Schools Holocaust Lessons

[Metaphysics]

Schools drop Holocaust lessons


Jeevan Vasagar
Monday April 2, 2007
The Guardian

Schools have avoided teaching the Holocaust and the Crusades in history lessons because they are concerned about causing offence to Muslim pupils or challenging "charged" versions of history which children have been taught at home, government research has found.

A report for the Department for Education and Skills found that a history department in a northern city had avoided selecting the Holocaust as a GCSE topic for fear of confronting "anti-semitic sentiment and Holocaust denial" among some Muslim pupils.

Article continues
Another school decided to teach the Holocaust despite anti-semitic sentiment among students, but avoided the Crusades as "their balanced treatment of the topic would have directly challenged what was taught in some local mosques".

The report, Teaching Emotive and Controversial History, also revealed that one school was challenged by Christian parents for teachers' treatment of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

A DfES spokesman said: "It's up to schools to make a judgment on non-compulsory parts of the national curriculum. It is a broad framework and there is scope for schools to make their own decisions."

Teaching of the Holocaust is expected to become compulsory under the new national curriculum from next year.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/secondworldwar/story/0,,2048082,00.html#article_continue


This is a joke....in the UK we try to progress into a multicultural society but what is the point of multiculturalism which hopes to yeild intergration between cultures when your going to stop teaching the holocaust and the crusades because it would offend muslims?! It's the issue 'offence' that appears to worry these pathetic MP's that hinders respect between cultures/intergration. There will come a day that once the holocaust is not taught in schools the same thing could happenD again if you do not teach younger generations what happen, creating a new wave of prejudices, racism or even new wave of fascism blinded by ignorance cos you weren't taught it.

[Kari]

That is a scandal. Holocaust is one of the historical events with the biggest impact on our all lives. It must be spoken about in order to prevent something like that ever happening again.

[Chris]

We learn about the Holocaust in my school, last month my college teamed up with the National Holocaust Education Trust and a teacher, me and a nother student went on a day trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Very insightful and eye opening trip.

[oclover24]

That is probalby very rare in society - banning lessons of the Holocaust. I haven't learned about it yet even though I'm studying the Vietnam War right now, since I'm in Advanced Placement U.S. History and we need all the time we can get. But we're planning to go back and study it after the exam in May. And we learned a lot about it in A.P World History as well.

[BellaBlack]

This is really rare...I don't know many schools that ban the Holocaust at all.

[Heather]

Well....I know plenty of people who consider the Holocaust to be a hoax. (No, I am not one of them)

As an educator, I find the idea of glossing over the Holocaust or the Crusades as an abomination. What happened happened. Was it wrong? Definitely. But it is also an integral part of what makes us who we are. We are now paying for the mistakes that were made. And the truth in that needs to be faced.

[Kari]

well, because they were wrong we must learn them. That is it.
After all, we cannot keep on praising and praising pur ancestors without looking at the bad sides because there is a bad side to almost everything. Those mistakes will eventually be what we learn from.
Heather mentioned in another thread that she feels like apologizing to every native American she sees. I feel like I have to do something to make the crimes commited by the German people less awful.
We cannot, but we can make a change now.

[M&M Vermelha]

This is just pathetic! I mean, it just has to be a joke!

Since you won't be teaching main subjects like Holocaust just so no one will get offended, you might as well go around and make up a new History to tell during your class! One with nice fairies maybe!

Here the only thing they keep us from during classes is religion. Public schools theoretically can't teach much about God, so they won't offend different religions. I remember when my teacher mention Jesus she was very careful about what she was saying, but we don't go around avoiding issues in hopes we won't offend someone.

And, of course, because ignoring majors issues works soooo well.. :sarcasm:

We don't have to teach about holocaust saying 'Every nazi kid should die', but you can't just go around changing everything so it will look nicer.

[Heather]

Actually, public schools teach the history of religions, we just cant teach dogma. I know, Ive taught Catholicism, Judaism, Islam, and the Protestant Reformation (and corresponding faiths) in the public school system.

[BellaBlack]

This is gonna sound bland, but I agree with Heather and Kari..:lol: they pretty much covered everything I had to say. What happened, happened. Instead of trying to say it's a hoax or make too much of it, we have to try and learn from it. Nothing is going to bring back the millions of Holocaust victimes anyway.

[M&M Vermelha]

I meant religion as the dogma, you can teach the history of each religion here as well. But I must say I never had a class about it, the subject was pretty much avoided.. I have problems to discuss history in English because I can't use my regular vocabulary, so I'm sorry if I don't explain my point very well, but we learnt religions here almost as a movement. We only study the important aspects social and economically, not as much the actual faith, rituals, holy images...

