Posted on 04/21/2009 11:04:12 PM PDT by incredulous joe
I'm a 5th grade catechist at my church and I have a class of a dozen children. Almost all of them are products of the public chool system; one is a special needs child and another is Monteressori schooled.
During yesterday's class we encountered Corrie ten Boom, via our discussion oriented text books. The subject of the the lesson was "Forgiveness".
As I waded into the discussion one of my students asked me what the Holocaust was. I sat back for a moment then asked one of the other students to contribute an answer.
I was a little shocked when none of them raised their hand. In fact, I thought that they were just being shy about the topic and I flat out asked them if they knew what the Holocaust was?
Nothing.
I gave a bit of a sideways look at my assistant to see if she thought this was odd? We exchanged raised eyebrows.
I then asked the kids if they had ever heard of The Nazis, Maximillian Kolbe, (whom I actually remember having discussed earlier in the year) or Anne Frank, Pope John Paul II and his role in Poland during WWII. I then asked the children if they had ever encountered a book called "Number the Stars" or maybe they had been to the Holocaust Museum, but maybe they did not immeadiately remember it??
I got blank stares and one student mentioning that he thought the Nazis were the Germans.
I have to admit I was absolutely dumbstruck!!
My own children attend a private Christian school and my son was familiar with Ann Frank when he was in 3rd grade. Currently, my daughter is in 2nd grade. I doubt that she knows anything about the Holocaust, which I think is fine for that age.
Am I being a little harsh?
Shouldn't 11 year old American children know what the the Holocaust is all about or is it just too much?
I have a big one foot by two foot leather bound book called, “Collier’s Photographic History Of World War II” that shows not only the complete history of the war in pictures but also has a picture of hundreds of unburied bodies stacked on top of each other in one great big hole in the ground. It’s from Belsen concentration camp.
Back when my son was in middle school I took my book out and showed it to some of his friends who had come over. My son was the only one of them who knew anything about the Holocaust. The rest of them had never heard of it.
Shouldn't 11 year old American children know what the the Holocaust is all about or is it just too much?
Yes, they should know about the Holocaust. And yes, they should know about Stalin's purges and the Gulag Archipelago. And they should know, in all its gory detail, about abortion (since, unfortunately, statistically, at least one boy and one girl in your CCD class are sexually active at 11)
And they should know exactly who was targeted above.
And they should know in detail who did the targeting. *AND THAT IN ALL CASES, IT WAS LEFT WINGERS WHO DID THE TARGETING* (An explanation and proof that fascism is just another form of socialism would also be appropriate).
Were students taught that in public (or for that matter most private) schools? HIGHLY doubtful.
In CCD you can start to fix it, but you don't have time to really do a good job of it.
When my daughter was in (public) school in Hawaii (8th grade) they told her the horrors of the holocaust and the atomic bomb. They never mentioned a word of one single atrocity committed by Japan. I educated her on the rape of Nanking, Unit 731, the Bataan Death March, Korean “Comfort” Women and many of things.
Then I talked her into asking the teacher about these things in class and asking why he didn’t teach any of this. He was dumbstruck and asked her where she heard about them. She told him that I taught her.
His response was the school didn’t think they were mature enough to hear those things until high school. She graduated in 2008 and was never told any of this in school.
They do in my school district. It’s a state requirement.
I have a seventh grader in a private Catholic school and he is reading the Diary of Anne Frank now. His class was broken into several groups and they were each assigned a novel about the Holocaust. They do an oral presentation on their novel to the rest of the class, so that they get exposure to all of the novels. In high school they visit the Holocaust museum, as part of a world history unit.
I doubt that the Holocaust is part of the curriculum before middle school. Most of elementary school seems to be about the government, and the US (states and capitals).
The shock wass kind of inwards. I didn’t give the kids a hard time. I have to admit I thought it was weird at the time to ask what the Holocaust was and not even have one student with an inkling.
Based on discussion here it seems that most feel this is a young age or, as you mention, simply doesn’t gracefully fit into a curriculum yet.
I’d like to recommend that some of the parents encourage the children to read some historically based children’s lit. For now I’ll just be happy if they can get the kids to church on Sunday.
Many of my friends homeschool. Informally, I would guess that they are a year or 2 ahead of the public schoolers in reading and history.
My children go to a private Christian school and my wife and I augment their education. We also travel to historical sites in the summer.
I’m genuinely surprised at the level of education our local public schoolers, I think there are some fluctuations regionally, with good and bad schools here and there. I think I am drawing from a particularly uncreative or NOT so rigorous school.
“Agincourt at the dinner table”
I know my stuff, but my son is pretty far ahead of me in the realm of old European battles. I have an excellent handle on the more obscure details of the French and Indian War, the War of 1812, as well as the Korean War, but I can’t keep up with my boy.
“Holodomor and the Armenian Genocide, and who the murderers were?”
I’m certain none do.
Holocaust in WWII seems to have more resources available. There are a number of books and projects for young people on the subject.
That doesn’t make it right or wrong that they don’t know about Holodmor, the Armenian Genocide, the Rape of Nan KIng or the Bataan Death March.
Discussing the Shoa might be an easier road for me ~ these other events could be discussed in context of human tragedy if the foundation is laid somewhere.
As a previous poster notes, many of today’s students may only know slavery in America and even then, it is taught for the sole purpose of denigrating our own nation as corrupt and evil.
When I taught middle school, this is when I began to open this can of worms. I did it in religion class, as well as science.
Our school took middle schoolers ~ still does ~ to the March for Life in DC. The kids loved it!
My cousin, a big pro-lifer, teaches Catholic CCD in NJ. She told me that if she was “more pro-life in her teaching” than she already was with her 7th grade classes that parents would pull their children out of her program.
Ugghhh!
“Flags of Our Fathers” was great for such discussion of Japan’s atrocities, but it is very harsh. There is a revised edition that is available for younger readers.
They should know about it.
The Imperial Japanese very much remind me of Al-Quada.
I was very pleased to see the Diocese of Baltimore featuring this discussion;
http://www.archbalt.org/respect-life/index.cfm
I believe that the Diocese should include and require Catholic science teachers going down to the middle school.
There is a FReeper around here who is part of the Catholic Medical Association. I know that we exchanged notes last year.
I don’t know so much about Cardinal O’Brien. He seems to be less vociferous than some of the other Bishops and Cardinals. Regardless, the fact that our Diocese is encouraging these discussions is very positive.
I don't think that 10 is too young. St. Maximilian Kolbe is certainly worth celebrating.
You might want to do some research yourself. About 11 million people were killed, only (probably not the right word) 5.1-6 million of whom were Jews. Gypsies/Roma, certain Protestant sects (Pentacostalists and others), the handicapped, political opponents and others were also killed. Furthermore, Hitler had intended to kill or expell most European Slavs, and use the remainder as slave labor in the lands up to the Urals.
I learned about both in Hebrew school. They also came up in European History in 8th grade and in AP European History in 11th grade.
A large percentage of Hawaiians are Japanese and they are an aggrieved minority. You must never mention the crimes of Japan, or the fact that Japanese in America did help the Empire.
What are US students learning about Islam?
Christian Science Monitor | 4-22-09 | Gary Bauer
Posted on 04/22/2009 10:24:32 AM PDT by Wolf13
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2235330/posts
It’s a hard subject to introduce to kids, I know I struggle with it myself, I frequently watch holocaust-themed movies and documentaries, but I’m careful not to when the kids are around, because I just don’t feel quite prepared to talk to them about it.
Probably a good way of introducing them would be to read or watch, “The Diary of Anne Frank.” That’s probably what I will do, when I feel comfortable enough.
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