2/3 Of U.S. Millenials Do Not Know What Auschwitz Was
Two-thirds of US millennials ‘do not know what Auschwitz was’
Apr 12, 2018
Survey released on Holocaust Remembrance Day suggests genocide is fading from memory
An organisation representing Holocaust survivors and their families has said it is “alarmed” by a survey which indicates that young people in the US lack “basic knowledge” about the genocide.
The survey, commissioned by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, identified a diminishing grasp of the historical significance of the Holocaust, particularly among the younger generations.
While 11% of Americans adults interviewed said they were unaware or unsure of what the Holocaust was, that figure was double among respondents aged 18 to 34.
And while Auschwitz has long served as a haunting symbol of the genocide and a byword for human suffering, 66% of young people were unaware or unsure of what the death camp was, compared to 41% of the general population.
The respondents themselves seemed aware of this shift in public consciousness. Seven out of ten said fewer people seem to care about the Holocaust than in the past.
Despite an apparent fading familiarity with the specifics, Americans of all ages agreed with the importance of education about the atrocities. The vast majority - 93% - said that the Holocaust should be taught in schools.
The survey also found a robust rejection of Holocaust denial among the general public, with only 4% of respondents expressing scepticism about the genocide, in which six million Jews perished.
“The issue is not that people deny the Holocaust,” said Greg Schneider, the executive vice president of the Claims Conference. “The issue is just that it’s receding from memory.”
For museums and educators already contemplating how to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive in a future with no living eyewitnesses, the findings lay out the challenges ahead in stark terms, says the New York Times.
http://www.theweek.co.uk/92886/two-thirds-of-us-millennials-do-not-know-what-auschwitz-was
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Auscwhitz is probably not a hot topic on Instagram or Snapchat, thus the millenials are beyond the reach of the word's ability to cause reflection on mass genocide of a people.
Neither is Dachau. The National Holocaust Museum is trying to keep the memory of those atrocities alive. It's up to us.
And people don't know anything about Sobibor, Bergen-Belsen, Therensenstadt (sp?), or the other camps that were used. How many people know anything about what happened at Baba Yar?
Add to that Mayanmar, Rawanda, Bataan... Ugh.
I think Auschwitz is prominent in history because it was a "camp" most documented by Nazi photographers and filmographers.
True...but one of the first camps liberated was Bergen-Belsen. I watch Hitler shit before I go to bed at night and there's one documentary that shows the liberation of that camp and Eisenhower ordering locals to come in and take a guided tour.
Are they saying that 70 or 80 years is too soon to forget about genocide?
Maybe Godwin's Law is part of the problem. If you can't compare Hitler and the Nazis to modern concerns (like when your parents stop paying for your cell phone usage), how is our children ever going to be lurnin?
He did both Germany and the world a huge service by doing that. It was a real shock to the German sense of identity.
If you've been watching this stuff on AHC I suspect they do a far better job on WWII topics than they've done on a recent series about the CIA where they treat the orchestrated coups in Iran, Guatemala, etc as noble accomplishments of US foreign policy. They're pure right-wing propaganda which leave out the corporate corruption which really drove those coups and also leave out all the adverse consequences.
I've been watching these docs on Amazon Prime. There's some really good stuff on there. I also found a doc about the Stasi, the East German Secret Police, on there, also.
The Stasi were evil.
I don't want right-wing propaganda on AHC anymore. If I do watch that channel it's only to catch the newest UFO or Ancient Alien conspiracy.
Big problem lately is that many schools teach watered down history taught by attempted revisionist history leaning liberal teachers, when they are taught world history at all. Especially in large affluent metropolitan areas.
I thought that all these learned liberals only wanted the good in history i.e. get rid of anything bad.
Care to cite an example? Or are you just whining that schools are now teaching parts of history that conservatives and bigots have deliberately ignored?
You mean like how liberals teach the unblemished truth about Columbus? Or that they teach about the racist history of the US rather than hiding bad events like the Greenwood massacre?
