Teachers drop the Holocaust to avoid offending Muslims
By LAURA CLARK - More by this author »

Last updated at 11:58am on 2nd April 2007

Teachers drop the Holocaust to avoid offending Muslims

Schools are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending
Muslim pupils, a Government backed study has revealed.

It found some teachers are reluctant to cover the atrocity for fear of
upsetting students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial.

There is also resistance to tackling the 11th century Crusades - where
Christians fought Muslim armies for control of Jerusalem - because lessons
often contradict what is taught in local mosques.

The findings have prompted claims that some schools are using history 'as a
vehicle for promoting political correctness'.

The study, funded by the Department for Education and Skills, looked into
'emotive and controversial' history teaching in primary and secondary
schools.

It found some teachers are dropping courses covering the Holocaust at the
earliest opportunity over fears Muslim pupils might express anti-Semitic and
anti-Israel reactions in class.

The researchers gave the example of a secondary school in an unnamed
northern city, which dropped the Holocaust as a subject for GCSE coursework.

The report said teachers feared confronting 'anti-Semitic sentiment and
Holocaust denial among some Muslim pupils'.

It added: "In another department, the Holocaust was taught despite
anti-Semitic sentiment among some pupils.

"But the same department deliberately avoided teaching the Crusades at Key
Stage 3 (11- to 14-year-olds) because their balanced treatment of the topic
would have challenged what was taught in some local mosques."

A third school found itself 'strongly challenged by some Christian parents
for their treatment of the Arab-Israeli conflict-and the history of the
state of Israel that did not accord with the teachings of their
denomination'.

The report concluded: "In particular settings, teachers of history are
unwilling to challenge highly contentious or charged versions of history in
which pupils are steeped at home, in their community or in a place of
worship."

But Chris McGovern, history education adviser to the former Tory government,
said: "History is not a vehicle for promoting political correctness.
Children must have access to knowledge of these controversial subjects,
whether palatable or unpalatable."

The researchers also warned that a lack of subject knowledge among
teachers - particularly at primary level - was leading to history being
taught in a 'shallow way leading to routine and superficial learning'.

Lessons in difficult topics were too often 'bland, simplistic and
unproblematic' and bored pupils.