Teachers drop the Holocaust to avoid offending Muslims

Daily Mail ^ | 4/1/07 | Laura Clark

[LibWhacker]

Schools are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils, a Governmentbacked study has revealed.

It found some teachers are reluctant to cover the atrocity for fear of upsetting students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial.

There is also resistance to tackling the 11th century Crusades - where Christians fought Muslim armies for control of Jerusalem - because lessons often contradict what is taught in local mosques.

The findings have prompted claims that some schools are using history 'as a vehicle for promoting political correctness'.

The study, funded by the Department for Education and Skills, looked into 'emotive and controversial' history teaching in primary and secondary schools.

It found some teachers are dropping courses covering the Holocaust at the earliest opportunity over fears Muslim pupils might express anti-Semitic and anti-Israel reactions in class.

The researchers gave the example of a secondary school in an unnamed northern city, which dropped the Holocaust as a subject for GCSE coursework.

The report said teachers feared confronting 'anti-Semitic sentiment and Holocaust denial among some Muslim pupils'.

It added: "In another department, the Holocaust was taught despite anti-Semitic sentiment among some pupils.

"But the same department deliberately avoided teaching the Crusades at Key Stage 3 (11- to 14-year-olds) because their balanced treatment of the topic would have challenged what was taught in some local mosques."

A third school found itself 'strongly challenged by some Christian parents for their treatment of the Arab-Israeli conflict-and the history of the state of Israel that did not accord with the teachings of their denomination'.

The report concluded: "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."

But Chris McGovern, history education adviser to the former Tory government, said: "History is not a vehicle for promoting political correctness. Children must have access to knowledge of these controversial subjects, whether palatable or unpalatable."

The researchers also warned that a lack of subject knowledge among teachers - particularly at primary level - was leading to history being taught in a 'shallow way leading to routine and superficial learning'.

Lessons in difficult topics were too often 'bland, simplistic and unproblematic' and bored pupils.

[SmoothTalker]

Churchill would be disgusted. So many modern brits and modern British public officials would have fit in well with Chamberlain and his fellow appeasers. Stick a fork in the UK, its done and in 100 years will be another Islamic hellhole.

[blackie]

I doubt it ~ it looks like is capitulating to islamic fascist terrorists!!

[Paperdoll]

>those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.<

And everything is in place for it! When my 46 year old's Social Studies book in l973 contained only one paragraph about Abraham Lincoln, I knew it was all but over. Satan's patience is incredible. If it wasn't, teachers would be worried about offending Christians and Jews, not radical
Islam.

[JamesP81]

Anyone who would do this no longer believes that western civ is worth fighting for.

[sono]

Dhimmitude ... playing at a classroom near you.

[SandRat]

Why drop it???

Given the Muslim attitude, to Israel in general and all Jews in particular, it ought to provide them with perverse psyco-sexual titillation if kept in the course of instruction and not offend them.

[blackie]

I left out "the world". *sigh*

[Riley]

They need a petition to ban di hydrogen monoxide.

Funny you should mention that. Penn and Teller did exactly that, to illustrate how ignorant 'feelgood-ism' trumps knowledge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3erdgVVTw

(Some harsh language)

[KJC1]

Only Muslims can make themselves the victims when it was someone else (millions of someone elses) who was murdered.

Outrageous, though not surprising in the least.

[Paperdoll]

Permit me to edit that in part:

.... If it wasn't, teachers would be worried about offending Christians and Jews, not radical Islam. Satan's patience is incredible!

[Nachum]

Better not teach the history of the Crusades either. Don't want to upset the poor dears.

[sageb1]

You can contact the Department info@dfes.gsi.gov.uk or call us on 0870 000 2288.
If you know the name of the person you want to speak to, please call 0870 001 2345

Department for Education and Skills
Sanctuary Buildings
Great Smith Street
London
SW1P 3BT

Textphone/Minicom 01928 794274
Fax. 01928 794248

[himno hero]

teachers?

teachers of what?

espousing koranic values and bush bashing?

[Slings and Arrows]

If there's ever going to be a backlash, I'd think this would be the trigger.

[Continental Soldier]

LOL Let's not offend those muslims who want to kill us. Let's just sit quietly, wait, smile at the mullahs and speak out against any actions that might save our lives. That way the mullahs will know we are no immediate threat and will kill us later rather than sooner.

[freekitty]

They just don't stop.

[river rat]

On 9/11 I achieved a level of outrage that erased all personal concerns for the "sensibilities" or "objections" Muslims may profess to have regarding their life in the West..

Everything since 9/11 has only heighted my own outrage that we haven't delivered a suitable military and political response to Muslims -- wherever they may reside..

Semper Fi

[Dallas59]

Now I understand why the Brits surrendered to Iran...

[highlander_UW]

That's what I was thinking.

[txroadkill]

Joseph Goebbels said it was easy to get people to kill innocent women and children, you only had to take one step at a time. He said they could have never called a soldier forward and told him to kill a child because of his race, he would never do it. But, if you called one out and told him to throw a rock through a window, he would do that. Then if you told him to brake two windows, he could do that, then tell him to brake all the windows he would do it. Then if you told him to burn down the house, then burn down two houses, he would complete each task because the next task wasn't much worse than the last. Next it was call a Jew a name, then push him down, then bloody his nose. It wasn't but a few more steps until killing him was easy.

Now those steps are being repeated. How long will it be before we are wringing our hands and saying "how did this happen again?"----It was easy...we just took it one step at a time.