Should The Holocaust Be Taught

The Holocaust is a very important time in history. With many other time periods and events, the Holocaust was quite gruesome. Five to six millions Jews were killed, making it a mass genocide. The topic of teaching the Holocaust to middle school students is a controversy that has been argued for a longevity. Many think the subject should not be taught, but there is the big question: Why not? The Holocaust should be taught to middle school students, especially eighth graders, with the thought that it was very real, the other advantages learned, and the things the teachers need to know. The Holocaust was, and still is, real. While the events in this time period may be disturbing, they did happen. As said before, five to six million Jews were

One thing that the teachers should consider is that “Students in grades 7 and above demonstrate an ability to empathize with individual eyewitness accounts and to attempt to understand the complexities of this history, including the scope and scale of the events.” This means that eighth grade students are in this category, being able to technically handle the teachings of the Holocaust. There may be some things the teachers shouldn’t do, like compare pain to this time. Also, the teachers could have biased opinions. In the article This Day in 1985, a teacher named Jim Keegstra was fined for teaching his students that the Holocaust did not happen, and that “a Jewish conspiracy controls world affairs.” While opinions are a key part of people, the teachers should put their opinions aside when teaching the Holocaust. Another thing the teachers should consider is that they shouldn’t say something that isn’t true, or over glorify it, to make sure the students are staying interested. This could give false information to the students, and then teaching the Holocaust would be useless. This is important because if the teachers teach the Holocaust incorrectly, then they could make the event sound better or worse than it actually was. Relevant information would be crucial to success. While the

One thing that is argued is that children’s minds are young and innocent. While this may be true in some cases, it is not relevant. It would be better for the students to learn about the Holocaust when they are young then to coincidentally learn about it when they are older. Also, they are already learning about other things, and the first claim is an opinion. Another argument is that teachers may teach the Holocaust in a way that is different from a student’s family's beliefs. This could ruin the family's beliefs for the students, causing them to turn to the perspective taught in the school. While the students and their families may have different beliefs, they should still be taught about the Holocaust. Plus, if the beliefs are correct, then the parents or family members should not need to worry about what is being taught in the schools. This is important because these arguments could impact the teaching, The arguments from the families and other people should not impact teaching the