Holocaust Education in the UK: False rumors lead to internet hysteria

In the past 2 hours I have received numerous emails, all sent to numerous other people as well, informing me that the UK has dropped the Holocaust from the curriculum because of opposition by Moslem students.

This is NOT correct.

As I have commented in previous postings The Holocaust has not been officially dropped. What has happened is that, according to a report released by the British Office of Education, teachers [not the schools, i.e. it is not official] are avoiding teaching about the Holocaust and the Crusades for fear of offending "students" who might have a different view [i.e. Muslims].

This is very disturbing and must be addressed but we must be sure to get our facts straight, i.e. it is something percolating up from below and not a top down decision.

Moreover, it is the Office of Education is the one who released the news. This suggests to me that they realize that they have a serious problem on their hands.

In fact the report called for

resources, which were scarce at present, to be made available to teach controversial and emotional history subjects.

The report also suggested that

Initial teacher training should include more attention on how to teach these subjects and a better research base should be made available to teachers

This is a disturbing development but equally disturbing is the way a complete misrepresentation of the situation is being spread via the internet.