On the one hand, it’s almost a good thing that a school district, somewhere, is trying to teach some kind of critical thinking. Kids today seem to get virtually none of it.
The Rialto school district in California is under fire over a stunning eighth-grade assignment that asked students to write an argumentative essay about the Holocaust and “whether or not you believe this was an actual event in history, or merely a political scheme created to influence public emotion and gain wealth.”
Now, this story is only from the mainstream media – the San Bernardino Sun and KTLA TV – so take it with a block of salt.
But still…
[the assignment] gives students three sources to use to write their essays. One of the sources reportedly alleges the gassings in concentration camps were a “hoax” and there is no evidence Jews actually died in gas chambers.
The source, traced to a webpage on biblebelievers.org.au, states: “With all this money at stake for Israel, it is easy to comprehend why this Holocaust hoax is so secretly guarded. In whatever way you can, please help shatter this profitable myth. It is time we stop sacrificing America’s welfare for the sake of Israel and spend our hard-earned dollars on Americans.”
The other two sources were from About.com and History.com, KTLA-TV reports.
Teaching the youngsters to deny the deniers? Plausible.
But how much do you want to bet the kids have gotten to eighth grade without really knowing what the Holocaust is?
Plausable? Rialto’s school district’s interim superintendent is a character named Mohammed Z. Islam, and their spokeperson is Syeda Jafri who “said that the Education Services department was behind the assignment, and will be required to undergo sensitivity training.”
Noo… No agenda there… Move along little sheeples…
I am reminded of how when I came to adulthood and got to college, I could rather quickly tell simply by tone, fonts chosen, and the like which sources were legit and which were not. I did not have to read the “Worker’s Weekly World” to figure this out, or even “Newsweak.”
Further evidence, were any necessary, that virtually nothing is more important than getting any children for whom you have direct or indirect responsibility out of the public skoolz.
Wow, damn good catch there, JPA.
For as much as leftists (and a fair chunk of the right as well) pooh-pooh anti-Islam sentiment, I have a sinking feeling that we have as much to fear from Islam (creeping Sharia, et al.), as we do from creeping Progressivism, just farther down the road. Incidents like this do nothing to quell those feelings in me.
There’s the whole “separation of church and state” mantra, and then I sit here and wonder “How the HELL can the left not only condone, but celebrate something like Keith Ellison using the Koran to take his oath when Islam states that the church IS the state? How much more willfully blind is it possible to be?”