nm
That certainly was lazy and ineffective teaching (actually, no real teaching involved there). What an ignorant teacher to think the sole learning to be had about the Holocaust was that it was nightmarish–nothing at all about anti-semitism before WWII, how and why (the awful why) it evolved, Jewish and non-Jewish resistance, and so many other lessons essential for understanding subsequent events and the world today. He failed his students miserably.
Actually, many educators would agree with you. You just bombard students (especially kids) with horror and they shut it out and shut down. There are now efforts to soften the blow. The last film I saw on a Holocaust survivor used animation for some parts. Somebody asked about it during the question period after the film. It was explained that the goal was to teach, not make people puke (those were not the exact words used)
RE The Flying Spaghetti Monster
I’m so ashamed. I must go pray the ravioli and hope He forgives me.
What does this school principle really fear will happen to him if he teaches the Holocaust as true fact? Does he seriously think he’ll be fired or something?
He doesn’t want to deal with the complaints of ignorant or bigoted parents. This kind of abdication of teaching responsibility is not new. In 1987, in my college prep biology class, when we reached the chapter on evolution the teacher told us she would not discuss the chapter nor put any of it on any test. She then told us we were free to discuss it among ourselves, but she would not be involved with it. She then left the room for the rest of the period.
This led to one of the most surreal hours of my life, trying to convince high schoolers in Sacramento, CA that dinosours were not the work of the devil or a test from God.
Principal. And, yes, that’s exactly what he’s afraid of. Given the state of education in today’s US, his fear may not be misplaced.
I am resurrecting this because two years ago I said a principal was probably scared to take a firm position on “Yes, the Holocaust happened” for fear of being fired for taking a position on a “political matter”. Y’all thought I was crazy. Two years later:
And this isn’t some rinky-dink rural district with a single K-12 school and 50 students. This is a large, rich, powerful school district where most parents are highly educated.
This is not an order from the school board, it’s an administrator advising teachers to CYA, but it’s still evidence that we are getting to the point where 'teachers shouldn’t take a position on controversial issues" is butting up against the concept of “teachers should teach facts”.
Quoting myself again. This has not aged well.
That’s what scares me. This whole “both sides” thing is so absurd that anyone with half a brain knows that there are things that just ARE, and aren’t up for debate, because science or history has proven them to be so. Stuff like gravity, spherical Earth, historical events like the Holocaust, climate change, and so on.
In a sane world, the debate would be about the impact, or what actions should be taken, not about the veracity of the root cause itself.
I mean, I saw this story on the news last night, turned to my wife, and said “Opposing viewpoints? It’s a historical event- there aren’t opposing views.”
That’s the problem here- that segment of the population is mounting an assault on truth and facts themselves, not on the interpretation of those facts and truths. I don’t know how to get around that when the school boards and states are in league on this assault. It worries me a lot.
Smells to me like the school is using a deliberate ploy to get the whole law overturned/undermined by selecting an absurd counter-example.
It’s hard to know what this school administrator is thinking. But it seems like, to her, the Holocaust is an abstraction whose main significance is that it is making her job more complicated.
Coming soon: the national-news interview in which she says, “I was just following orders!”
It was “advice” given in a private meeting, telling teachers to be careful, AFTER a 4th grade teacher got written up for a book that was just in her classroom, not taught.
You really look at this as “Liberals being sneaky”?
“Controversial”? What kind of real Nazi isn’t proud of the Holocaust, and would fail to commemorate it? [See also Borat 2]
ETA a while ago, I saw an interview with an American neo-Nazi. When the interviewer asked him what their plans were for the Jews, once the party came to power, he replied that they would be leaving, “one way or another”.
When I listened to the tapes I actually don’t think this teacher is advocating for Holocaust denial but is instead railing against a Texas Law that states that all books about race issues have to have a balanced counterpoint as well.
I live in Texas and there are many, many blue areas in the state popping up. Austin is famously liberal as are most of the large cities. Our economy is booming and attracting people from more liberal areas of the country every year which terrifies the Republicans that live here. As a result, they’re doubling down on every “liberal” issue and doing their utmost to preserve and protect whatever power they can keep hold of. And most of those efforts are every bit as underhanded as you’d expect them to be.
This particular law is a response to the blowback on confederate statues, flags, and imagery from a few years ago. Republicans realized that schools were teaching too many things from the point of view of the Union and slavery and that the confederate point of view was no longer being taught appropriately (from their point of view). This of course led to a lot of intrusion into public school curriculums and the push to include a heroic narrative for the confederacy. It’s easy to recognize the people who back this idea when they adamantly point out that the Civil War was fought over States Rights and that Slavery is just a liberal twist for moral superiority. Never mind that the rights states were fighting over were all related to slavery. Keep in mind Black Lives Matter and how critical race theory has entered the curriculum across the country.
Now, add to that frustration the stupid fucking laws coming from Abbott about not being allowed to have a mask mandate. Every issue that could help slow the spread of covid is actively opposed by the leadership in Austin. Once again Austin is dictating from a distance (for political points) what schools used to be able to manage themselves. In addition we have parents that butt in and want teachers to discredit evolution and climate change, promote creationism, and actively promote Christianity in schools. Most teachers are extremely frustrated with this environment.
I don’t know the issue that sparked this meeting but I understand it had to do with a girl that checked out a book about race that her parents didn’t approve of. They threw a fit that the school didn’t have a second book to balance that book and apparently want to sue the school on the basis of this law. This led to discussion about what to so, what kinds of books to include and is when this teacher said they needed to have books balancing the holocaust.
I think her example is one of “if the state makes a stupid fucking law then follow it to the letter and let those lawmakers take the fall”. Except by making that comment those same leaders can make an example of this teacher and ignore whatever problems she was exposing in their leadership. It also makes fantastic soundbites for the Republican base to include in the memes they’ll smugly pass around.
When they can control the narrative they can continue to do whatever it takes to please their base.
and then the dictionary putting this next to the definition of irony.
EXCEPT THAT IT HASN’T. Critical Race Theory is a college-level exploration of how laws and societal norms unintentionally exacerbate racism; it has nothing to do with trying to make white people feel bad about slavery, which is what all of those hick parents screaming at school board meetings seem to think it is.
How many school administrators does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
“Ummm… can I get back to you on that? I’m going to have to run it by the school board and poll all the parents first.”
I think that this is a classic case of interpreting something as evil when it is much more likely to be explained by stupidity and incompetence by one school administrator by the name of Gina Peddy of the Carroll School Board.
Additionally, have a look at this new rubric used by this schoolboard:
How would a science book that does not offer “multiple perspectives and experiences” on fundamental scientific principles pass muster? It’s so stupid that it’s fucking diabolical.
For every book the school has on blacks enslaved by whites they should have book about whites enslaved by blacks. 
I’m seeing a nervous administrator who feels she and teachers will get no support from the school board when there are complaints about “Anne Frank” as a violation of the law.