If you have to resort to calling me a bigot and assuming me a conservative because my comment did not fit you personal world view, than you do not deserve the courtesy of an answer! Go find someone else...
That would be anything THEY feel is bad. The remembrance of the victims of places like Auschwitz and Dachau and ensuring it never happens again aren't anywhere near their list of things to keep alive.
Nice leap. He didn't call you anything.
We don't ignore....our history good and bad should be available for all to see and let the reader make their judgment.
History does not require your help.
I didn't make any assumptions about you or call you anything. You seem overly sensitive.
I'll reiterate - can you cite any examples whatsoever to support your claim? All I'm aware of are cases where historical facts have been suppressed or ignored by bigoted conservatives because those facts make them look bad. That's why the history of race riots in the US has been suppressed - because the facts make the whites who caused those riots look very, very bad.
More like a business model.
Why shouldn't it be?
I would also add that it is them ost well-known because it was basically the Nazis best effort, the one they REALLY put their... hearts into. Not to mention that camp had the highest death toll, somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 million if memory serves.
Then no more bitching when the colonization of the new world is taught from a Native perspective as well.
Really? It's a fact that the Oklahoma schools didn't teach anything about the Greenwood massacre until the mid to late 1990s, at the earliest. Same thing with Florida and the Rosewood massacre, and with North Carolina and the Wilmington coup & massacre. The same pattern exists throughout the south. It was investigative reporters in each case who uncovered the truth about those racist mass murders.
Do NOT you fucking DARE blame this on LIBERALS Deleted CoC violation {SP}
Why not it’s the truth?
Hey Dean, I live in the Coachella Valley East of L.A.. You close? You want to "Have a cup of coffee?"
If you are relatively nearby I can travel to meet you!
If you have to resort to calling me a bigot and assuming me a conservative because my comment did not fit you personal world view, than you do not deserve the courtesy of an answer! Go find someone else...
Delleted CoC {SP}
that was a typo...I meant I don't watch
Randy, are you ok? You don't usually make comments like this.
I see that you did in fact refuse to support the moronic claims you made.
And someone else called me overly sensitive? Sheesh!!!
The American liberators of these camps, many of them battle-hardened soldiers, were profoundly shocked when they entered a camp and saw what was going on.
But to his credit, Eisenhower not only had the locals see it, but he realized it was important to document this for history-- for all the world to see. So he ordered American forces to thorougly document what had been going on-- photos, films, etc.
No you’re just new here it’s really just par for the course.
I didn't know the holocaust deniers were liberals.
they're not
Seems like a question I will be asking my oldest later when she gets home. I know my middle and my youngest do as they have taken quite an interest in history just like both their grandfathers. A little off topic, but I have had to teach my girls the capitals of the US states at a young age. They know them now, but when my oldest was in 5th grade, I noticed that it hadn't been taught to her. I attended the same county schools as they are in now and I learned that lesson in 2nd grade (about 1986). So I took it upon myself to teach that to my girls. Honestly, I don't think public schools teach the same material as we were when we were in school. It seems their main focus now is standardized testing which my 5th and 8th grader are doing this week.
My son is a High School History teacher. His biggest complaint is standardized testing.
He was just like your Daughters with WW2. The History and Military channels were always on at my house and he soaked it all up.
He was just telling me a few weeks ago how little the students in his class knew about the Holocaust. He decided to send out permission slips so his class can watch Schindler's List the last week of school.
I saw that movie when I was a Sophmore, I think it had just come out. I remember having to have a permission slip signed as well and I was 14 or 15 at the time. What an eye opening movie!
