At its meeting on September 24, 2008 the TDSB unanimously approved that a teaching unit on the Holodomor be prepared for use in Toronto schools by 2009.
Earlier on September 10, the Board approved that the fourth Friday in November be recognized as the Holodomor Remembrance Day by all Toronto schools.
To achieve this result was no easy task. The Holodomor Committee at the UCC Toronto Branch methodically and systematically lobbied senior staff and trustees to impress on them the importance of including the Holodomor in the curriculum. Initially there appeared to be a lack of interest by both staff and Trustees.
But the Holodomor Committee did not back down. On the contrary, in a professional and well organized manner, it continued to press the issue to the extent that the Director of Education had the TDSB staff do research on the Holodomor. This research which was the turning point led to the preparation of the teaching unit. The Director also acknowledged and emphasized that the information and the research provided by the committee was valuable and extremely useful. Trustees echoed the same sentiment.
How can this turn around be explained? There is a two-fold reason. On the one hand the Holodomor Committee which consisted of hand-picked professionals (retired head of history, retired principal, community activists, former trustee, and teachers) did not give up. Despite the initial hurdles, it continued to act professionally and persisted in its goal. Secondly, the educators of the TDSB realized that the Holodomor was one of the worst tragedies of Man's Inhumanity to Man. Like other genocides, the Holocaust, Rwandan and Armenian which the TDSB has in its curriculum, the Holodomor must be taught they concluded to show our students that despite denials and attempted cover-ups truth will prevail.
Alex Chumak