Does it make sense to teach the Holocaust in schools? You might offend someone, but it is worth being educated about the Holocaust. As the famous philosopher George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This is true as many events in history have been repeated, such as discrimination against different races such as Jews (Jews were not let into America for a good portion of the Holocaust) and now discrimination against Muslims in America. Students in 8th grade and older should be taught the Holocaust so that they can learn valuable life lessons and help make sure it never happens again.
There are many reasons why we should teach children about the Holocaust in school in 8th grade. One of the reasons is the valuable skills they will learn. Students will learn to put themselves in other people's shoes and understand the decisions they make along with learning not to use prejudice or racism. A quote from an article at AnneFrank.org talks about the information and skills students can learn from a lesson about Anne Frank or the Holocaust. Students learn “Where anti semitism can lead to”, where “discrimination can lead to”, and discussing the “choices and dilemmas people faced during the war and also that history is not so clear cut.”
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Students between ten and fifteen are at the most impressionable stage of life, so therefore eighth grade is the perfect time to teach the Holocaust. According to Carol Mckee and Fran Salyers, “This is the time of life when young people are forming values and making decisions that will impact them for the rest of their lives.” This means that 8th grade is the perfect time to teach the Holocaust because students are in the perfect impressionable phase. They are more likely to remember the skills and content that they learned. Students are at the perfect age to learn about the Holocaust because they are most likely to remember the