How Holocaust should be taught in schools
Earlier this year, lawmakers in Annapolis contemplated passing a law mandating that all Maryland schools teach their students about the Holocaust and genocide. The goal was to make sure children growing up in the Free State would never forget about the 6 million Jewish men, women and children killed during World War II by the Nazis and that they would “better understand how to prevent these types of events in the future.” Despite its noble purpose, the bill never made it out of committee. And that was for the better. Here’s why.
Last week, Maryland State Department of Education officials announced plans to “enhance and expand” Holocaust education. What their review of existing social studies curriculum found was a need to teach about anti-Semitism as early as middle school and strengthen how this particular episode of history is taught.
It’s a point we made several months ago as politicians in other states passed similar mandates. As important as knowledge of this moment in history may be, particularly given the troubling rise in anti-Semitism of recent years as well as student surveys that show a shocking lack of awareness of the Holocaust, it’s a bad precedent to have pols, whether state legislators in Annapolis or members of Congress in Washington, D.C., or county commissioners or council members, determining the classroom agenda.
Putting it within the framework of the entire curriculum? Making sure it’s age appropriate? Sorting out context? Determining where it fits in the lesson plans? That’s not something legislatures
One day, perhaps, it will be about hammering home the Second Amendment and the importance of firearm ownership. The next it could be about the state’s rights case for the Civil War or how the federal government doesn’t have the right to assess an income tax. The proposals may be worthy, or they may not be. But the temptation will be to pass something that supports a particular constituency and thus improves chances of re-election.
Better to keep matters of curriculum safely before school boards and educators with input from the general public than in the hands of politicians. Just to be on the safe side.
The Baltimore Sun