end, with the help of the staff, we were able to put together this Curriculum and Resource Guide for Educators, and it is published by the Ukrainian National Association in unlimited form. It will be available forever, for as long as there are American teachers who wish to avail themselves of it.
We kicked off this particular curriculum guide with a teachers’ conference in Chicago, where we had some 160 teachers from American public and private schools, who came for an all-day seminar. And, once again, staff was involved. We showed the film, and we were able to get 26 people who took the one-day seminar for college credit, for one hour of college credit at Northern Illinois University, which is an incen¬tive because many teachers work for higher degrees and for more college credits so that they can make more money. It was an incentive.
Then we went to Phoenix, and during those hearings, Jim Mace was able to make contact with many of the social studies directors of the school systems in and around Phoenix, and we had a meeting with them. And, since then, two of those social studies directors have asked for more copies of this particular guide.
I know that in Rochester, they asked for this guide and it was used there, and Jim Mace and you, I know, were there, right, in Rochester? And in Philadelphia I know they use this.
And, just recently, I was in Milwaukee, where they have an annual meeting of the social studies teachers of the state of Wisconsin, and I gave a presentation showing the film and a presentation to some 50 social studies teachers from throughout the state, and we distributed an additional 50 to those teachers who were interested, and we had our own famine table, as it were, and teachers walked up and, you know, wanted to know more about it, and those who wanted it were able to get the guide. In fact, we were able to distribute 50 guides that we had left over in a matter of about 15 minutes. Then I was able to go to the American Federation of Teachers, of which I’m a mem¬ber, and asked them if they would help us to distribute this curriculum guide. I had a phone call just last week from them saying, yes, that they will start to advertise it in their national newspaper in the fall. They have hundreds of thousands of members, and they wanted to know if this curriculum guide would be available in the fall, and the Ukrainian National Association has said that it would make it available so that any teacher now in the United States who wants to obtain a copy of the guide can write directly to the Ukrainian National Association. They’ll have the address right in the A.F.T. newspaper, and they’ll be able to get it
I was also hoping that possibly in Detroit, I talked to Steve Wicker, and he has this copy, and he said he was going to talk to a number of your local school teachers if you couldn’t have an all-day seminar, because I think that in a large city like Detroit, there should be a lot of interest in it.
Ms. VOLKER: We are working on this in Detroit, and, unfortunately, so far we haven’t been successful, but the issue is vital and I know I’ve been working with Steve on that, and we’ve got another group that’s become interested.
So. as soon as we can really see something where the schools, because Dr. McCrae is very much interested, and he is, of course, in the public school system, and, hopeful¬ly, hopefully, we can really have you present it in Detroit.