HOLOCAUST DENIAL AND OTHER P.C. HISTORY

I read the following early this morning and haven't been able to get it off my mind. I read it with fist clenching anger and that has not abated.

Am I alone in resenting rewrites or omissions of history to avoid offending this group or that group? Or rewriting or omitting history to make it more easy to attack this group or that group?

If this is accurately reported and it becomes a trend, God help our children when the present generation passes on. No one will have been taught or even have access to the history necessary to put anything into its proper perspective. And whatever form of dictatorship exists will have a free rein to fill vacant heads with whatever garbage they choose.

History is what history is. How dare anybody rewrite it to avoid offending people who deny it? How much more of this will we tolerate? At least the article provides opinion from one educator who thinks it is a terrible concept.

Teachers drop the Holocaust to avoid offending Muslims
By LAURA CLARK
April 2, 2007

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.

Teachers fear backlash over crackdown in the classroom

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.
SOURCE