Only 60 years have gone by since the Holocaust. I'm sure adding another 60 years to the hundreds and thousands of years of history that students should learn isn't that much of an impact. The Holocaust is NOT taught every year in social studies, English or reading classes. Your blanket statement is extrenely incorrect and skewed to favor your argument.
As much as I would LOVE for them to talk about the rape of Nanjing, I have to face facts that in the scope of things, these do not have as big an impact on wolrd history as the Holocaust or the slavery of an entire race and the consequences of it still being felt today.
Learning about all kinds of History unsurpressed IS important...I minored in History, and I think looking back, I wish I would have majored in it. How unfortunate it is for this to come about anywhere in the world...
History in general is just not important to the America Population Will it make me a Dollar?? Will it get me paid??? well . . .fuggetaboutit Rocket River
Maybe not in the West but it does have a huge impact on the state of relations between the PRC and Japan.
yes perhaps later if some sort of conflict develops between the two countries which will have world wide implications, the rape of Nanjing will have a bigger role in terms of world history.
Just adding the events after 9/11 have enough information to fill a few text books. ANd they have had just as big of an impact if not more to the people living today, IMO than the holocaust. Again that is all opinion, but 2 major wars, the execution of hussein, guantanamo bay, abu gharib, lebanon/israel... pretty major issues here. Im not saying its taught on a daily basis, but it is touched on in many classes. I was in sugarland middle school the first time i heard about the holocaust... It was in english class, then in 8th grade, we had story about it in reading, then in history, then in 9th grade history, then in us history in 10th grade, and again in english.... im just saying, its drilled into our heads repeatedly. We understand the issue and the negative impact of the holocaust. How about talking a bit more about the apartheid in S.A. The tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, The assasination of the Egyptian leaders, The Gulf War, The Indian revolution, The Pakistan / India wars, the Pakistan Bangladesh split. Learning of a broad spectrum of things helps kids understand other cultures. How many kids in High School know the difference between Vietnam, japan, and china? How many kids know the difference between India/banladesh and Pakistan How many kids know who nehru was, or who Jinnah was? Do they know what nelson mandela did? Why was the USSR split? the answer is NO, these items are touched on ONCE or maybe twice in the public education system. Yes we understand that Millions of Jews were killed and tortured during the holocaust. What about the Armeninan Genocide? Or the ones in Bangladesh, cambodia, burundi? Or even in afghanistan by the soviets... Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur... The lack of our education on different parts of the world are the reason why the American society is so backwards in terms of simple cultural rights and wrongs. In a society where the world is becoming more and more diverse, it wouldnt hurt to expand our scope of teaching to other societies...
Those are all excellent topics, most of which I've gone over in college. elementary, middle and high schools can only teach so much. The two wolrd wars will always get major coverage, and since the Holocaust goes hand in hand with World War 2, it will always be featured because it was the wrost atrocity impact wise that happeend during the most impactful event in recent human history.
I have to contest this. The most impactful event in recent human history is the rise of USA/USSR in the 20th Century and the rise of China in the 21st Century. And worse atrocities that happened versus the Holocaust in these century-long events? Easy. The annihilation of the kulaks/Armenian in USSR, Native American nations in USA, and Tibet/Chinese culture in China. All of these have far greater impacts numberswise than the Holocaust. The reason you don't hear that much about it, is because these respective perpetrators were TOO successful in their extermination campaigns and we are still feeling the effects today. Coincidently, it also proves the previous posters claim that American education is hopelessly skewed and out-of-touch with the rest of the world. We overly focus on single (often trivial - in terms of global impact) events, and ignore the long view. Isn't history supposed to teach us exactly the long view? How everything is connected and relevant. why things happen, and explain the importance and significance of individuals and individual events in the context of the big picture?
again the greatest impact atrocity (Holocaust) in the MOST IMAPCTFUL EVENT (World War 2) in recenthuman history. That is my point, that WW2 is the greatest impact of recent human history and that because the Holocaust was the greatest impact atrocity OF WW2, we will always learn about it. The other stuff you mentioned are events we should all learn....after WW2.
dunno aobut the fire bombings, but the atom bomb had just as much an impact also. but I tend to put the holocaust and atom bomb in separate categories.
Greater than the fire bombings yes, but on par with the a-bombs. Nobody wants to talk about the bombs though because that was Americans commiting genocide and we all know that Americans can do no wrong.
For the record I am against the U.S.' use of atomic bombs in WWII. It was totally unecessary. But it wasn't the same thing as genocide.
Genocide? We dropped 2 bombs but we never tried to kill off an entire race. I'm not saying the bombs were a fantastic idea but genocide doesn't fit.
Not to make light of the A-bombs but numerically they aren't evey close interms of casualties. Further the A-bombs weren't meant to wipe out the Japanese as a people where as the Holocaust was meant to wipe out the Jews.
I know I get uncomfortable whenever anyone talks about the Covenant and Jews in the same conversation.
