Did anyone actually read the entire article, ...or just the inflammatory subject header?
And for those who did read the entire article... did you tune out the contents after reading the subject heading, or the first few sentences?
The reason I ask is that the jest of that piece said to me that authorities acknowledged they were sending teachers into the classrooms ill-equipped. For all intents & purposes, Muslims were a mere footnote in that article and not the focus. The brief example mentioned in passing was not so much a desire to avoid offending muslims, ...but rather an attempt to avoid rousing anti-semitism. The author spent more tme discussing the slave trade than they did about muslims. I can understand why that would be such a difficult subject, ...especially in Britain with their particular history, ...however the teaching of history is essential for any nation's educational system.
The point of the article was about how teachers were ill equipped to present a balanced perspectives without creating alienation in students. Why should this be considered less of a problem than it is anywhere else? ... because one of the potentially offended or alienated groups may be Muslims? I see this as no different than in North America where teachers have difficulty presenting a curriculum that discusses evolutionary ideas in a region full of christian fundamentalists. Or those who say that American history especially as it pertains to the TransAtlantic Slave Trade should not be taught because it makes white students feel bad (a comment uttered by a poster on these very boards) Are you saying cultural sensitivity is fine as long as it is WASP sensibilities one is concerned with, ...but anyone elses is irrelevant? This isn't even about cultural sensitivity as much as it is about the lack of resources available to educators. or do you all propose teachers teach a BS version of the "official story" regardless of how inaccurate, or biased it may be? Have we forgotten what inaccurate culturally biased dogmas breed? If you've never been subjected to that kind of BS in the classroom, you probably would not understand.
The point is the teachers are not "catering to muslim agendas"... or any other [insert group here] agendas, ...they're taking the path of least resistance while admitting their own inadequacies. The solution is not to exclude subjects from the curriculum, ...but rather to equip the teachers properly, ...enabling them to present a balanced view of history without causing upset, trauma, or the stigmatization of their students, ...and right now they are admitting they don't know how to do that. Blaming the student body or stigmatizing them for a teacher's inadequacies is ridiculous. The solution is to equip the teachers.
