No lessons on the Holocaust

[PrincepsAmerica]

Schools are dropping controversial subjects from history lessons - such as the Holocaust and the Crusades - because teachers do not want to cause offence, Government research has discovered.

The report said teachers feared confronting "anti-semitic sentiment and Holocaust denial among some Muslim pupils". Christian parents at another school complained about the way the Arab-Israeli conflict was taught.

"In another department, the Holocaust was taught despite anti-semitic sentiment among some pupils, but the same department deliberately avoided teaching the Crusades at Key Stage 3 (for 11- to 14-year-olds) because their balanced treatment of the topic would have directly challenged what was taught in some local mosques."

Full Article

Britons seem faced with a compelling choice:

Eurabia or Londonistan

I keed. Seriously though this fits well into the warnings I and certain other Americans have made as to Europe's possible decline.

Careful now fellow Westerners across the pond, the steps you take in your life times will be extremely consequential as to what Europe is and means 100 years from now. (that is of course not to say that America doesn't have its own important problems but this isn't a thread about the US now is it)

Additional Sources:

The Guardian-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/secondworl...048082,00.html

The BBC-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6517359.stm

 

[nivi]

So, when exactly did the Holocaust and the Crusades become controversial?

 

[PrinceOfLeigh]

Given that this story comes from The Telegraph and seems to fit their agenda exactly, I would be sceptical until I read the actual report.

 

[nivi]

Given that this story comes from The Telegraph and seems to fit their agenda exactly, I would be sceptical until I read the actual report.

The same thing in another british newspaper...

 

[PrincepsAmerica]

Given that this story comes from The Telegraph and seems to fit their agenda exactly, I would be sceptical until I read the actual report.

Ah I apologize if this turns out to be spin-doctored, I am understandably unfamiliar with the biases/associations of different British media.

 

[PrinceOfLeigh]

Ah I apologize if this turns out to be spin-doctored, I am understandably unfamiliar with the biases/associations of different British media.

It's not your fault, and I didn't mean to imply you were setting the agenda. But the Telegraph is as gung ho "Britishness" as you can get, aside from The Scum, so there's a chance that the paper has focused on the sections of the report which it likes.

 

[Stylesjl]

Oddly enough they never taught us about the holocaust or the crusades in my school. Not sure why.....

Edit: No, wait I remember. They don't teach this stuff because it hasn't got anything to do with Australia. They take this attitude that if Australia didn't have something to do with it, then don't bother. After all they taught World War II, but mostly focused on the Pacific

 

[MrCynical]

Not sure how accurate this report is. The Telegraph and Daily Mail (plus the Sun) love these kind of stories and tend to blow them way out of proportion.

It's been a few years since I was learning history in a British school, but the Holocaust was definitely covered in some depth. Nothing on the crusades but then there was nothing at all covered between the fall of the Roman empire and about 1900, so I don't think it was particularly singled out.

 

[bigfatron]

My kids go to a school with 40-50% of pupils being non-white/non-christian. The elder one covered the Holocaust in real detail last year, and the younger two did a small amount on the Crusades during the early medieval history segment.

I'm not sure how widespread any censorship of history is likely to be - it's a shame neither paper links to the report, nor is it available or even mentiond on the DFES web-site.

BFR

 

[GinandTonic]

"Some teachers avoid delicate issues shocker"

Yet most dont.

Draw up some guidelines on how to deal with these issues.

 

[PrinceOfLeigh]

"Some teachers avoid delicate issues shocker"

Yet most dont.

I remember my drama teacher covering a Sex Ed class, or PSE which is was called back then. Dear me you've never seen someone shake and sweat so much in your life*.

*Very nearly launched into a "sweating like a..." before remembering that that sort of thing would be met with a permaban

 

[Joe Harker]

The same thing in another british newspaper...

Do not I repeat do not get your evidence from the Daily mail, according to them there are about 30 million immergants in Hammersmith(slight extraggution and bad spelling)

 

[Joe Harker]

It's not your fault, and I didn't mean to imply you were setting the agenda. But the Telegraph is as gung ho "Britishness" as you can get, aside from The Scum, so there's a chance that the paper has focused on the sections of the report which it likes.

No surely the Daily mail gung ho Britishness

 

[GinandTonic]

I remember my drama teacher covering a Sex Ed class, or PSE which is was called back then. Dear me you've never seen someone shake and sweat so much in your life*.

*Very nearly launched into a "sweating like a..." before remembering that that sort of thing would be met with a permaban

Maths geek class tutor doing his sex ed bit was priceless. In fairness to old Capin' Birdseye, he plowed through it.

 

[PrinceOfLeigh]

No surely the Daily mail gung ho Britishness

Daily Mail is another, Daily Mail is usually aimed at your upper class steaming racist though.

Maths geek class tutor doing his sex ed bit was priceless. In fairness to old Capin' Birdseye, he plowed through it.

I spent the whole class wondering why we couldn't have had the hot female French teacher cover the lesson whilst also asking as many brain dead questions as possible:

"So you can still get pregnant even if you do a handstand like straight after?"

 

[Bad Player]

So, when exactly did the Holocaust and the Crusades become controversial?

I think the Crusades is a controversial topic - Katheryn in another thread has detailed what led up to the Crusades and so there is a defensible position on the Christian side, however during the war (unsurprisingly) what we now see as war crimes were committed.

 

[Bad Player]

Are there any non-biased British newspapers (e.g. BBC admitted left wing bias)?

 

[PrinceOfLeigh]

Are there any non-biased British newspapers (e.g. BBC admitted left wing bias)?

No there's not.

 

[Princeps]

Stupid teachers. History is valuable, if there is controversy than lets debate it not get all silent about it.

Heh, my history teacher had hard time telling anything without my most intense scrutiny.

 

[Truronian]

Are there any non-biased British newspapers (e.g. BBC admitted left wing bias)?

Non-biased with respect to what?