If anything, this experiment only trivializes what was done to the Jews, and at the expense of some poor 8th-graders. Cripes.
[Apopka, Fla.] Local 6 News reported that eighth-graders with last names beginning with L through Z at Apopka Memorial Middle School were given yellow five-pointed stars for Holocaust Remembrance Day. Other students were privileged, the report said.
Father John Tinnelly said his son was forced to stand in the back of the classroom and not allowed to sit because he was wearing the yellow star.
“He was forced to go to the back of the lunch line four times by an administrator,” Tinnely said.
“They were told that they could not use the water fountains,” Tinnely said. “There was even a sign supposedly at one water fountain (saying) if you’re wearing a yellow star , you can’t use this water fountain.”
“Children were selected to be persecuted or privileged, some not told the rule,” [Local 6 reporter Gerald] Reznick said. “Parents tell Local 6 they were not told prior to the school-wide experiment.”
“Teachers felt that it would have defeated the purpose to tell the students ahead of time because that would have prepared them,” Principal Douglas Guthrie said.
Somebody should fire this guy. Oh wait, his name starts with a “G.” Maybe he gets a bowl of ice cream instead. What a creep.
interesting. so, where in the article does it identify the skin color of the father? oh, right. it doesn’t. you’re merely showing your own bigotry.
Exactly !!!I’m the bigot because I said the father was white. No, that was an educated guess. Because a Black, Hispanic, Jew, or other minority would have understood what it felt like to walk in someone else’s shoes. Who, besides some piece of white trash, thinking they are better then Jews would have the audacity to cry that they were a JEW for a day. Maybe I’m jumping the gun on this point, but John Tinnelly sounds Irish to me and his picture sure makes him look white.
http://www.local6.com/slideshow/news/8364056/detail.html?qs=;s=3;p=news;dm=ss;w=400
Your point about Holocaust Remembrance Day is correct. I was wrong on that point.
That does not mean that one of the more horrific events of the last century can not be a model of the rest of man’s inhumanity to man. Several other posts, including yours, point out how students are not being taught to think. So in an exercise like this, no, robot students will not understand it. Those that are taught to experience things, to think, to not be afraid to question will understand it.
Yes, I do think some people on this post are part of the problem. Go back and read #32. Because as you just pointed out, if you think this was a game, then you don’t understand the significance. Those that stand there doing nothing because it doesn’t apply to them are the cowards. And it was the cowards that allowed Hitler and Stalin to become the murdering dictators they were.
Now, I truly don’t think you personally would brush off the Holocaust, or any other genocide, or other mass social discriminatory policy. You have indicated your revulsion for it. I agree that the exercise should have been followed up with some movies. To reinforce that this isn’t some game, or is trivial, the whole scenario should have been explained after the exercise and before the movie. In reality it all started out with wearing a yellow Star of David and ended up with the human debris shown in the films. There is a connection. Whether you agree or not, the movies will not make a connection to discrimination unless it is all part of one package. There may be other effective ways of teaching about this and other genocides, but I believe this to be an effective method.
Flash back The teacher made elementry school kids where a dunce hat and sit in the corner of the back of the room when they acted out.
If you spoke out of turn the nuns would crack your hands with a ruler.
We need a better screening process for Teachers and Police officers.
Too many idiots in important positions.
Their was an excellent report on abc’s Nightline http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/ this evening on how police lie to force confessions out of innocent people.
the results seems to closely match the standford prison experiment http://www.prisonexp.org/ While it may seem to trivialise various genocides and holocausts it does show how easy it is to create the conditions necessary to create these acts
These were middle school kids. Do middle school kids even have the mental capability to understand the magnitude of the holocaust? It seems to me like the teachers were trying to shove this down their throats when in reality it is a slow process to understand something as significant and as horrible the holocaust.
I saw nothing wrong with this. What would be wrong with doing this first, it’s interesting and does make a point and it’s different. Gets them actually thinking.
Afterwards, perhaps the next day, THEN show them the “grim, naked truth” of the holocaust through the use of film and books. It would be like a cold slap in the face of reality. Have the kids one day see it as kind of fun, see that “wow, this is different” kind of thing. Then pull the rug out from under their feet and show them the extreme of this type of behavior. How easy it was to get caught up into.
Sounds like people like Paul doesn’t want their kids actually to experience anything or think for themselves. They just want them to go to class and do the “repeat after me…” routine. How about doing something different for a change? No no, can’t have anything DIFFERENT. How dare they try to be different!
Also, I’ve never understood the “Jewish” race thing. I thought it was always a religion, not a “race”. I see people that are Jews and I think to myself “this is another race? Why are they all white looking then?”. Are they white people from a certain part of the world and you’re just labeled “Jew” if you’re born there? Or is it because you’re considered a Jew if you’re Mother was Jewish? How come someone can convert to Judaism, does that person then change races? Never heard of someone actually changing races before….well except for Michael Jackson of course.
Dark sarcasm in the classroom.
We don’t need your thought control.
Another brick in the wall.
Drop out and become a bricklayer.
This reminds me of Jane Elloitt’s “Blue Eyes – Brown Eyes” lesson that was broadcast on PBS Frontline (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/view.html). Racism & bigotry come in many flavors, and teachers need to use as many tools as neccessary to wipe out intoleance and ignorance.
I don’t believe sticking the kids face in the mudd to teach about the holocaust is the best way to learn. Its kind of mean don’t you agree.