Thats so cool that your son is a History teacher! I think my youngest may go that route since she has such and interest in it, but she also has a youtube obsession LOL so we will see. My middle girl I think will go into interior design, shes good at it but being accepted into the magnet HS program may not help, I'm trying to steer her into the engineering aspect, but I'm just a mom, someone else will have to tell her that LOL. My mom was an interior designer for Ethan Allen so I guess thats where she gets it from LOL
He just loves history and wants everyone else to also. lol
I remember he was in thrid or fourth grade. He had been drawing the maps of the world and took them in to show his teacher. He came home from School all mad that day. She came to his map of Georgia and told him that it wasn't a Country, it was a state. To be fair it was just a few years after Georgia declared its independence from the Soviet Union but it still pissed him off. He had me copy the information from the Encyclopedia so he could take it in the next day. I probably should have known then he was destined to teach. hehehe
I'm sure your girls will do just fine with whatever path they choose. I understand exactly what you mean about just being the mom! lol
Hope he lives in a rural area. I have seen history taught much more accurately in rural areas of the country than in many affluent metropolitan areas.
Please pass along my sympathy about the testing, Jane. I was teaching the same courses when it started to come out. The correct answers to standardized History tests (that don'd deal with names, dates and other specific events), are usually based on the political opinion of the person or committee making up the test. Only thing harder is teaching to Common Core.
In the History/Government field, those who think that various special groups get slighted at the High School level haven't done the numbers. In a two semester High School American History class (used to be the standard requirement until it was decided that Physics was more important), the teacher has 120 forty minute classes to teach everything from pre European America to the present (a matter of 600 to 800 years). As an example, it the teacher spends more than 15 minutes dealing with the plight of the interned Japanese Americans, most of the rest of WW II is gone. It's simply impossible to teach anything but the absolute basics at that level just due to time constraints, and lots of stuff that would otherwise be important has to be left out.
Care to cite any examples of that?
I have raised four grand kids. Two have graduated high school already and one is in junior high. When I questioned each one about specific events in world history, especially the Holocaust, two said they had never been taught about WW II in school, and the third, whom is in junior high said, "Mr such and such said it never happened that way. That is just right wing nut job conservative propaganda and lies!" I reported that to the principal of his school and was told that "The teacher was free to express himself to the students any way he felt fit. That was his 1st Amendment right!" That told me enough right there!
In other words you didn't like some aspect of what a teacher taught, but you can't show that it violated district guidelines in any way, right?
He is actually teaching in a very urban district that is far from affluent.
I never stated where they went to school did I, so how would you know?
There's that.
And there's also been a serious "dumbing down" of standards in many cases-- due to "bending over backwards" to give in to the forces oif political correctness.
I will definitely pass that along to him.
As I said to Ex Navy above, he teaches in an urban district. Quite a few of his students don’t speak English and a sadly large percentage can only read at a 5th grade level. That presents another learning obstacle.
He has mentioned on a few occasions his frustration with the time he actually has to cover a period in history. He has a few that he is really passionate about and would love to spend more time on. This is only his second year so he is fresh and full speed ahead. Overall he loves his job and his students.
I think you miss understood.
You replied to me that you hoped my son was teaching in a rural area.
I replied to you that he wasn’t
My humble apologies. I did in fact misunderstand. I confused your comment for my reply to Shrekk's. By the way, I am retired/disabled Navy. Small point of contention I realize, but referring to somebody as "ex" instead of "former" military is usually considered to be someone who left the military under less than honorable conditions. You have good evening.
Well, looks like my apologies are in order also. I honestly thought I typed Ed. Small typo, definitely no disrespect meant.
You have a good evening also.
John, have you ever considered that the millenials are being raised in a world with ongoing genocides that has largely been ignored? Do the current genocides matter to the millenials or anyone else?
I think it is important to know history, but with what is happening in today's world, it is evident that we, as a people, haven't learned much from the past or just don't care unless it affects our own family/country.
I agree with you. Sometimes though, current events are not adequately covered in the media and the horror is only opened for inspection in retrospect.
It the "Take the picture from the pretty side" maxim.
I think its also due to the fact that much of the media (on both the left and the right) tends to focus primarily on issues they can use to advance their political agenda.
And in many cases, no matter how important a story, if they feel it won't advance their agenda... that either don't cover it or just give it minimal air play. (If it doesn't advance their agenda, or of they can't figure out how to use a story to demonize the other side)
It's also an avoided topic in most public schools. For some reason there are teachers, school districts and history book authors who avoid giving the unvarnished truth about the Jewish genocide committed by fascist white supremacists. They also have difficulty teaching the true history of the civil war where we saw 360,000 American soldiers killed by treasonous bigots who attacked our nation and constitution to protect what they saw as their right to own and treat humans as cattle.
