UK Schools Refuse to Teach Holocaust

Apparently, teaching the Holocaust could cause offence and disruption to Islamic students, and therefore, a number of schools are no longer including the subject in their curriculum, along with other "historically controversial" subjects such as the crusades and slavery.

I can't help but feel that the UK is turning into something very ugly.

www.express.co.uk...

Schools are dropping controversial subjects from history lessons - such as the Holocaust and the Crusades - because teachers do not want to cause offence, Government research has found.

The way the slave trade is taught can lead white children - as well as black pupils - to feel alienated, according to the study by the Historical Association.

And a lack of factual knowledge among teachers, particularly in primary schools, is leading to "shallow" lessons on emotive and difficult subjects.

Some teachers have even dropped the Holocaust completely from lessons over fears that Muslim pupils might express anti-Semitic reactions in class.

[edit on 5-4-2007 by Retseh]

mod edit: changed to external quote tags
Quote Reference (review link)

[edit on 6-4-2007 by UK Wizard]

This cannot be true, i refuse to believe. Whats next? Completely ignore world war 2? Oh no no that didn't happen move along. Wee need and i mean need to educate kids about what can go wrong when freedom isn't allowed. We need to remind them of the bad acts of humanity so that they can be avoided.

Why ignore the crusades? They are an important part of history, so is the holocaust, as is the history of the british empire and some of the awful things that did. Isn't censoring history fundamentally wrong? Didn't every fascist and dictator try the same thing? Kill the intellectuals first? Well now instead of the actual people we seem to be killing the ideas.

I believe political correctness is ok sometimes, but this is a bit to far. I find it strange that it's the teachers not wanting to cause offence, i thought maybe it would be a small extremist group pushing this.

Maybe we should stop teaching evolution, it might offend the creationists, is that the next step?

Relax ImaginaryReality1984, look again at the link.

It's the Daily Express, the low-rent Daily Mail.

No need to spend any more time or energy on it.

I am relaxed, although it's nice to know i come off as screaming at the computer screen like a demented madman, should get me out of jury duty if i ever have to do it lol.

Ok it's not the best source, but come on sometimes even bad reporting is correct. You can't ignore every story from one paper because most of it's badly researched.


[edit on 13-4-2007 by ImaginaryReality1984]

I can honestly say I have never ever come across a single 'political correctness' story that was anything like accurate or balanced.....or for that matter quite how it was originally presented in the tabloids.

The very very best I have ever seen them manage is when they do their 'X-Mas banned' type tales.
Invariably this rests on some very junior nobody at a council/local authority presurised & conned into saying something that they shouldn't have said (and have no actual authority over anyways)
or on a private business taking a decision (often due to an insurance situation which is another private business matter) which has nothing to do with any kind of 'political authority', local or central.

It's just a bunch of lying liars doing nothing but their best to exaggerate and crank up the paranoia, anger & fear for those who just love to wallow in this kind of nonsense pretending this type of story tells you something serious, true and meaningful about 'how Britain is today' or 'where we are, supposedly, headed'.

Tragic garbage IMO......and the fact it can't be linked to either the report it claims to (extremely briefly) quote nor to any serious UK news outlet running the story to give it any kind of credibility speaks volumes.

It's not a news report, it's exaggerated comment, drearily predictable opinion & typically generalised & crass trouble-making right-wing spin - but given the total lack of any proper reference to the initial Gov survey this is supposedly drawn from I doubt very much if there is a serious problem about this going on that in the manner that the DE implies.

If you actually look at the tiny snippet they quote the reference is to one instance at one school.
That is hardly illustrative of 'what is really going on in the UK today', huh?


[edit on 13-4-2007 by sminkeypinkey]

Just to pick up...

And a lack of factual knowledge among teachers, particularly in primary schools, is leading to "shallow" lessons on emotive and difficult subjects.

Does anyone seriously think a 5-11 year old should be taught about the Holocaust? When they're older, yes, absolutely. It should be compulsory in my view. But they're far too young to understand it in primary school.

And one school avoided teaching the Crusades because its "balanced" handling of the topic would directly contradict what was taught in local mosques.

Yet in the opening paragraph it says 'schools' (plural). Typical tabloid reporting. I think it's more scary that people take what the media says as accurate (especially the tabloids - Daily Mail, Daily Express, the Sun, the Mirror and their Sunday editions) without question.

If this is true - and if it is, it's certainly a tiny minority of schools - then of course it should be corrected immediately as some of the most sensitive subjects are the most important ones (the Holocaust being a prime example). Maybe they are offensive to some people, but tough - history isn't about fairy tales and niceties and not offending people, it's about understanding. Ultimately it's a good thing - it encourages kids to see that their point of view isn't the only one that's valid and that you must respect the views of others if you want others to respect your own. Encouraging children to debate and question things is surely a good thing.

this is ridiculous, what you`d expect from the DE and DM.
IMO they shouldn`t teach the holocaust or crusades until kids are 12/13 at least, and even then, kids should be encouraged to think and learn for themselves rather than blindly accepting a history that has always been written by the victors. Our education system doesn`t really promote considered analysis or independent thought very much. Granted yes, some exceptional teachers do, but getting qualifications largely consists of jumping through hoops rather than demonstrating an individual`s ability to think for themselves, construct their own arguments and then to evidence these.
I find it especially hard to believe that the rising pass rates in exams are as a result of improved educational system. Are the hoops getting bigger, or are the kids getting better at jumping?
and, what`s with bl**dy coursework? Ant pupil could get anybody to help them write it and hence achieve a better grade noy based on their own abilities or knowledge. It`s ridiculous if you ask me, but then again, I always did well in exams and got distracted from my coursework. Still, there MUST be a better way.