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Comment by legerdemain | Hacker News Reader

Why "teach" the Holocaust? Why make young children carry the burden of a monstrous time in history? How does it make them better at English?

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Because learning about it can swiftly disabuse children of dangerous, facile notions like "an all-powerful government is always and everywhere an unalloyed good". This is necessary if you actually want to raise an educated citizenry, which is the foundation of effective democracy.

Are you suggesting that teaching children history is a bad idea? If so, why?

(Also, what does English have to do with anything? We can teach both English and history to children in the same day. I and my peers were taught both when I was in school. Oh, and math and science, too.)

This book was removed from the English Language Arts curriculum. ELA is the common American name for English class in the lower grades.

Every book is about something. The fact that this is historical is a bonus if anything.

That seems like an implementation detail that's not worth getting wrapped around the axle over.

We are talking about this particular event being reported in Mother Jones, not some other, hypothetical, counterfactual event that you're trying to redirect the topic to.

You still haven’t really answered the question as to what the exact problem is, and why. You obviously have a problem with this situation, but if it’s only that the book is being studied in English class instead of history class, that frankly sounds like a pretty weak basis.

This is a nonsensical conversation, since you're demanding that I should defend words that you put into my mouth. No, thanks.

Nobody is putting words in your mouth. I’m responding directly to your own comment above:

> Why "teach" the Holocaust? Why make young children carry the burden of a monstrous time in history? How does it make them better at English?

Since you’re unwilling to explain the rationale behind your objection, it’s reasonable to conclude you’re just trolling and are wasting everyone’s time.

Can't reply to your deeper comments on this thread, but in the meeting minutes they decide they'll replace Maus with a different text about the Holocaust. So it's not really a debate about whether 8th graders should be taught the Holocaust in ELA, but how they should be taught.

I can’t help but wonder if they are really going to replace Maus with something “better” (and if so, how they would make that judgment). I wouldn’t be surprised if they keep kicking that can down the road until the school board is replaced.

Holocaust denialism has no place here.

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