On a serious note though, I am still pissed off that I learned FAR more about the Nazis and their systematic method of transporting, interring, gassing, and cremation of Jews from my 16 years of US education than I ever learned about the USSR, China, and other topics like industrialization and imperialism which were oh... slightly more important in the long run than the Holocaust... I mean upon graduation from high school, I can name more Nazi concentration camps than I can Chinese dynasties or African countries. I can name more Nazi war criminals than I can Soviet premiers or even current world leaders... And I truly believe I speak for the majority of Americans here... What's wrong with this picture?
Half of 10th grade, I spent learning about Nazi atrocities towards the jews, We discussed ms. frank, her family in detail. We discussed Mein Kamph, and also read many letters from jews in concentration camps. The weird thing... It was an English class taught by a Jewish teacher. I still feel that had he spent half that time teaching us about grammar or reading comprehension rather tahn about the holocaust, many of the kids would have done better on their SAT's, had a better grasp on the english language, and would be able to write complete coherent sentences.
lol. I love Fawlty Towers. Best sitcom ever. <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/b3SBYkcJigU"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/b3SBYkcJigU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>
so at minimum, you've been in public school since you were 2 years old? not to sound dismisive, but your post doesn't seem serious at all. the holocaust is not taught every year. ww2 is not taught every year. if you cant name zimbabwe, nigeria, liberia, or ethiopia, maybe you have other issues than simply because your mind got filled with holocaust stories. I understand you wanted to make a point about your beleifs, and I am trying to respect that, but you come off sounding uneducated more because of yourself rather than the curriculum. EDIT: I went through some of your old posts. Your problem isn't with the holocaust or whatever education system you were in.
You, my friend, are out of touch with America. I don't know anything about your background, but if you're assuming the average American ADULT can name 5 African countries (regardless of length of time since graduation from high school), you're very very wrong. Similarly, if you're assuming that the average American ADULT can name 5 world leaders, you're very likely to be wrong as well... As for me... Treblinka, Dachau, Buchenwald, Auschwitz, and Anne Frank's own Bergen-Belsen... I can name those off the top of my head, RIGHT NOW. As for Nazi war criminals, Heydrich, Himmler, Eichmann, Goebbels, and Hitler rolls off my tongue as well. In the future, let me make a recommendation. NEVER EVER disparage a man's intelligence if you don't know where he is from. I can only assure you that my 16 yrs of education was completed at the ABSOLUTE FINEST institutions in this country, period.
Sorry... didn't mean to start a flame war there... Came back to edit some of the more incendiary sentences from my post, but you've already seen them. Sorry again!
What about the holocaust the japanese put onto the chinese? That was in fact on par or larger then what the Nazis did to the Jews. I think that goes under-reported and explored in our education system. I do think the Holocaust is unique in how it was systemized and mechanized. There is a gross sickness in that - the worst perversion of humanity, that makes the holocaust stand out from any other act of genocide. But in pure scale, the Japanese "holocaust" was larger and should be mentioned. It's as if the Chinese aren't as important. And to all you chinese posters - I'm not letting you off the hook either - so don't think I'm changing my mind on Tibet or China's policies.
Yes greater, it was an attempt to exterminate a people. Both the Dresden fire bombings and the A-Bomb were part of war.....the other is genocide....BIG difference. DD
Bingo. And it happened 60 years ago. In a 'western' nation with our 'values'. Somewhat separate from a war or other power or land conflict. Our fathers and grandfathers lived through it...and participated in it. Should not be forgotten. Shows what WE are capable of. Scary.
Looking back I don't think I spent that much time learning about the Holocaust. I remember reading the Diary of Anne Frank in English class not in history and studying World War II. More than World War II though I remember spending a long time on the US Civil War which while important it might not be so important that every single campaign needs to be looked at indepth when the things that Lil mentioned weren't covered that much either. Unfortunately though almost all of history is taught through certain lenses. In Middle School I spent a year learning Texas History while friends of mine spent a year learning Minnesota's and we all live now in the same city.
Of course not...but I would say that as much as I learned about the Holocaust in public school, it wasn't until college that I learned about the many other holocausts in history that were barely touched upon in school. So yes, "the" holocaust should never be forgotten, but let's make sure to remember that so many countries have practice genocide on mass scale, and so many people have suffered. I think that's what some people have a beef about....
Maybe I just had it particularly bad. Our high school had "Holocaust Education Week"... every single friggin year (from 7th to 12th!!!)... I was forced to read "Diary of Anne Frank", "Nuremburg Trials", and even "Exodus" (the most sickeningly biased historical novel you can imagine... about early Israeli terrorists and killers who ethnically cleansed Palestine...and they were the HEROES of this book... ) Didn't help that our English II teacher, World History I teacher, World History II teacher, Civics teacher, AND principal were all Jewish... Some of those teachers were in retrospect really darn good... but some were just plain jerks. In protest, I always argued with the teachers I didn't respect that much in class in favor of historical relativism when they fed us too much BS (expounding on the Hitlerian nature of evil and ridiculous stuff like that), just to annoy the **** out of them. And considering that 70% of the student body was Asian, we had absolutely ZERO instruction in Asian culture/history. And so it comes out. I resent Holocaust education with a vengeance, because well... I was victimized by it as a child...
Specifically in response to this, Sishir, I think it is logical and fair to mandate learning US history and State history. It's actually legislated in some states. I did appreciate the 1/2 year of California history we had to take, because... well... it actually was pertinent to me as a Californian? Just like how I always appreciated Earth Week, since well I live on earth and I need the environment to sustain me? But Holocaust?... I'm not German... I'm not Jewish... I'm first-generation Taiwanese American! What is there to commemorate? It's just another damn genocide that's been happening since the beginning of time and is still happening today! And the teachers always put Holocaust posters everywhere that said "We will never forget"... I was like how about putting up posters about not forgetting America's manifest destiny to protect democracy everywhere (i.e. Taiwan?), how about not forgetting about genocides happening RIGHT NOW in Rwanda and Serbia? And when I pressed some of the teachers about my questions, they always harped back to this concept of "collective guilt"... which only further incensed me... What guilt could the Taiwanese, a subjugated and oppressed people in the Japanese empire at the time, possibly have? And obviously we're not "as historically important" as these poor Holocaust victims since we don't devote a single day... nay a single minute to the plight of Taiwan in 6 years of education... And as an American, we devoted 3 years and sacrificed hundreds of thousands of our soldiers to free their ass in 1945 from the concentration camps and gave millions of them safe passage and a new life here! In America today our policies have sustained a more vibrant Jewish diaspora community than perhaps ANYWHERE in the past 2500 years (I give exception to Khazar and Israel...which can't really be counted as diaspora)! And now they want to sell me "collective guilt"?! It was little things like that made me resent the whole concept.
