Brits Decide Holocaust Too Hot For Students

By Mark Hoerrner

There’s been much debate about educational standards in the U.K. over the past decades. However, not since author George Santayana declared "those who cannot remember history are condemned to repeat it," has history been in so much danger of being skewered by the politically correct.

A U.K. government-backed study by the Dept. of Education and Skill looking into "emotive and controversial" subjects in education at the primary and secondary school levels discovered that 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 study has drawn a huge reaction from lawmakers and government officials in the U.K. One MP said that he was shocked by the news.

"I can only describe it as madness," said Lancaster and Wyre MP Ben Wallace in the Lancashire Evening Post. "We can't just ignore important historical events because a couple of pupils might get hot under the collar about certain subjects. When I was a history student we learnt about some horrific events. It wasn't always pleasant, but we all knew it had to be taught.

"Children of today need to know about the events of yesterday, no matter how shocking," he added.

The same report stated that some educators were also avoiding the subject of the Crusades as it caused division between Christian and Muslim students. Local Mosque leaders in Britain do not agree on the historical aspects of the Crusades and often teach a very different worldview to Muslim students, thus creating a religious conflict with popular education.

The report did not mention which schools were dropping the education.

"History is not a vehicle for promoting political correctness," said Chris McGovern, history education adviser to the former Tory government. "Children must have access to knowledge of these controversial subjects, whether palatable or unpalatable."

One person posting in response to the myriad stories about the report online tried to put the report into perspective.

"Although at first glance this news is horrifying," the poster said in The Brussels Journal (http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/2026) "one cannot remove it from the context of some schools and some teachers. There is no totalitarian force at work here attempting to revise the past; rather what is occurring in the United Kingdom, England in particular, is "grassroots" segregation. Unlike the United States, however, this is "equal and separate;" why should the public education system and educators face legal challenges and all sorts of harassment and political activism on the part of communities entirely consisting of Muslims?

"Multiculturalism is pursued when assimilationism is perceived to be impossible; unfortunately, it only postpones the inevitable cultural collision."

The report concluded with perhaps an even more damning portrait of history education in Britain. The research stated that a number of teachers—especially in the primary grades—were lacking in historical knowledge and that this deficiency was leading to history education that the report called "shallow" and "leading to routine and superficial learning." The lessons prepared by these teachers were labeled "bland, simplistic and unproblematic."