Southlake (TX) school leader tells teachers to balance Holocaust books with 'opposing' views

[Nevilledog]

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Evan Rosenfeld | אבן רוזנפלד
@Evan_Rosenfeld
Teachers in the Carroll school district say they fear being punished for stocking classrooms with books dealing with racism, slavery and now the Holocaust, ⁦@Mike_Hixenbaugh⁩ and ⁦@ahylton26⁩ report.

Southlake school leader tells teachers to balance Holocaust books with ‘opposing’ views
A top administrator with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas, warned teachers about having one-sided books about the Holocaust in their classrooms.
nbcnews.com
12:01 PM · Oct 14, 2021

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/southlake-texas-holocaust-books-schools-rcna2965

SOUTHLAKE, Texas — A top administrator with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake advised teachers last week that if they have a book about the Holocaust in their classroom, they should also offer students access to a book from an “opposing” perspective, according to an audio recording obtained by NBC News.

Gina Peddy, the Carroll school district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, made the comment Friday afternoon during a training session on which books teachers can have in classroom libraries. The training came four days after the Carroll school board, responding to a parent’s complaint, voted to reprimand a fourth grade teacher who had kept an anti-racism book in her classroom.

A Carroll staff member secretly recorded the Friday training and shared the audio with NBC News.

“Just try to remember the concepts of [House Bill] 3979,” Peddy said in the recording, referring to a new Texas law that requires teachers to present multiple perspectives when discussing “widely debated and currently controversial” issues. “And make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust,” Peddy continued, “that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives.”

*snip*

[Ocelot II]

1. Books with "opposing" views? Like what, Mein Kampf?

[Igel]

4. Its' a question.

But I suspect that at least part of the bill's requirements would be met by listening to--even if rejecting, denialist arguments.

If there are no denialist arguments, oh, well--mention they exist. And simply point out flaws. No need for vitriol or polemic.

It could also be partly satisfied--the law, that is--by pointing out that far more than 6 million people died, more than 12 million total by most estimates--not only Jews, but Roma, gays, dissidents, millions of Slavs (primarily Poles, but also others). There's actually a good site that tries to summarize the dead by category (sadly, didn't seem important enough to remember the name, but you can duckduck it).

I've had to teach evolution and ran into flak. No big fight, no put downs, no vitriol. The discussion proceeded; I didn't change the student's mind (didn't seek to, not really--I have to teach the facts and the conclusion but belief isn't my goal).

[SharonAnn]

6. Ones that say you can kill and/or enslave any people you don't like.

[sarisataka]

2. Makes sense, so to be fair put those books in

A section labeled "Crackpot theories and Nazi sympathizers"

[msongs]

3. great, fill those shelves with anti-bible tomes nt

[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. There is no place for antisemitism in the classroom, in Texas, or in our country

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