No differnet than locking kids in jail for the day forcing them to wear prison uniforms and handcuffs.
Kids understand!
Thier is no need to have anyone have to experience what happened during the holocaust first hand.
Having a holocaust? survior come in and meet with the students and talk about his or her life experience or showing a film such as shindlers list and discussing it is a better approach.
My day, growing up it was required to read certain books such as The Catcher in the Rye, All Quiet on the russian front, George orwells 1984, and so forth.
I understood more from reading the books and discussing them in class than if I was forced to play a tortuing role in class.
When you read a good novel you can experience what it was like with out having to feel the experience.
If the school wanted to make a play about the holocaust and kids didn’t have to do something against thier will then that would be fine.
Re 39., Timothy, you make a good point. We look at the holocaust from a distance, and 99.999% without personal experience from it. We think the Nazis were bad, but they were good people in their own bubble of existence. They were following orders from their leader, Hitler. Hitler said it was okay to kill Jews, then they were honorable people in doing so. They were patriots. Nazi wives and daughters were loving people. They treated their husbands and sons with respect and love. How do you think the world sees us today? We have a president who kills 100,000 Iraqis not by gas or ovens but by rockets and bullets. What’s the difference? People dead are people dead. You justify it by simply changing a word in your head from invasion to war. Everybody already knows that this Iraq “war” was based on lies. Bush and Israel is doing the same thing that Hitler was trying to do: ethnic cleansing. Getting rid of the rich culture that is Muslim and the Middle East. Why should we plant democracy there? Okay, let them have democracy. Democracy is government for the will of the people. But, 95% of the Middle Eastern people want America and Israel out of their site. So Bush doesn’t really want democracy there, he wants his cronies there so he can subjugate his Texas-style values on people who do not care for it. Bush doesn’t respect other values. Bush is just like Hitler, only better. Hitler used direct means. Bush uses clandestine means.
The leaders of Israel and Bush belong where Hitler is today. I know some Israelis. There are so many beautiful Israeli people I have met. But people follow leaders because that is the way people are programmed in school. School is not to learn. School is indoctrination into an obedient citizen of the State. It works the same in every country. Learning comes from experience and DOUBTING. When you believe something from others you put FAITH that what they are telling you is true. Belief and faith should be taken with a grain of salt. Only by starting with doubt can you learn. That is why Science has learned a lot because they start with doubt. Religion starts with belief. When you start with belief inquiry stops–learning stops. That is why Religion has never produced anything good in 5,000 years. Only wars, crusades and impositions. Science, on the other hand, has produced a better humanity: doctors, medicine, engineers.
If someone wants to experience a holocaust on a personal level all it takes is a trip to the dentist. Have you wisdom tooth pulled out without anaesthesia. Feel the pain and brutality of a man using pliers to extract a piece of you out of you. It only takes a taste of brutality to understand brutality and not wish it on another human being. Or fast for three days. See what that feels like. This is true learning.
*****WHAT THE F@ck*********
What is this long winded b#llshit and how in the world can you compare George W. Bush to Adolff Hitler.
and how does this cr#p play into the
“Middle School Uses ‘Holocaust’ Exercise on Own Students”
Hiltler was an insane man that was trying to create a master race!
He took human beings and put them in ovens while they where alive.
He used thier skin to make lapshades.
Many of the germans didn’t agree with hitler and helped the jews escape.
Its very easy to cast stones!
The United States governenemt’s army is at war with other armies.
They are trying to capture a man and bring him to justice. A man that ploted and killed several thousand innocent people on Sept 11, 2001
They are also plotting to repeat the same behavior again.
They blew the sh#t out of the world trade center.
I lived thru 911 in New York and it was no picnic.
Don’t thing for a minute that Sadam was choir boy!
Granted not everyone agrees or understands the decisions the goverment is making now however after 911 both democates and republicans agreeded we need to go to war. Someone wants us dead!
It would be interesting to see how AL Gore would have handled the war situation.
Richard B
Your apologizing for Bush and Hitler is appalling. “Many of the Germans helped the Jews escape”, ya right. The “many” might have been at most a few hundred. The penalty was death, usually summarily. In fact, there were not that many Schindlers around.
The American army is not at war against another army. Haven’t you ever heard Bush justify Gitmo BECAUSE the Taliban and al Quaeda were NOT armies?
Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11. But go ahead, Hitler invaded Poland under a similar pretense. It makes for a good excuse.
If you miss the whole connection between Bush’s acts and the acts of Hitler it can only be because you haven’t been paying attention. Hitler was elected in 1932, by all accounts illegally. By 1939 he had annexed Austria and the Sudenland before invading Poland. He turned his economy to building up a war machine during that time. Now in the 5 ½ years since Bush stole the election, he has invaded two countries and is threatening two more, Iran and North Korea. As a percentage of GNP, the American defense spending was only surpassed by WWII. Both surrounded themselves with people that have little problem lying to the legislature or the American / German people or commiting crimes against opponents..
The ovens? That didn’t start until 1943, 10 years after stealing power. Will Bush be there that long?
I think this excersize is a good idea it teachers students to feel what it was like. I was one of the students at this demonstration and i think the students where just babies who cried cause they got sent back to the line. i had to go back 3 times but i was ok. thats the problem with some students today there all about themselves not looking at he bigger picture which is shpwong what some ppl had to go through