Trying again with Social Studies

Only an estimated 4 out of 10 American teens know that approximately six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, one-third of the world’s Jewish population at that time.  Only three out of 10 American teens know that Hitler came to power through a democratic process according to a survey by the Pew Research Center.   The representative body of the National Education Association (NEA) just voted to stop teaching about the Holocaust using any information from a Jewish organization.  That resolution was overturned by the NEA executive staff after a hard pushback from Jewish organizations.

The Maryland State Department of Education Social Studies Standards and Frameworks Validation Committee approved a new framework for instruction this past June that includes a reworked focus on antisemitism and Holocaust education, which are set to go into effect beginning in the 2026-27 school year.  It has been over a year in progress.

The Committee consulted the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the nonprofit Facing History & Ourselves.  Changes in the curriculum include a middle school addition of how the bubonic plague had both long and short-term impact on population and antisemitism.  A high school world history unit on WWI discusses how the European mandate system contributed to the rise of Zionism.  The language of the curriculum tries to avoid the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to “regional conflicts and diplomacy have influenced efforts towards stability and cooperation in the Middle East”.  The portion of the curriculum that discusses the Middle East stops at 1994.  Many critics felt this is a significant omission since it does not provide students with an understanding of current events and prevents the curriculum from being relevant.   Some members of the Committee felt bring the curriculum to the present day put too much of a burden on teachers.  Others explained that the framework is a floor not a ceiling and it is not a cap on what can be taught.  Individual school systems will use the revised frameworks to write their own curriculum based on that content.   The CAIR- Council on Arab-Islamic Relations has strongly protested the absence of content and word usage in not mentioning the word "Palestine". 

Overall, 67% of public comments were in support of the revisions, another 16% supported it but wanted revisions.  Only 17% of the comments were in opposition.

Maybe we have something.