It's hard to believe one kid who wanted to know exactly how much was 6 million, could start a project that would last years and influence the lives of millions. The children of Whitwell, Tennessee began collecting paper clips to represent the 6 million victims of the Holocaust to try to understand how big six million really was. But what they didn't plan was the impact this project would have on the students, the teachers, and the community.
The project was started as an optional class that was geared towards raising awareness about the Holocaust and diversity, something that was hardly present in the nearly homogeneous town of Whitwell, Tennessee. To develop the student's knowledge base the class watched movies but what were they, just pictures and boring historical facts that caused no emotional connection? To solve this the teachers had Holocaust survivors come in and talk to the class, giving the students a first hand recount of the horrors of this awful atrocity.
The Whitewell community and students had their eyes opened to the pains of the Holocaust all because of the extra efforts and passion that the teachers put into creating a project that really hit home with the students and taught them many life lessons and created a sense of awareness that had been missing in the community up until the creation of the Paper Clip Project. This is a sign of a A+ teacher.