Not only do many young people not know about Auschwitz, we saw a bunch of young white males wielding tiki torches, wearing Nazi armbands and MAGA hats, waving swastikas and confederate flags while chanting "Jews will not replace us!". I can't imagine anyone with a conscience who had learned the real truth about what the Nazis did to their fellow humans could do such things, so I must assume those bigots were never taught actual history. While ignorance may be blissful, it's also extremely deadly.
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana
Oh, I think they were taught....but I think they thought it was more a of a how to course.
Not only do many young people not know about Auschwitz, we saw a bunch of young white males wielding tiki torches, wearing Nazi armbands and MAGA hats, waving swastikas and confederate flags while chanting "Jews will not replace us!".
In case anyone missed it, or email the link to someone, here's the video:
How utterly depressing. Over half of my mom's family died in Auschwitz. I grew up with people who had tattoos of numbers on their arms. My uncles is still alive today and has told his story on NBC news. Just like the Armenians before them, no one cares about the ugliness of human behavior, until it is them.
That does seem to be the way of the world at times doesn't it?
Very true. Most people don't know about the Armenian Genocide which was Hitler's model for his.
Dear Friend Perrie: Between the Vermictung of the holocaust, the pograms, jihads and intifadas we lost and lose in my own time some family in four generations about the planet.
Its one of the reasons why I served in combat, never backed down and refused to lose no matter what.
It is a poorly kept secret that the biggest doves on the globe are combat veterans.
That said, there is right and wrong.
We fight and win for right so wrong cannot prevail.
Enoch.
It's nice to see this being done:
Dear Friend Shrekk: Unpleasant yet necessary.
The price of freedom is forever vigilance.
Enoch.
Leaving aside the specifics of the word 'Auschwitz' , it is also disturbing that , according to the article, more than 1 in 5 Americans 18-34 don't know what the Holocaust was in general.
Exactly
John , I wonder if they even know what constitutes A holocaust, genocide , let alone THE holocaust. and the conditions that helped bring the numerous ones that have happened all around the globe , including here in our own nation.
I am hearing a faint whisper of those who fail to learn history , and from it , are doomed to repeat it.
Is that what we are setting these kids up for in the future? for whatever reason?
I think you are right.
"What's a Hollar Cost? Well that depends on how many acres and which county yer buyin in..."
It really is sad to see the trend of many rural folk in America who ridicule higher education, who doubt anything their pappy or pastor hadn't "learned" them already, reject facts about the holocaust and continue to blame Jews for many of their problems even though most have never actual met one, they just hear about the supposed "Jewish cabal" their parents or peers believe are controlling Hollywood, banks and world finance which must be why they're still so poor because it couldn't have anything to do with their lack of education, it has to be "the Jews".
implying rural folks are not as educated as the ones that choose to live in durr-bane areas? stereotype much? and wasn't that a reason the last election was won or lost dependant on which SIDE your on?
politically bent sarcastic humor is not humorous , it is simply political , and sarcastic to the point of being distasteful
not all that choose to live the rural lifestyle is uneducated, nor are they poor .
personally I hope the disagreement and argument john and myself have about the cause (s) of the civil war continue long after we both turn to dust and beyond for another thousand years . WHY? because it give those that follow the chance to use critical thinking , and how to research them properly.
IF history teaches all of us anything , the renowned and acclaimed academics of the day from any age right up to current day , can be wrong.
Academia once said the earth was the center of the universe, and the our world was flat, how many other things has academia been wrong about , and only corrected because someone used critical thinking and took the risk to prove them wrong?
What we are teaching our young will determine if they actually become critical thinkers , or simply parrots and mindless drones to ANY establishment. and that accusation goes both was as you evidence.
