A recent Texas law stipulated that no teacher should be forced to address controversial subjects. An official related this to the Holocaust.
Dallas – A department head of a school board in northern Texas asked teachers at a workshop in Southlake just outside of Dallas to use “counter notifications” to address the Holocaust in class. In the audio recording of the workshop on the subject of school books, she can be heard asking the employees to replenish the textbook stocks in the classroom, because in addition to every textbook about the Holocaust, a book with “opposing perspectives” must also be available.
The reason for the workshop was, according to reports from the US television station NBC News, a reprimand by the school administration in the Carroll district in northern Texas against a teacher. She had given her students a book on the anti-racism movement in the library of their classroom, about which parents had complained to the school administration on the basis of a new law in Texas.
No “controversial” topics in class: Required Holocaust relativization in schools in Texas
The law stipulates that teachers in Texas must not be compelled to deal with controversial political or social issues and only examine them from multiple perspectives, if at all, without preferring a particular interpretation. It came into force on September 1, 2021 after the signature of Governor Greg Abbott, who had introduced two more controversial laws on the same day: the ban on abortions after the sixth week and a controversial and allegedly discriminatory electoral reform.
The responsible high school board member of the district administration, Dr. Lane Ledbetter, after extensive media reports in the USA, distanced herself from the statements of the headmistress: “The statements of the colleague should in no way convey the view that the Holocaust could be anything less than a terrible chapter in history. We recognize that there are no two sides to the Holocaust, ”a CNN report quoted the head of the school board as saying.
Discussion in the USA: Teachers are afraid of punishment
The news of the demand was received with horror in many parts of the United States. Oren Segal, vice chairman of the Anti-Difamation League, told CNN: “The idea that someone perceives a reply to the Holocaust as a legitimate demand is possibly a sign of our time. It’s about anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial and all those things that support extremists. “
Meanwhile, teachers in Texas remain fearful of inadvertently violating the new laws of the Republican state government. “Teachers are literally afraid of being punished for reading books in their classrooms,” one elementary school teacher told NBC. “There are simply no children’s books that teach ‘opposing views’ on the Holocaust and no ‘opposing perspectives’ on slavery. Should we therefore remove all books on these subjects from curricula and libraries? ” Abbott’s Republicans have announced that the controversial education law will be amended in December. (Sandra Kathe)
