I went to this high school. Unless things have changed a lot, I don’t think that the curriculum is the problem. I was taught enough about the Holocaust, by engaged and well-prepared teachers, that I was inspired to learn more about it on my own time. Every summer, in fact.
But I did go to this school. And unless things have changed a lot, the choice to remain ignorant about the deep-seated embracing of inequality and the “right” of the privileged to sneer at the powerless will overwhelm that education every time.
Anyone else getting a whiff of sarcasm from the superintendent here? As in don’t buy this as ignorant kids joking around. They had opportunity to learn and know better, but the chucklefucks still decided to do this.
I could be wrong, it’s just the sense I get.
Education and awareness is the best condom to protect against fascism, STIs, and unplanned pregnancy (plus also using condoms for the sex stuff).
I never said it was either.
I remember having to take a permission letter to my parents allowing me to watch parts of Schindler’s List during a lesson despite being too young (BBFC age restrictions don’t apply to schools unlike other public spaces, it was a courtesy to parents). I don’t think anyone said no.
They need to be spanked, have their mouths washed out with soap, and lose their TV privileges for at least a month. Also, they should be forced to take an IQ test, and then a full semester of European history. That oughta do it about reich.
Maus should be in Common Core.
Don’t forget about teaching about slavery and the native american genocide too so that the us-american youth doesn’t think “Can’t happen here because 'murica”.
Oh, boy, can you just imagine the shitstorm that would result from actually, honestly teaching the Native American genocide? All the “American exceptionalism” crap would come under question. But seriously, given the insane level of influence Texas has over textbook publishers, that will never happen.
Okay. thanks… I guess you don’t have to trust the word of a historian of the cold war? 
Whooops! Sorry there, I spaced that.
I love your historical posts.
Was more or less posting in support of you.
I should know better than to try to learning-curve QuickBooks and stop by BB for a quick looksee.
Btw Velvet Revolution always sounded to me like an ideal jam band name if oh I dunno Prince + Velvet Underground mashups. I suppose in some point of royal history there was a fabric revolution in robes too, so there’s probably some period dress historians who are already using that joke. As a former longtime restaurant worker, it also sounds like what the front end decides to call the pastry chef’s latest creation, about 30 minutes before the house opens for the dinner shift.
Peace.
Thanks for all you do!
Damn it that Lou and Prince are now dead… I’d love to have seen that in reality…
Also, I love that Tracy Chapman album.
It was required reading at my kids’ school.
That’s my ish with teaching about the holocaust as a potential cure. If the lesson is taught by people who think it’s only about swastika-using German nazis in the 1940s, then it is pointless at best.
It’s not just American people (and therefore teachers) who fail to understand this, but I do think it’s especially them. The obstacle to understanding it is that you have to be able to see the parallels to your patriotic and cultural values, and America in particular has a serious irony drought when it comes to that subject.
Our current political situation kinda makes this comment a little on the nose. Way too many here think that since there are no (or at least only a few) literal swastikas hanging on flagpoles, there are no parallels worth noting between the rise of fascism in Germany and the rise of trumpism in the US.
Makes me feel like this:
Parallels with America now, and a look at America and other countries back then.
https://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Eugenics-and-the-Nazis-the-California-2549771.php
In 1934, as Germany’s sterilizations were accelerating beyond 5,000 per month, the California eugenics leader C. M. Goethe, upon returning from Germany, ebulliently bragged to a colleague, “You will be interested to know that your work has played a powerful part in shaping the opinions of the group of intellectuals who are behind Hitler in this epoch-making program. Everywhere I sensed that their opinions have been tremendously stimulated by American thought . . . I want you, my dear friend, to carry this thought with you for the rest of your life, that you have really jolted into action a great government of 60 million people.”
That same year, 10 years after Virginia passed its sterilization act, Joseph DeJarnette, superintendent of Virginia’s Western State Hospital, observed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, “The Germans are beating us at our own game.”
eta: I don’t think I’ve seen an alternate history story where Germany wins WWII – against American fascists. I wonder what the Minimum Necessary Change would be?
Yeah, and everything old is new again… Fuck.
