Turning Holocaust Denial Into Homework

[question everything]

Cross posting from the education Forum

By Reuven H. Taf

It happened in April 2013 in my hometown of Albany, N.Y., and it happened again this year in Southern California. While the assignments given to Albany High School English classes and to 2,000 eighth-graders at five middle schools in the Rialto Unified School District east of Los Angeles were different, both projects crossed the same dangerous line.

A veteran Albany High School teacher gave students an essay to write with the goal of convincing the reader that the writer is a loyal Nazi who hates Jews. "You must argue that Jews are evil, and use solid rationale from government propaganda to convince me of your loyalty to the Third Reich!" In five paragraphs, students were required to prove that Jews were the source of Germany's problems. Those who defended the assignment—during the public outcry after the story went national—said that it was to teach students how to formulate a persuasive argument.

This spring we learned that middle-school teachers in California had given their students a three-day assignment to compose an essay on whether or not they believe the Holocaust was "an actual event in history, or merely a political scheme." As part of the homework, educators gave students resources including a website that denies the Holocaust. Earlier this month Rialto officials said they regret the assignment and promised to revise what they said began as an effort to satisfy the Common Core standards. But the acknowledgment of an error in judgment was a long time coming and does not erase the damage.

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Critical thinking and formulating persuasive arguments are essential skills for children to develop. But these projects aren't appropriate for either goal. When educators encourage students to question the historical fact of the Holocaust or ask them to write an essay suggesting that Jews were the source of Germany's problems, they are essentially fomenting a subtle form of anti-Semitism. It may not be their intention, but it is certainly the result.

And what can explain the lack of common sense, sensitivity and knowledge when educational professionals conceive such assignments? Why couldn't those teachers choose topics such as the death penalty, health care, immigration, nuclear proliferation, capitalism, socialism, globalization, fossil fuels, alternative energy, tax policy, drone technology, privacy, civil rights, gun control or money in politics, to name a few? Those issues have two sides and can help students develop critical thinking and formulate persuasive arguments based on research and facts.

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http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303701304579550262302288806

(You may be able to open the story by copying and pasting the title onto google)

[Behind the Aegis]

1. Stealth Anti-Semitism In Middle School

The Rialto Unified School District school board outside of Los Angeles was in full damage control earlier this month, fending off universal opprobrium over a third-quarter English Language Arts argumentative writing/research project given to 2,000 eighth-graders. The breathtakingly ill-conceived assignment asked students to “read and discuss multiple, credible articles on this issue, and write an argumentative essay, based on cited textual evidence, in which you explain whether or not you believe [the Holocaust] was an actual event in history, or merely a political scheme created to influence public emotion and gain wealth.”

Most critics denounced the assignment as absurd on its face, since it asked middle school students, after reading only a handful of brief research essays, to convince a reader that the Holocaust, one of the most documented historical events in modern human history, either happened or did not happen. Even more egregious than the notion that the Shoah might not have occurred was the statement that, as the instructions for the assignment read, “some people claim the Holocaust is not an actual event, but instead is a propaganda tool.”

Given that even American high school students cannot identify, as random examples, the half century during which the U.S. Civil War was fought, name a single Supreme Court justice, identify the intent of the Bill of Rights, or identify Britain on a map of the world, the notion that eighth graders could coherently disprove something that is an historical fact, not an opinion, is obviously a useless intellectual exercise. And critics of the assignment were appalled that students were even exposed to the idea that the Holocaust was a myth in the first place, a notion only those on the lunatic fringe embrace.

While the shell-shocked spokesperson for Rialto school district, Syeda Jafri, assured the media that no complaint about the assignment had been forthcoming from within the district system, either from teachers or parents, the larger question is how the committee of eighth–grade teachers who conceived the critical thinking exercise in the first place had not anticipated the calamitous reaction to their choice for the essay topic. Presumably, every member of that committee had attended college; some, perhaps, even possess advanced degrees. In an education culture suffused with political correctness – and especially on college campuses where the educators studied for their profession – an enormous amount of attention is paid to who may say what about whom and what is acceptable thought and speech on campuses where “victim” groups vie for rights and accommodations.

more: http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/stealth-anti-semitism-in-middle-school/2014/05/29/

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They get more brazen and they have their fans on the left as well.