Seems a bit harsh. Can't we just - you know - give them 100 lines, like when I was at school?
Just seen this. Inspired or a waste of taxpayer's money?
Personal view, I can think of few things as powerful as seeing one of the greatest atrocities ever committed by man against man. I wonder what message these chosen students will bring back and whether they can pass on something relevant to their peer.
Seems a bit harsh. Can't we just - you know - give them 100 lines, like when I was at school?
You make it sound like an atrocity from the past. Ethnic cleansing might not be going on in Germany any more, but the rest of the world is still catching up.
I think a trip to Rwanda or Palestine would be more apt and really give them something to think about.
A trip to Auschwitz is like saying "Phew...thank God that's all over and we wont be seeing the like again".
As the bloke in the building society advert says - It doesn't work like that.
I agree with the sentiment of what you are saying, but I think the point is that it wasn't just ethinic. Gays, musicians, dissenters etc were all put in the camps. I think the practical aspect is that the infrastructure is there to communicate what happened, why and its its continuing relevance.
If you took someone to Rwanda ... what would you show them. Destitution, open graves, tales of horror ..... so what? Go to any West African country and you'll see that. Want to see real oppression ... go to China .. .want to see racial divides ... pick nearly any country in the ex-Soviet Block, want to see crass racial abuse ... put them in with the Spanish at the F1.
As Steve said, there are many examples and many messages ... but how to get them communicated back to their fellow pupils at home. Thats the real challenge.
I agree that communicating to the pupils is the most important thing.
My point is, there are just as many monstrous crimes being commited around the world today as there were in Germany 60 years ago. I think that children, or young adults would find the history of Auschwitz fascinating and alarming, but it all happened in a time that even their grandparents are unlikely to remember. It's difficult to feel anything other than apathy for something that happened such a long time ago.
I think the only thing we can teach children today (if we are being honest and factual to them) is that no matter how disgusting humans behave to each other, we never ever learn from it.
That's such a shame to feel so hopeless . I'd rather my children felt that they could make a difference by being good, decent, tolerant people. They may not have power over how the world is run or the persecution of other humans all over the globe, but they can learn that it's wrong and a shame and ensure that they're not part of it...it's not much, in the grand scheme of things, but it's hopeful.
I can't decide if sending school kids to Auschwitz is a good idea or not. 'Schindler's List' was powerful enough for me.
Actually, that was World War I. Now there's irony for you.
Yeah, you are right. I'm being too negative. Individuals can make a difference but globally, the world is still home to lots of Hitler types, who'd do it all again if they could. If only we could have ignorant freak cleansing.
I have just received a round robin by email stating that the UK has just dropped the HOLOCAUST from the school syllabus.
Perhaps sending 2 sixth formers from every sixth form to Auschwitz is a sop?
Last edited by Astro; 5th-February-2008 at 04:26 PM.
I'm pretty sure 'the holocaust' wasn't on the curriculum when I was at school. We certainly didn't learn about it in history - we did 'eras' - one I remember was the french revolution; another was causes of WW1 - and so unless you did WW2 as your 'era' then the holocaust would not feature.
Everything I learnt about the holocaust - AFAIR - I learnt outside school.
Seemed to me to be an attack on Islam.
It was making out that Palestinians do not believe that the Holocaust happened. I think it is just sxxt stirring.
Whoever wrote it was using the lever that the Jewish won the new state of Isreal on the back of WW2. The Palestinians, who are Islamic, maintain that the land belonged to Palestine and should not have been given.
I read somewhere that the land in Palestine has passed back and forth so many times, that no one really knows who it "belongs" to.
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