Holocaust education

With the rise of anti-Semitism in America, we have seen a recent push for Holocaust education. If you know me, you probably already know how I feel about this push. My views are very learner-centric, and I oppose government control over the educational process. Holocaust education might sound good on paper, but the proposals I'm hearing are very concerning.

Schools have far too much control over the lives of American citizens. By making a subject distasteful and limiting time available for personal pursuits, these kinds of proposals are not just about what the government wants people to learn. It's also about what the government doesn't want people to learn.

There is a lot of history in existence. A lot of this history has value. Should the government be able to dictate what is and isn't valuable enough for 100% of the population? I have to say no to that.

Without government controlling what we learn about history, the driving influence is value. Should societal understanding be fueled by value or government interests? For me, this is obvious. This also means that we don't have to mandate Holocaust education for people to learn about the Holocaust.

I'm not going to lie. If we don't force citizens to learn about the Holocaust, there will be a portion of the population that doesn't pursue it. Collectively, I would say this is actually for the best. There is a lot of history in existence. I can guarantee that nobody knows even 1%. If we allow deviation from rigid guidelines, different people will learn different things. Collectively, our understanding of history will be far stronger.

There are other concerns about these types of requirements. They are not going to allow schools to simply say that the Holocaust happened. There will be government controls in place within the subject.

Keep in mind why this discussion started. They want to combat anti-Semitism. Although an argument can certainly be made that this is a good agenda, it is an agenda. As I have repeatedly stated, agenda-driven history, by its very nature, can't be honest history. Points backing the agenda are amplified. Contrary points will be omitted. Even if everything is technically accurate, it is an intentionally skewed narrative.

When I was in school, we had lessons about the Holocaust. We were provided with an obviously skewed perspective. In particular, my teachers made it very clear that Jews were targeted, but there was never any discussion about why Jews were targeted. We were told that we were supposed to learn from history to prevent repeating mistakes, but how are we supposed to prevent another Holocaust from happening if we have no idea why it happened in the first place?

I never found anything that explains how national socialists justified their heinous acts. If schools are focusing on the horrific treatment of Jews, do they really want to provide us with justification? I'm sure the justification was not reasonable, especially considering what they did to Jews, but it seems vital to truly learning from history.

Without government mandates, American citizens are freer to pursue a proper understanding of the Holocaust. They are in a better position to learn from past atrocities. Is that really such a horrible thought?