I know which I choose.
look back at what you thought you knew yesterday, look at what you learned today, imagine what you will learn tomorrow .
My 44-year-old daughter in law (Miss Liberal knows it all) was raised and educated in San Francisco one night she and my son dropped in while I was watching a program on AHC about Nazi Germany to my utter amazement she asked: " Who was Adolph Hitler?"
You're right, I did stereotype rural Southern and mid west Americans, and yes, not all fit the description. Some rural folk are wealthy and well educated and don't ridicule higher education. However, there does seem to be a trend, especially among Trump supporters, to dismiss and reject higher education as "elitist" while clinging to preconceived indoctrination which continue generations old cycles of xenophobia, homophobia, Islamaphobia and sexism for no other reason than "My pappy said so". I grew up in a rural part of Ohio and I watched the lies about Jewish Americans, blacks, gays and immigrants get passed around as if it were just common knowledge and any attempt to correct those prejudices were met with anger and vitriol.
"genocide is fading from memory"
Out of sight, out of mind.
"Smart phones" are making for a pretty dumb society, void of any emotion or reverence to what was !
Funny you say that, I told my husband the same thing about a year after we got smart phones. Got a whole computer at your fingertips but don't use it the same as you would a PC or laptop. I also told him that it would be the demise of society. I take my girls to the park and all I see are parents sitting on a bench staring at their phones. The only people who aren't, are the people walking or jogging on the track or the kids actually playing on the playground.
I watch it in my own daughter when she comes to our house. I make her put it down and have fun with our grandson.....WITH US !
Until it's quiet time, "Smart Phones" aren't to be used except for actual calls coming in. You want to come over to be with your mom and dad, YOU WILL BE WITH YOUR MOM AND DAD.
The adults are just as bad Just had dinner out with the hubby and we watched a table of 6 all on their phones, instead of enjoying each other. It looked bizarre.
I think a lot of this is not talking at home, too. My kids were always a part of the adult conversations and they were curious to learn and join in. They went on to debate team to discuss issues of the day. Most of their peers couldn't have cared less. We are living in an instant coffee society that will be run only by the few who are informed.
We go eat as a family a lot during the weekends since it is our only time together to really do anything. I stay home and go to school and all 3 girls have extra curricular activities during the week. All of us have phones except our 5th grader. I always tell the hostess that we need kids menus. Not because my girls (except the little) order from it, but because we do the activities on it together. We play tic tac toe, hangman, etc.... and engage in conversation. Hubs likes to see how the girls' week was and whats new. I don't really care if my girls' or husband hate it, but everyone puts their phone away. I remember I asked my parents once when I was young and we were going out somewhere, "why don't we have an answering machine?", "Aren't you worried we might miss an important call?" My parents looked at me and said "We aren't home, we are out spending time as a family, if it's important, they will call back later". I really miss those days of simplicity
When I have dinner with others, the phone gets set down and doesn't getpicked up until after dinner.....I saw one meme that said, we all pile up our phones at the beginning of the meal, first one to touch theirs, buys.......
We hope
I heartily agree. I still don't have a smart phone or cell phone of any kind. If you give over your brain power to a handheld device, all it takes is random butter-finger moment to turn some people into helpless blithering idiots who cant even remember their own phone number let alone anyone else's.
I have one, but use it for actual phone calls and looking at emails mainly. If I get a text or an email from someone, I call immediately. I don't text. I will email back, AFTER our phone conversation, as a follow up to our actual conversation. Too many people "Use" these things as a gotchya moments if you don't actually speak with them. "Smart Phones" are great for keeping times and dates of "Actual" conversations, especially when it comes to business.
I do like looking at car, boat and gun stuff though, when I'm by myself. It passes the time better than TV.
I blame social media more than smart phones.
I agree on that too. But....."Smart phones" are the tool of choice FOR social media interactions .
Maybe it's different where you are in this country, but I live in the Boston area and I'm somewhat proud that students around here seem well versed on not only the Holocaust, but also slavery in America. On the other hand I'm somewhat disappointed that they seem sorely lacking in historical knowledge of just about anything else.
