Tuesday, April 3, 2007

WHAT?!?!?!

From British newspaper TimesOnline (UK):

Teachers are dropping controversial subjects such as the Holocaust and the Crusades from history lessons because they do not want to cause offence to children from certain races or religions, a report claims.

A lack of factual knowledge among some teachers, particularly in primary schools, is also leading to “shallow” lessons on emotive and difficult subjects, according to the study by the Historical Association.

The report, produced with funding from the Department for Education, said that where teachers and staff avoided emotive and controversial history, their motives were generally well intentioned.

“Staff may wish to avoid causing offence or appearing insensitive to individuals or groups in their classes. In particular settings, teachers of history are unwilling to challenge highly contentious or charged versions of history in which pupils are steeped at home, in their community or in a place of worship,” it concluded.

However, it was concerned that this could lead to divisions within school, and that it might also put pupils off history.

OK, it's really getting out of hand now. They don't want to teach the Holocaust because it might offend some Moslem children, who are taught Holocaust denial. Never happened. Those ovens and railroad tracks at Auschwitz? Just a movie set, a stage for the perpetration of lies against Allah. That goes for the Crusades too.

I have never seen such a lack of backbone in my life. Don't teach kids about events that REALLY HAPPENED, becuase it might offend them! If we are going to insulate our children from our history, then we are truly doomed to repeat it. How will we prepare our kids for the harsh reality of what's happening TODAY, if we can't even prepare them to accept what happened in the past?

Man, I long for the days of old, when we could safely offend people because we had the truth on our side. Better still, I long for the days of older, when people weren't offended by the truth.

Britian, where are your balls? I guess Margaret Thatcher took them with her when she left office. Sheesh!!

2 comments:

Patty said...

I agree with you completely, but bear in mind that "history" is written by the winners of such conflicts, historically...so who's to say how accurate it is especially prior to modern times. Even now, I'm shocked at the slant given to the "news" by our supposedly objective media? Reading a story in the newspaper seems to have less to do with reporting the news than to write an interesting "story."

Anonymous said...

Granted, but in this case, I'd have to cite "overwhelming physical evidence"...