Important Lessons From The Hiding Place

After we finished reading The Hiding Place, I asked the students to write about the lessons that they carried away from the book. Everyone did a wonderful job with this assignment, and I would like to share a paper that struck me as particularly insightful. This paper is by a student who often questions the Christian belief system at Flint Academy:

IMPORTANT LESSONS FROM THE HIDING PLACE

"I will admit that at the beginning of this book I found both Corrie and Betsie to be your typical sheltered religious fanatics. However as the story progressed I learned to respect them. Even from my agnostic point of view I could easily respect them for their undying loyalty to their faith. I also learned to respect them for being so kind and righteous.

I have no trouble admitting that I could never have done half of the things they did. I'm selfish, I'm aggressive, and even at times cold hearted. Never in my whole life could I have not only forgiven the Nazis, but actually have the desire to heal my own tormentors.

The thing that I have learned is to forgive and have the desire to do so as well. The fact that people can be like this shocked me to no end.

I'm a pessimist by nature; very rarely do I have a positive view on the world. And like every other pessimist, once I am proven wrong I'm happy. They showed me that the world can be a wonderful place, no matter how much evil there is.

I couldn't believe that all this good happened in such an evil place. Yet why would she lie? That thought was what sparked the entire realization that they truly were saintly people."

To compliment our study of The Hiding Place, the upper school went on a field trip this week to the Dallas Holocaust Museum. The students were very interested in all of the information presented there and I was proud of their behavior. The museum staff told Dr. Flint that we were one of the best-behaved and engaged groups that has been there in a long time!

Sacrificial Love

In our English class we have been reading The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. This is a firsthand account of Ms. Ten Boom's experiences hiding Jews and working with the Dutch underground during World War II. It has really brought the realities of the Holocaust to the students' attention and given us a lot of food for thought. Primarily we have been discussing what we would do if we were placed in a similar situation - if we would risk our lives over and over to help strangers.

One of the most striking examples of this is a part of the book where the Ten Boom family is trying to find a safe hiding place for a mother and her newborn baby. They asked a minister to help, and he refused on the grounds that the baby posed too great a risk. Casper Ten Boom, Corrie's elderly father, responded by saying:

"You say that we could lose our lives for this child. I would consider that to be the greatest honor that could come to my family."

We discussed his response as a group, and then the students were assigned response papers, detailing how they would react in the same situation - if they thought they would be willing to risk their lives for a stranger's baby. All of the papers were wonderful! Here is a paper by Zola Wilson, as an example:

"My family and I will do the same. It will be worth it, because the baby will have a chance in life. That way when he's older he will know what my family and I have done for him. Hopefully he will be grateful. Life is too short and I wanted him to live. I am glad to give my life up for him. I just hope that when I'm gone, his life is peaceful and kind to him. I pray and hope that God will be with him through out his days. Whoever takes my life and my families lives well, may God have mercy on their souls. My family and I will forgive them. We may not be perfect but at least our lives were worth it for the baby. I'm glad that we did this for the baby. I think there is good in people, its just that fear kind of over shadows that. It makes you wonder if other people would do the same.