Chapter 10, Page 147, Question 4

How is the Holocaust taken up in the curriculum? How does teaching about the holocaust compare to teaching about Israel? About Palestinians and the Middle East? About other genocides?

This is a difficult question to discuss as it has been a while since I have been into a history class. From what I remember, the holocaust was always mentioned in the curriculum simply because it occured in the during World War 2, which was a significant part to European and Canadian history. However, the holocaust was covered for a lengthy time, about a week or two, but it did not give great detail as to the events of the genocide. It was in the higher grades, such as grades 10 or eleven, or even in college, that we were able to learn about the great horrific incidences that happened, such as babies being used for target practice, gas chambers or medical research.

As for Israel and the other Middle Eastern countries, it was rare if we learned about it other than in the importance it had in Canadian or European history. From what I learned of the Middle East, I learned in college more than high school. English classes and history classes were what taught us about the Middle Eastern, and even then, due to the short amount of time that was the college semester, we learned very little. Sometimes the media might show something about Israel, but it is the history that is being made now, not the history that has already occurred.

Though there has obviously been other genocides throughout history, the high school and elementary school rarely teach their students about the detailed history of them, such as Rowanda, or the Native American genocides. It at all mentioned it is mentioned briefly and in a Eurocentric manner. From what I can remember, what we learned about the Native Americans was that we took their land and killed many many hundreds in doing so. However, we also learned about their attacks back upon the European settlers and rarely did we learn just how we killed and attacked their people.

Our curriculums in the schools are very much Eurocentic. If we learn anything about the rest of the world it is how it plays a role in Canadian or European history. Genocides, though talked about, are rather breif and undetailed. Other wars are only mentioned if Canada, USA, or Europe were apart of it, and we rarely hear about our wrong doings, with exceptions of course (Hiroshima Bombings, etc).