SCITUATE – Scituate High School’s Tara Seger has returned reinvigorated and motivated to educate students about the Armenian genocide following a trip to Armenia with the Genocide Education Project.
Seger, who won the Rhode Island Genocide Teacher of the Year award last year, completed a fellowship to Armenia with the GEP to study the Armenian genocide and its lasting impact.
She said she plans on using what she learned to teach with other history teachers in Rhode Island and hold speaking programs about her experience, especially in her classroom.
“I’m definitely going to enhance my unit. I brought back artifacts, a lot of pictures and experiences about Armenian culture,” she said, adding that she has a better of the country.
Seger added that students are more receptive to a lesson when a teacher can get in hands-on experience. In the past, she traveled to Turkey, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates.
“It opens their eyes to see that these people, events and places are actually a part of the world,” she said.
Seger said her lessons will also include teaching students about propaganda and how to spot “fake news.”
“I want to show them ‘fake news’ to start them thinking for themselves with what is ‘fake news’ and what’s not to get things thinking,” she said.
It was her work on the Armenian genocide at SHS that led her to receive an invitation to the GEP fellowship, where she and 14 other teachers from across the U.S. learned more about the genocide.
Seger became involved with the Rhode Island Chapter of the GEP, which is based in California, after teaching about the Armenian genocide in her world history class. She said all Rhode Island schools are mandated to teach students about this atrocity.
“A few years ago I wanted to ramp up my unit on the Armenian genocide, so I called the Armenian Church in Providence,” Seger said.
She connected with two members of the Rhode Island GEP and brought them as guest speakers to her classroom. She said the speakers were impressed with the preparedness of SHS students and the questions the students asked.
That led Seger to her trip to Armenia, where she learned of how Turkey continues to deny its role in the Armenian genocide. Seger proposed that Turkey did not want to give up the land acquired from the genocide.
“They see it as a second slap in the face,” Seger said.
She said the Holocaust was horrible, and that the Armenian genocide exceeded its scale in barbarity, inhumane treatment, and murders. Despite the United States’ eventual recognition of the genocide during the recent Biden administration, Seger said Turkey continues to teach “countless propaganda” denying the genocide occurred.
“It was really sad to see what people did to them,” Seger said.
Now, with Armenians conflicting with Azerbaijan, the Armenians are facing a real possibility of losing what remains of their land.
“They’re legitimately scared. They talk with so much emotion, so real about their fear of their country being invaded. Turkey is going along with it,” she said.
Most Armenians rely on “diaspora Armenians,” said Seger, who are those who left the country and sent home support through different programs and financial means.
