By Malkie Cramer, other
In the era of online high schools and interactive learning software, one organization is bringing out a teaching tool from generations back: Dolls.
After an extensive restoration, The Washington State Jewish Historical Society will be presenting its collection of the Dolls for Democracy and Diversity at the Rosalie Whyel Museum of Doll Art through November 8. WSJHS plans to share the original message of the dolls that were used between the 1950s and 1970s to teach children in the classrooms about tolerance and acceptance of others’ differences.
“[It’s] the type of program that showed children, boys and girls, that all people are equal,” said Lisa Kranseler, executive director of WSJHS.
The Dolls for Democracy and Diversity are hand-made dolls created by Cecil Weeks of Independence, Mo. between the 1940s and 1970s. They depicted such historical persons as George Washington, Jackie Robinson, Abraham Lincoln, Anne Frank and Justice Louis Brandeis.
However, it was the Jewish organization B’nai B’rith Women, now known as Jewish Women International, that started touring public schools nationwide in the 1950s with suitcases full of the 10-inch dolls in an attempt to teach children acceptance and awareness of different ethnic, racial, religious and financial backgrounds.
“It taught kids that anyone can achieve anything,” said Kranseler.
WSJHS hopes that restoring the dolls and putting up the exhibit, after almost 20 years of sitting in storage, will help bring a sense of public awareness of history and the importance of historical preservation.
“History is always the first thing to go,” Kranseler said, “and once it’s gone, it’s gone.”
WSJHS hopes the exhibit will demonstrate the value of history and work put into not only making the dolls, but of the women who worked hard to share their message.
“People can see that hard work and community service [are] valued.” Kranseler said.
Children of the original B’nai B’rith Women, also known as “the doll ladies,” served as “ambassadors” at the exhibit’s Aug. 18 opening to explain the dolls to visitors less familiar with their message of diversity and tolerance.
With the children whose classrooms had been visited by the traveling “doll ladies” now grown and many with children or grandchildren of the same age, WSJHS is looking at the current school-age generation for teaching diversity.
“Today we still have reasons to educate the youth,” said Kranseler. “There are issues that still remain [in the classroom].”
The organization, along with others such as the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center, recognizes that the issues of acceptance and diversity the Dolls for Democracy and Diversity addressed during their tours are still valid today.
“The dolls were trying to show people role models of different people and backgrounds,” said Ilana Kennedy, director of education at the Holocaust Center. “That’s still the kinds of lessons we’re trying to teach today.”
Kranseler said WSJHS is looking to put the dolls back to their old uses after the exhibit ends. With the hope of gathering enough staff and financing, the WSJHS will strive to bring the dolls back into the classrooms, starting first with local Jewish day schools, and using that experience to work lessons of respect and the acceptance of differences into their daily curriculum.
“Tolerance and diversity should always be respected.” Kranseler said.
Despite the dolls’ history of working with children, the exhibit is geared toward all ages.
“The doll collection was trying to get at the concept that humans of all colors, ethnicities, races, [and] backgrounds play an important role in society and that everybody has the potential to make a great difference.” Kennedy said.
Although the doll exhibit does not deliver the original message of the 1950s through 1970s as strongly as touring the schools, Kranseler said, restoring and showing the dolls and what they represent is as important today as it was then.