That is changing.. slowly, but it's. My sister is learning particular aspects of some cultures that I only read about much older, and even so because I loved History and for sometime I considered majoring in History, until I was about 15 and understood that in Brazil, that pretty much means teaching. lol

About 4 years ago here at Rio de Janeiro teachers started to explain creationism during classes, so I believe at some point will be able to have a religion class without meaning teaching catholicism only.

[Webeh]

I've had a class on world religions. About a week or so would be dedicated to each particular religion. We've even touched upon Scientology a little.

I remember going a little cross-eyed trying to differentiate between certain ideas. I've had some difficulty separating Taoism and Confucianism at times.

[Heather]

So have I, Webeh :lol:

And can I ask you a question about Scientology? Is the alien thing true?

[Webeh]

Honestly, I don't remember a thing from the Scientology section. We spent about ten minutes on it because it was at the end of the course. You know, when teachers realize that they're behind and so they package everything that's left all together into one big information overload. Well, my teachers did that anyways.

However, I have heard that Scientology is based from a science fiction novel. (I don't think this is something they advertise because the author used it was like the big brother you find in most science fiction novels.) Don't remember which one.

[oclover24]

Heather, check out the Scientology website. It's interesting! I looked at it last year.

[Heather]

Webeh,

The novel is Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard.

And yes, I know the cramming at the end of a semester very well. There never seems to be enough time for teachers to cover everything, no matter how hard we try. :lol:

[Webeh]

It was Dianetics? Hmm... I thought it would be from a book that was more like 1984.

[BellaBlack]

Wait, scientology is based on a science fiction novel? That's..odd?

[Andrew]

Well... some can argue the same for the bible and christianity; how it's not a literal text, but allegorical stories.

Though yeah... an eyebrow raises with the mention of robots. :ebraise:

[Webeh]

Well... some can argue the same for the bible and christianity; how it's not a literal text, but allegorical stories.

Back in high school, my religion teacher actually made this argument. She firmly believed that the stories like Noah's Arc never really happened. (She was a cool religion teacher. Students could say whatever the heck they wanted and she would be totally open to that.) Rather, they were stories meant to get a message across.

[BellaBlack]

Well... some can argue the same for the bible and christianity; how it's not a literal text, but allegorical stories.

Though yeah... an eyebrow raises with the mention of robots. :ebraise:
Haha ditto Andrew, I was like :wtf: when I read it was based from a sci fi novel..

[Heather]

All religions are allegorical stories, Andrew. Thats not the point, and really wasnt the question. The question was do Scientologists really believe that we are inhabited by the souls of aliens that lived centuries ago. Thats going beyond the allegorical.

About the OT stories, there is actual historical and archeological information to back up the major ones like the Flood, and the Plagues of Egypt. I mean, if the Plagues were just meant as a story, why are they found in Egyptian hieroglyphics as well as in the Old Testament and Jewish Torah?

[Andrew]

What I was referring to was how people interpret the scripture. There are some who live by every word in the bible, believing it to be truth in every way. Then there are others who view it as folklore-ish stories, possibly embellished or even fabricated altogether, but still embodying the same message.

In regards to the former interpretation of the text: what makes the idea of Moses parting water or Noah building an arc and collecting two of each animal (apparently also including dinosaurs) that much tamer in comparison to "alien souls"?

Or in other words...
"alien souls" = absurd.
Moses controlling water = not?

And yes, history does show that certain events (or similar events) occured throughout the past, but doesn't history also show us that people used stories and mythology in order to explain things that couldn't be explained?

A catastrophic flood, a plague in Egypt; both of these events are often referred to using a religious context, but is that really the case? Couldn't it be another case of mythos?

[Webeh]

The question was do Scientologists really believe that we are inhabited by the souls of aliens that lived centuries ago.

Honestly, this kind of just sounds like their version of ghosts or spirits. I guess Scientology's interpretation of things might just have a bit more of a science fiction twist to them.

It would be interesting to take a closer look at Scientology and see how many parallels we can find with Christianity.

[Kari]

I think basically Scientology is trying to make as much money as possible and I do not believe that the convictions there are very deep, and if people decide to still fall for it...oh, well.

[Webeh]

I think basically Scientology is trying to make as much money as possible and I do not believe that the convictions there are very deep, and if people decide to still fall for it...oh, well.

I'd have to agree with that. If you are not the wealthiest person ever and become a scientologist, it's very unfortunate. Apparently, each member must donate a percentage of their annual income to the organization. I think this is why many members are fairly wealthy.