Unlike most instances of idiocy by public school administrators, this one has some nuance.
On one side, it is slightly refreshing to see a public school administrator state that the schools need to remain politically neutral.
On the other side, it is sad that the actions of a totalitarian national socialist regime in Germany 75 years ago could be considered matters of politics and not historical fact.
The Holocaust is certainly a sad fact of history and should be taught as historical fact, but I’m unsure whether it ought to be a ‘central’ part of the curriculum. Most states require a yearlong course in US history. Any course on US History should include one or two weeks on World War II. And any discussion of World War II needs to include the Holocaust. Two or three class periods for every high school junior might be the minimum exposure that every educated citizen should have.
Whether there should be additional coverage of the Holocaust through reading “Night” or “The Diary of Anne Frank” in English Literature classes should be a local decision. So should a school assembly, which seems a little much to me. However, an assembly on the topic of the Holocaust might be appropriate in a school district with a significant Jewish population.
I do believe that the local community should largely control the public school curriculum, so I’m glad that this mom is offering her input to the school principal. I’m not certain that this case is so outrageous that it requires national attention, but I hope there is a vigorous debate at the local school board.
Facts should be able to withstand scrutiny. This is not true foe the holocaust. It is sacrosanct.
I used to believe the holocaust narrative, until I began to research it. The numbers of gassed and cremated Jews is untenable. It could not have happened as reported (see the Leuchter Report — showers could not have been cyanide gas chambers and not have killed the personal servicing them; the crematoria facilities would have woefully inadequate to cremate the numbers reported).
After the Iron Curtain fell, factual data about the number of Jews killed in eastern concentration camps began to emerge. That 4 million number has now fallen below 1 million. Some estimates have it an order of magnitude lower.
I want to know what really happened, not the myths that emerged in the aftermath of the defeat of the axis powers. Criminalizing the search for truth suggests a politically motivated coverup.