[PUGACHEV]

My wife teaches at a high school in an affluent suburb of Washington D.C., which nevertheless has a high percentage of blacks and Hispanics. Last week she was teaching a lesson on the Holocaust, and she talked about the concentration camps and the Gestapo. One of the students raised his hand and asked "Did all that really happen?" He was completely sincere. A bit astonished, my wife said 'Well, yes, of course", at which point she said a murmur that went through the class as they looked at each other, equally astonished. She told me she doesn't think they really believed her.

I'm not sure where youth has its attention fixed these days, but my take on this is that Ancient Aliens and Bigfoot are probably taken as more real than the history we learned growing up.

[Dilbert San Diego]

This is a very sad story. I wonder about the state of education today, and how our young people learn, from stories such as you told here.

So there are kids today who don’t believe about the Holocaust. What the heck kind of world are we living in?

[kearnyirish2]

I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t believe her; the last fifty years have created such a divide between the WASP culture and those on the fringes (regardless of income). There is no longer a common national heritage, education standard, etc.; we are worlds apart.