My parents were both raised in the NE, Jersey to be exact and both went to college in Boston where they met. I remember in HS, I was writing a paper. I had worked very hard on it and let my dad read it before I typed it up. He looked at me and said "I know you worked hard on this and you will probably get an A, but if I turned this exact paper in when I was in high school, I would get a D at best." Im in my 30's and I still remember that day. It hurt my feelings and my dad assured me that it wasn't my fault, but that the quality of education just wasn't the same as it use to be and that schools these days accept mediocre work. Quite honestly, that was the first time I heard that word and I still use it today with my girls
There is no doubt about it. It's strange in a way, the decline seems to trace right back to when the Department of Education was created
It helps to explain why so many of them are gun grabbers eager to give up their protection from these atrocities.
Dean,
Although I support the 2nd amendment, no gun will help us if our gov decided to use gas on us. Look at Syria. Armed to the teeth, and dying from gas. Let's hope they never go for germ warfare.
God! I never even thought of that! I live where the CDC is too and even I know my lil S&W Shield isn't going to help
Ain't that the truth!
I tried, but there seems to be a shortage. I wonder why?
We have a WW2 one that hubs grandfather gave him when he was a kid. He was a WW2 vet and I unfortunately never had the honor to meet him, but hubs also has a WW2 Nazi helmet from his grandfather as well, story is, he ripped it off a Nazis head after he shot him. Who am I to question that? Actually my hub has quite a few things from WW2 from his grandfather. My grandfather was also a WW2 vet, a doctor actually, but I don't have anything like hubs does
I'm currently watching a series on WW2 and Hitlers holocaust on Amazon Prime. Never before seen since 1945
Now why would you keep HER in the house... she freaks me out.. I know they are listening to me...
Actually, I'm going to have to start it over if my youngest comes home and sees me watching it LOL. Funny thing about that little girl, I have to constantly remind her that Germany today is not the Germany that she is studying. Everytime she hears Germany mentioned on the news or whatever, she says "Ugggggghhhhh, Germany, I don't like them, Hitler did bad things." She knows that the country as a whole has progressed and there is no longer East and West Germany. She just seems to cannot get passed the whole Hitler era. Hopefully their studies move onward because at this age, kids love their teachers and teachers are smarter than parents LOL. So no matter what I say or show her, she still has a bad taste in her mouth about Germany.
Right!?! LOL kinda freaky, kinda like my hubs mentioning nutter butter cookies and he gets a sponsored ad with creepy eyes and the cookie itself popping up and down on IG. Reminds me of that song by the Police LOL
Damned Alexa popped up my Kindle this morning. It wouldn't go away, either.
Folks....I think we are looking at the dreaded Singularity the sci-fi writers have been warning us about.
I totally agree. AI is going to get us.
Now, now Greg...
You wouldn't find me wearing a P-hat if I was freezing my head off. I am just being practical about the situation as it stands. The second might help with an invading force, (again if they are not using chemical weapons), but not our own gov.
The only invasion of the US in the future will look like this
Don't see the AR-15's helping that much.
Probably not given the disparity of the weapons available to both. But I'll take a fighting chance over no chance any day of the week.
I find it interesting that you addresed the hat, but not the condom snorting.....Freudian Slip, perhaps?
To be fair, she didn't say anything about the Tide Pods.
And neither did you.....
Gary,
Leave my slip out of this. If I am going to snort anything, it won't be a condom.
Shoosh Trout... I told you about that in private. Now I have to explain why I wash my mouth out with Tide Pods.
It all started back when my mom washed my mouth out with soap......
Among others, I know of a few pretty smart old dead guys who disagree with you.
Our Founding Fathers ...........
sorry.....
That makes you almost as old as dirt.
Hogwash ..... as old as the napkin perhaps but dirt?
No way.
The Condom snorting challenge is mostly false.
I keep wondering why Assad is still alive. Doesn't require a bunch of soldiers (would be or real) running around engaging his army, and whether the army has chemical weapons or not doesn't matter. Just one or two guys with good long range rifles. He's gotta come out of his palace sometime.
