Posted on 02/15/2008 7:19:37 AM PST by beaversmom
PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy, facing a tide of criticism over his call for schoolchildren to "adopt" Jewish child victims of the Holocaust, hit back on Friday saying France had to raise children "with open eyes".
In a speech praising faith that also drew fire from secularists, Sarkozy told France's Jewish community on Wednesday that every 10-year-old schoolchild should be "entrusted with the memory of a French child victim of the Holocaust".
The proposal unleashed a storm of protest from teachers, psychologists and his political foes who said it would unfairly burden children with the guilt of previous generations and some could be traumatized by identifying with a Holocaust victim.
More than 11,100 French Jewish children were deported from France to Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps in eastern Europe during the German World War Two occupation.
"The emotional burden can have negative consequences for a child who is developing," Gilles Moindrot, general secretary of the Snuipp-FSU trade union which represents most primary school teachers, said in a statement.
"One can not place on a child of 11 the responsibility for what happened back then."
The EMDH children's rights group said: "No educational project should be constructed on death."
But Sarkozy, speaking in Perigueux in central France, brushed off the uproar.
"It is ignorance that produces abominable situations. It is not knowledge," he said in a speech. "Let us make our children, children with open eyes who are not complacent."
"Believe me, you will not traumatize children by giving them the gift of the memory of a country ... Any psychologist will tell you: you have to tell a child the truth," he said.
With Sarkozy's popularity ratings already at a low point, the controversy could further hurt his political standing only a month before key local elections when France will deliver its first judgment on his nine months in office.
AMMUNITION FOR FOES
The clamor gave fresh ammunition to Sarkozy's political foes, who charge him with erratic behavior and say his hyperactivity masks a lack of real policies.
"Really this president is extraordinary! One day he is preaching God to us ... Now he has suddenly become a teacher. He is deciding what's a good and what's a bad way to go about educating young children," fumed left-wing Senator Jean-Luc Melenchon.
But Sarkozy won support from opposition Socialist leader Francois Hollande and the president's conservative UMP party rallied in support.
Education Minister Xaviet Darcos assured people the project would be handled in a practical, low-profile way. "We won't be putting a policeman in each classroom," he told reporters.
The storm around the Holocaust proposal coincided with publication of a new poll that suggested Sarkozy's public romancing of supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni was the factor that had hurt his national image most.
Sarkozy and Bruni married secretly earlier this month but his critics saw the highly-publicized affair as a distraction too early in office.
The OpinionWay poll, conducted on the Internet for le Figaro and news channel LCI, found 82 percent of respondents believed Sarkozy's private life fell short of that of a head of state.
(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Pineau in Perigueux; Editing by Michael Winfrey)
Re: The proposal unleashed a storm of protest from teachers, psychologists and his political foes who said it would unfairly burden children with the guilt of previous generations and some could be traumatized by identifying with a Holocaust victim.
What LOONS!
(Unless it's death by second hand smoke or global warming)
I like Sarko, but this is lame. It will add fuel to the fire that he is a closest Zionist among the usual suspects.
Aren’t these “children” about 70-80 years old now? Based on France’s social system, the government has already adopted them.
The French get into an uproar over the dumbest things... But import millions of Muslims who end up rioting in the streets, and there is not a peep.
I think it’s a good idea. They are trying to wipe the memory of the Holocaust out in Europe. They don’t have to stew in it, but an exercise like this would be good for kids. Teach them how to show empathy.
Instead we traumatize kids with over the top fear-mongering about global warming and teach kids they should feel guilty about having a mommie and a daddy.
Considering my poor five-year-old was forced to pack lunches for “the homelss” in her kindergarten class yesterday, this at least has some honor.
I don’t know if he’s talking about all the children of the Holocaust or just the ones that were killed.
I have no idea if this is good politics or not in France. Maybe Sarkozy is trying to stop the reflexive pro-Arab/anti-Israel slant that is so prevalent in France and Europe generally.
My children are repeatedly made to feel guilty about slavery and past racial discrimination. Where are the “experts” to defend them?
Ah. So I assume they also oppose school projects based on scary climate change predictions?
No educational project should be constructed on death.
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Well, there goes anatomy lessons. And world history.
“Blood alone moves the wheels of history!”
Martin Luther, Dwight Schrute (take your pick, they both said it).
This would sort of be the equivalent of having every black student in the U.S. "adopt" a white slave.
Fine, but make sure the kids have enough room to adopt another 19 victims of Communist Genocide from the last century.
I like Sarko better than ever, now.
What a difference an election makes. Think about it!
My children are repeatedly made to feel guilty about slavery and past racial discrimination. Where are the “experts” to defend them?”
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Homeschooling is a wonderful thing.
No, they aren’t 70 or 80 years old, they are DEAD, murdered by the Nazis after being sent to concentration camps by their French compatriots.
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