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May 6, 2005
Changes are worrisome
Holocaust education could suffer, say its advocates.
PAT JOHNSON
There is no guarantee that a British Columbia high school student
currently receives any education about the Holocaust – and
the chances of them graduating with an understanding of that cataclysmic
historical event may become more remote if planned changes to graduation
requirements proceed.
Changes to the Social Studies 11 curriculum may dilute teaching
about the Holocaust, warn educators. The issue also came up in a
questionnaire completed by the two main parties fighting the B.C.
provincial election.
Responding to a survey by Canadian Jewish Congress, Pacific Region,
the B.C. Liberal party acknowledged that their education policy
would see Social Studies 11, which is now a required course for
every graduating student in the province, become an elective. Students
would be required to complete one of Social Studies 11, Civics Studies
11 or B.C. First Nations Studies 12.
If the plan goes ahead, fewer students are likely to receive education
about the Holocaust, warned Frieda Miller, education co-ordinator
at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre.
"Fewer kids [would take] Socials 11 and then, it is my understanding,
it has been carved up, so less time is given to history and more
is given to geography and other sorts of things," said Miller.
The B.C. New Democrats say they would maintain Social Studies 11
as a required course.
Though the Holocaust is not required as part of the Social Studies
11 curriculum, it is the place where the subject is most likely
to arise. Social Studies 11 explores Canada in the 20th century,
which opens the opportunity to discuss Canada's role in global issues,
including the Holocaust. (Holocaust education from a European perspective
is included in History 12, but that course is not mandatory.) A
great deal of discretion is left to individual teachers about how
to approach particular courses.
Recognizing these limitations, the Vancouver Holocaust Education
Centre has tried to provide as much incentive and assistance as
possible to educators who want to teach students about the Holocaust.
Several years ago, with Canadian Jewish Congress, the centre produced
a teaching guide that fits into the curriculum for grades 6 and
11. Because of the guidelines presented to teachers – known
as "learning outcomes" – the materials focus explicitly
on Canadian connections to the Holocaust. For example, Miller said,
the Canadian presence at the Evian Conference, the role of Canadian
immigration policy before and during the Holocaust and the refusal
to welcome the ill-fated passengers of the SS St. Louis are aspects
of Canadian history that lead into broader discussion of the Holocaust.
"It's not a history of the Holocaust," Miller said of
the material. "It has to be centred around the Canadian experience,
so we look at all the points of intersection, where Canada had some
sort of relationship to the Holocaust."
Another teaching package her organization has created is called
"Too Close to Home," which looks at anti-Semitism and
fascism in Canada during the 1930s and '40s. The centre also organizes
countless visits and speaking opportunities where B.C. students
learn about the Holocaust.
But the uphill battle to educate about the Holocaust could become
tougher if the course where most students confront the issue ceases
to be a requirement for graduation.
Jinny Sims, president of the B.C. Teacher's Federation (BCTF) ,
said her organization wants to see Social Studies 11 remain a core
course, though she acknowledges some changes could be helpful to
make the content more accessible to students who are not highly
academic.
Sims, who is a social studies teacher, said knowledge of the Holocaust
is essential for society.
"As an educator, what it means to me is, here's a period in
our history that we cannot allow to be forgotten. In the same way
as I look at lessons of war, there are also lessons of genocide.
This is an example when power – and power that is based on
ethnicity and power that is based on race – can actually destroy
society as we know it."
The proposed changes, she said, seem in keeping with this government's
tendency to narrow the focus of the curriculum. She suspects the
government is not paying close attention to curriculum, leaving
bureaucrats to make changes haphazardly.
Regardless of which party forms the government after May 17, Sims
said, the BCTF will continue to press the case for Social Studies
11 as a required course, with Holocaust education as a component.
"We're doing everything we can," she said. "That's
a very important component, because when we are teaching our children
about living in society today, they have to have some lessons from
the past."
The Holocaust Centre's Miller believes a decent understanding of
the Holocaust is a prerequisite to good citizenship.
"It's more than just the history of a single event," she
said. "It calls into question your most basic assumptions about
human nature and our responsibility as citizens. It transcends just
a single event. It's such a seminal event that words that we now
take for granted, like genocide, emerged as a result of the Holocaust.
The whole understanding of human rights and the United Nations charter
arose out of and in the aftermath of the Holocaust. If you want
students to understand current genocides and the way the world responds
to something like Sudan – or doesn't respond to something like
Sudan or Rwanda – you have to understand the history behind
it. It is, unfortunately, a paradigm of a genocidal event. Not the
only one, not that there aren't other ones that should also be studied,
but it is a feature of our world today."
Teaching young people about Canada's role during the Holocaust –
about how Canada's restrictive immigration policies, for example,
meant lost opportunities to save at least some of the endangered
Jews of Europe – can help teach about current shortcomings,
as well as offer positive lessons we have learned from history.
"It's essential, because students looking at Canadian response
at the time would have a terrific understanding of how far we've
moved from the kind of immigration and racist policies, not just
toward Jews, but others," said Miller.
Pat Johnson is a B.C. journalist and commentator.
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