You're kidding? "Generation Me" doesn't know history.
Real shocker there.
You know, I heard that same term used for people who were in their teens and 20's in the 60's and 70's. Only my parents called it the "Me Generation".
Things never change. The older generation is always bitching about the younger generation
There's some truth to that......funny how 60's and 70's rockers complain about how these young kids don't play no good music.......sounds like our parents......
Exactly!
so true!
I don't know. Our music was pretty awesome in the 60's and 70's. Plus we had free love.
That was even more awesome!
To use baby boomers raised in the 50's and 60's our music was the greatest ever. Some of us may have looked at our parents as squares ( my parents were cool), but they lived through the great depression and WWll, the one thing they weren't was "Wimpy"
Yup, we were the wimpy hippies that fought in Vietnam, lived through the turbulent 60's, and went on freedom rides to the racial south to help register blacks to vote.
Yep, I found a quote once from Socrates bitching about how lazy and selfish the youngsters were those days.
The 80s was a good decade for music, no doubt about that.
Funny, that's what all our DI's told us. Gunnery Sergeant Ferguson? Is that you.
Yeah but you couldn't light a match near any of the band members.
Probably right, but they are and were likely grounded in their reasoning.
I'd also venture a guess and say that the kids today are on a entirely different level.
Boomers decided it wasn't important.
Truth to that too. I'd like to know if the 41% of the general pop includes the 66%.
This is what you get when you decide that STEM is all that matters.
I don't buy that. Not completely anyway. Everyone still takes some basic history, even all those Millennials.
This is what you get when BASIC history gets sanitized and managed for whatever nonsensical reason. History is truth. Not one side or the others preferred narrative of the truth but what REALLY happened. Certain historical events are more seminal than others. The Holocaust is certainly one of those
That so many of that age don't know the basic details of the Holocaust is an abject failure of our educational system. It's unconscionable that this could happen.
Hard to remember back that far but i'm pretty sure we had a history class in Jr High and High School. I know i didn't have one in college. Way too many STEM requirements for an Engineering degree.
My family had no one "directly" affected by the Holocaust but we learned that history somewhere. It certainly wasn't from something like PBS or the Learning Channel since there was nothing like that back then and i wasn't really all that interested in history until i was much older so i guarantee i didn't seek it out on my own. Yeah, pretty sure a history class is where i learned most of the details about it.
Regardless, it should be taught today if it isn't.
But when they know it won't be tested, and thus they don't have to bother actually learning any of it they tend to just blow it off and brain dump ASAP.
Again, this is what you get when you try to gear an education system towards making kids "ready for the workplace", AKA a single minded focus on STEM. Why do you think kids these days don't know shit about history, civics, and are overweight? Because none of those subjects equate to getting a good paying job and all of that, not like science, technology and math. For decades our education system across the country has been trying to become an assembly line of future workers than one of well rounded and knowledgeable citizens. When you don't teach kids how important the liberal arts are, and actively send the message that they don't matter, they aren't going to devote much time to them.
Where to start? I guess the weight comment.
Kids are overweight these days largely because parents won’t pry them away from their tv’s or electronic devices and encourage them to get outside to move around a little. It certainly has little to do with what is or isn’t taught in history class.
Kids don’t know “shit” about history because of the sanitized “shit” version of history our schools and parents are teaching them. I don’t blame that on the kids. It’s not their fault. I blame that on the schools and parents.
Same for lessons in Civics. Being a good citizen starts and stops at home, not at school. Parents expecting schools to teach their kids to be good citizens is part of what’s messed up today.
I agree that teaching liberal arts is important but the realities of today’s world are that STEM coursework becomes more and more important each year. That said both can still be taught at the same time and taught properly if ours school can exercise an unbiased form of intellectual honesty.
That obviously isn’t happening right now.
Combined with PE and recess going away.
I was talking about the overall trend, not just history.
