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California Students Given Good Grades for Holocaust-Denial Essays
Townhall.com ^ | July 15, 2014 | Christine Rousselle

Posted on 07/15/2014 12:50:30 PM PDT by Kaslin

Earlier this year, eighth graders enrolled in the Rialto Unified School District in Rialto, California were assigned a rather questionable essay assignment: Did the Holocaust happen, or was it "merely a political scheme created to influence public emotion and gain wealth[?]" The district immediately apologized for the assignment once it came to light, and initially claimed that no students wrote that the Holocaust was a hoax. That allegation was wrong, as the San Bernadino County Sun newspaper discovered that over 50 students expressed doubt that the Holocaust happened in their essays, and were given high marks for their views.

“I believe the event was fake, according to source 2 the event was exhaggerated,” one student wrote. (Students’ and teachers’ original spelling and grammar are retained throughout this story.) “I felt that was strong enogh evidence to persuade me the event was a hoax.”

In some cases, students earned high marks and praise for arguing the Holocaust never occurred, with teachers praising their well-reasoned arguments:

“you did well using the evidence to support your claim,” the above student’s teacher wrote on his assignment.

The student received a grade of 23 points out of 30, with points marked off for not addressing counterclaims, capitalization and punctuation errors.

Students were given documents from About.com and History.com in addition to pieces of information from a Holocaust denial site. In one, the Diary of Anne Frank was presented as a hoax.

Administrators claim that the prompt was an exercise to improve critical thinking skills.

This is disturbing. There are plenty of ways to improve critical thinking and writing skills without having to wade in the territory of Holocaust denial. This assignment never should have been allowed in the first place. Teaching children conspiracy theories does nothing to help them educationally—and from the looks of the essays posted by the Sun, those students need all the help they can get.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: California
KEYWORDS: education; highschool; holocaust
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To: FlingWingFlyer

Both the principal and school superintendent are of TROP. Their diversity is their perversity..


21 posted on 07/15/2014 2:25:11 PM PDT by sheik yerbouty ( Make America and the world a jihad free zone!)
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To: Kaslin

23/30... sounds like a C+.


22 posted on 07/15/2014 2:28:52 PM PDT by Plummz (pro-constitution, anti-corruption)
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To: Vendome

laughing. You are such a card. Love it!


23 posted on 07/15/2014 2:46:35 PM PDT by Shimmer1 (If chocolate fudge cake could sing, it would sound like Barry White.)
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To: Shimmer1

You saw the way I shuffled in. Of course I’m a card...


24 posted on 07/15/2014 2:54:22 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: teeman8r

Agreed. An essay should be graded on format, not whether its argument is true in an absolute sense.


25 posted on 07/15/2014 3:01:39 PM PDT by Sherman Logan (Perception wins all the battles. Reality wins all the wars.)
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To: Kaslin
They don't believe that the Holocaust happened, but they DO believe that man-made global warming is real?!?!?!?!

History, Science and truth are no match for brainwashing young minds with lies and evil.
Do the public schools view young minds the same way that Mengele looked at the bodies of his victims?

26 posted on 07/15/2014 3:18:21 PM PDT by PATRIOT1876
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To: Vendome

A King of diamonds


27 posted on 07/15/2014 5:23:14 PM PDT by Shimmer1 (If chocolate fudge cake could sing, it would sound like Barry White.)
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To: Shimmer1

Queen of my heart.

We should go club’ing sometime.....


28 posted on 07/15/2014 5:28:32 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: Vendome

Well come down here first!


29 posted on 07/15/2014 5:29:46 PM PDT by Shimmer1 (If chocolate fudge cake could sing, it would sound like Barry White.)
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To: Shimmer1

I will. Just saw the doctor who I originally wanted to do my surgery.

He gave me a cortisone shot and suggested getting my case turned over to him.

Heck yeah...

But, I suspect I’ll need another surgery.

This time I’ll pay for it myself and be done with it.

So it may be a while yet. Can drive only so far


30 posted on 07/15/2014 8:42:01 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: Vendome

You keep walkin your way, I’ll keep walkin mine. We’ll meet in the middle, neath that ole Georgia piiiiiine....

Oh wait, that’s not quite in the middle is it. errrrr


31 posted on 07/16/2014 5:00:01 PM PDT by Shimmer1 (If chocolate fudge cake could sing, it would sound like Barry White.)
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To: Shimmer1

But we made alotta....ooops....


32 posted on 07/16/2014 6:47:20 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: Vendome

I don’t know the rest of the words, did I stick my foot in my mouth????????


33 posted on 07/20/2014 7:40:35 PM PDT by Shimmer1 (If chocolate fudge cake could sing, it would sound like Barry White.)
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To: Shimmer1

Had to look it up.

Gee, I think I have a dirty mind.

I changed the words one night while drinking in Tahoe.

Some girl liked the song and as it played I started singing. Well, I sang some other 1st and she liked my voice (Shea, right!)

As the song went along I changed the words and gave her a mischievous look.

She put hand over my mouth and whispered a line from Top Gun.

So we left and I was pretty much humming for the rest of the night.

LOL


34 posted on 07/20/2014 9:47:35 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: Vendome

Mmmm, sounds frisky and fun. But you are frisky and fun, so I’m not surprised


35 posted on 07/21/2014 7:05:34 AM PDT by Shimmer1 (If chocolate fudge cake could sing, it would sound like Barry White.)
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