You probably don’t remember. I didn’t, until George Takei reminded me.

Today, February 19, is the Day of Remembrance, the annual recognition of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s signing Executive Order 9066 and the subsequent incarceration of nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans.

Photo by: Dorothea Lange

Many of those Japanese-Americans were sent to Topaz, Utah, near the desert Topaz Mountain, where they finished building the barracks they were to live in, set up the barbed wire fence and build out the rest of the camp. More than 11,000 people were processed through Topaz—the population peaked at about 8,100 to 8,300.

Many books have been written by those who spent part of their life in the Topaz camp. In 2007 the Topaz site was listed as a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service. The Topaz Museum opened in 2017 with its interpretive exhibits.

You know the saying: Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. Reading about Topaz and visiting the Topaz Museum is good way to refresh your memory.

From the Topaz Museum website:

On January 29, 1943 President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced that volunteers would be accepted in an all-Japanese American combat unit. At about the same time, residents seventeen years of age and older in all the camps were given a questionnaire. Two questions became sore points for more than just the first-generation Japanese, who were not permitted citizenship in the United States. Question 27 asked, “Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty wherever ordered?” Question 28 followed with “Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, to any other foreign government, power or organization?” Since the Issei, or first-generation Japanese, were denied citizenship in the U.S., answering “yes” to question 28 would leave them without a country. After a protest by many residents, the questions were altered; but damage had already been done. Some became “No No boys” by answering “No” to both questions.
President Roosevelt announced in 1944 that the camps would close in 1945 and then people could return to their California homes. The Topaz camp didn’t close until October 31, 1945. 55 W Main St., Delta, UT 84624, 435-864-2514.

All photos courtesy of: Topaz Museum

I was amazed by the love that filled the room at Campos Coffee in downtown Salt Lake City. Campos Coffee held “Rebuilding our Roots fundraiser: To Australia with Love” on February 13th. There were over 50 people in attendance.

With fun auction items that included an all-expenses-paid trip to Australia, Australian art, signed Utah Jazz jerseys and Donavon Mitchell’s sneakers, the bids were flowing in.

Campos Coffee raised $13,000. An incredible amount of money that is being donated to WIRES, an Australian wildlife rescue organization. This money will be used to save the lives of thousands of native animals affected by the bushfires.

If you were not able to make it to this wonderful event, there are still ways to help. The bushfires continue to take a toll on Australian wildlife and organizations like WIRES need all the donations they can get.

To donate to WIRES, click here.

To learn more about Campos Coffee, click here.

How are Utah schools faring in the constantly changing world of modern education? This new world includes school violence, more pupils than most other states (we still have the largest households in the country), multicultural classrooms and very little money.

Meet Denis Hevner, Welding Tech at Highland High School.

Vocational ED gets a bad rap when it shouldn’t.

Denise Hevner first learned to helmet up while wielding a flame torch in high school. After graduation, she worked in fabrication shops for eight years. When a high school teaching opportunity presented itself, Hevner was able to earn her teachers’ license through the state’s ARL (Alternative Route to Licensure) program. Now she’s a welding teacher at Highland High School.

With a realization that there are as many hands-on learners in today’s society as academic ones, the CTE (Career Technical Education) program can assist by training students in areas of skilled performance work.

“Right now America is short by about 300,000 welders,” she states. By teaching students to use the tools of the trade as well as the soft skills needed to gain and maintain employment, Hevner shares, “I have had many students join the industry right out of high school and many more go on to college as well as trade schools.”

“All students need a place where they can feel successful,” Hevner explains.

How are Utah schools faring in the constantly changing world of modern education? This new world includes school violence, more pupils than most other states (we still have the largest households in the country), multicultural classrooms and very little money.

Meet Angela Rowland, Principal of Utah International Charter School.

Utah International Charter School is a public charter junior high and high school in South Salt Lake intended to give refugees, immigrants and American-born students full access to content-based, sheltered English instruction in every class, and to empower them with collaboration skills, critical-thinking skills, and diverse global perspectives. Mixed-ability classes are limited to 25 students, with an average class size of 20.