Nooo, it is because it isn't emphasized. And what exactly do you mean by "sanitized"? When was the last time you were in a high school history class? Do you even know what they teach or how? Please explain that comment, because as it stands it means little.
School is where students are supposed to learn about government and how our, and various other states function. I don't expect the parents to be able to teach that to their children because most of them are relatively clueless on the subject. I am not talking about morality or anything of that nature, that needs to be taught at home. I am just talking about the real world function of government.
And as we focus more and more on it, you get dumber and dumber citizens. You get more and more people not knowing anything about the holocaust, you get citizens who cannot even tell you what the three branches of government are, how they interact with each other, or what the First Amendment protects. You get citizens that undermine democracy via their own ignorance.
That sounds like "as long as they teach what I think they should teach".
IMO that is only a small part in America's child obesity problem. IMO The prepared foods we all buy and eat are why so many Americans are so grossly overweight. Walk into any public place in this country Fat, Fat, Fat and more FAT is what you see all around you.
Its got to be the food we eat. It's all prepared garbage these days.
Did you notice the title of this thread? Enough said.
If liberal arts people ran the world all these years we’d likely still be living in caves scraping our dinner off the walls. That said, a place and time for everything. I got a degree heavy in STEM and know all about the holocaust. So I must not be one of your “dummies” but then again i’m not a millennial so perhaps that doesn’t count.
Again, note the title of the seed.
Not at all. As noted earlier, simply teach the truth of the more seminal events in history. Not a sanitized version that might upset this snowflake or that. I think the Holcaust qualifies as “significant” so why do you think a majority of millennials apparently aren’t very knowledgeable of the Holocaust?
So true. My parents said that slavery was not the cause of the Civil War. Neither one of them had a clue about Watergate ("he just did what every body else did, only he got caught).
I'm glad I got history in high school and took extra history classes in college for the extra credits.
Two-thirds of US millennials ‘do not know what Auschwitz was’
Well if this be true I am disappointed as I was placing our future with the youth of America. It might make one wonder exactly what is being taught during History classes, or do they still teach such things.
All the liberal arts are being reduced or cut entirely because they don't turn kids into engineers.
Which is unfortunate because not everybody can be an engineer.
Somebody has to teach these engineers how to write. Please! Somebody teach engineers how to write!
because they don't discuss anymore they google.
So big deal young people dont know some history.
I'll bet they all know who Hitler was though.
Many also probably dont know who the current vice president is or their governor is as well.
Young people aren't concerned with stuff adults are, I know I wasn't at that age.
What young people of today do know is that the people before them screwed a lot of crap up that their generation will end up needing to deal with, including the unsustainable US budget, a devided country and a dysfunctional government that is basically not much more than an out of control in-fighting dysfunctional mess.
Yeah we did so well ....LOL
Yeah it is a pretty big deal. Those who don't learn the lessons of the past (or never even knew the past) are condemned to repeat it.
That ..... is absolutely nothing to be proud of either.
I hear what you're saying but they should be. See above and below.
This country is here because of those people who "screwed up a lot of crap." Hell, many millennials are probably here only because of sacrifices made by some of those people "who screwed up a lot of crap." Many made the ultimate sacrifice so future generations could sit in their comfy chairs and complain on the internet about the people before them who "screwed a lot of crap up." So perhaps a little respect is in order here.
It ain't perfect but it's far from as bad as many from generation narcissist try to make it.
Young people dont know it all, never dd and never will. Some will probably never know or understand alswhitch but it won't be forgotten. Repeated, perhaps but probably not forgotten.
Some young people already know stuff some of us older folks will never learn, that's how the world operates and moves forward.
The current state of America and the world is a far cry from where it was even 50 years ago. And NO we have not left the world a cleaner, safer, more stable world for them to deal with.
In My opinion, We could have and should have done better. We have allowed our politicians to mismanage this country's wealth and power for way too many years. The young people are the ones who will reap the consequences.
a baby born in the USA today is already in dept over $80,000.00 and growing. Now we add in the newest major Tax cuts and heavily increased our spending....LOL
Yeah we're watching out real well for the future Americans.