There was an article in Tuesday's edition which caught my eye. It was about some Jewish organization that was teaching and coaching teachers on how to teach the holocaust to their students.This came across as strange and indeed a little weird considering World War II ended about 60 years ago. Why would something that happened in Europe and more importantly in Poland be taught to our children?
The parents of these children had not even been born when WWII ended. Our children need not be taught about a foreign culture when there are hundreds of US of A events that could be taught.
Teach about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. Strangely the holocaust took place in Europe and has been imported into the US of A.
A museum in D.C. and California offer a world of hate. Our children don't need that! I want our children to grow up to be 100 percent real Americans.
The contention that just because something happened long ago and in another country it is unimportant to us is, I think, wrong. Likewise, the idea that learning about foreign cultures has nothing to offer us is, I think, wrong. The reasons I believe these arguments are wrong are so fundamental to my way of thinking that I have trouble explaining them.
It would be easy enough to give examples of 60-plus year old events elsewhere having profound effects on us. For instance, none of the following are a part of US history: the origins of any major religions, the granting of the Magna Carta, the protestant reformation, the Renaissance, the British industrial revolution (which we copied), the invention of the internal combustion engine, the invention of the wireless telegraph, Ghandi's civil disobedience movement, the launch of the first artificial satellite (not yet 60+ years, though), the discovery of penicillin.
Somehow, I don't think giving examples is particularly convincing.
With any luck, I'll find time to pursue the topic more soon.
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