The art assignment sounded simple. Each student had written an essay about what their “home” looked like; now they were supposed to draw a picture of that place. But many of the students were stumped. Rowland leans over to help a student think the assignment through: “Was your house square? Round?” she asks.

They decide the house was an unadorned rectangle. When many of these students think of home, they’re thinking of the refugee camp they used to live in. It’s hard to translate that imagination to Utah, where we think of picket fences and manicured lawns.

Rowland has experience working with underprivileged and outsider kids—she was a teacher in the Navajo Nation and a social worker for 13 years. She was the founding principal of Utah International Charter School.

Charter schools have a controversial reputation—the week we were researching this article, two went out of business. Intended to add flexibility to education bureaucracy, charters are tax-payer funded like public schools, but many have been managed for profit, a risky business. But you don’t have to visit the classrooms at Utah International to see that it’s unlike other district schools.

“We have 240 students here. And there are 30 home languages,” says Rowland. “Most kids are new to the country. Many have never been to school. We have 15-year-olds reading English at a first-grade level. They’re all behind. We have a schedule full of English, Science, Social Studies, Math, plus PE or art. We concentrate on the basics.”

Besides the linguistic and cultural challenges, The Utah International campus is located in a neighborhood of generational poverty.

“We’re community-eligible, so every kid gets free breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner.”

The students are fed, but this school faces challenges others do not: For funding and follow-up purposes both the federal and state level want to ensure schools are communicating with parents. And these parents value education greatly, they know it’s the key to getting their kids out of poverty. “But the parents of our students often don’t have email. They may not read English, they’re working two jobs or doing shift work. They may own one car for the whole family or not own one at all”. In some classes, says Rowland, only two students may speak the same language. Difference is the norm. But, she adds, “A big strength of our school is that differences that mattered at home don’t apply here. There are a lot of cross-cultural friendships.”

See all of our City Life coverage here.

How are Utah schools faring in the constantly changing world of modern education? This new world includes school violence, more pupils than most other states (we still have the largest households in the country), multicultural classrooms and very little money.

Meet Heidi Matthews, two-term President of Utah Education Association.

“Kids bring their home lives to school,” Matthews said. “A student says, ‘My parents are in jail. I have to get my brothers and sisters ready for school before I can get here.’ Or ‘My parents just got deported. I don’t know what to do.’” Surveys by organizations like the American Psychologists Association say 25 percent of U.S. kids under the age of 16 have experienced trauma.

Before you teach a young mind about latitude and longitude, you have to make sure they are ready to learn. As president of UEA, Matthews hears stories from teachers all over the state, helps assess the needs of districts as different as affluent Treasure Mountain, where she used to teach, and Jordan, one of the poorest districts in Utah. UEA’s purpose is to take classroom issues to decision makers.“You can’t teach a hungry kid,” Matthews says. “You can’t teach a kid whose mind is filled with problems like can they buy food, pay rent, avoid violence.”

UEA has 18,000 members, all professional teachers; it’s an organization to take the problems and issues of the classroom to the decision makers, to promote teaching as a respected and desirable career path by making it appealing to college students, to help influence local and state boards.

“So much of the problem comes down to per pupil spending,” says Matthews. Utah now spends $7,179 per pupil. We are still 51st in the country. It’s not enough.

“This leads to the extreme teacher shortage we now have in Utah,” says Matthews. “It’s not that there are not enough applicants (Utah schools don’t require a teaching certificate, a change made in light of the teaching shortage); there is a mass exodus of experienced teachers from the profession.” Matthews says, “They call it ‘burnout’ but I hate that word. It implies a lack of fortitude when it’s actually demoralization. Teachers are constantly being asked to do more without being given additional resources.”  Teachers buy boxes of protein bars for hungry kids. There is no time or money for professional development in a rapidly changing field. The solution to low funding is larger class sizes—how class size affects learning can be debatable (there are hundreds of studies) but the need for a teacher to know their students is undeniable, especially in these unstable times. “UEA seeks to give teachers a voice in places that weren’t designed for them to have a voice,” says Matthews. About 450 teachers from nearly every school district gave their time to meet with legislators on UEA Educator Day on Capitol Hill in 2019. The UEA’s message: “We have to invest in Utah.”