AMERICAN THINKER
By Lauri Regan
May 9, 2014
With much disgust, I discovered that National Review Online has officially mainstreamed Holocaust denial. By publishing Charles C.W. Cooke’s blog that pronounces that it “is a damn shame” that a California school district caved to pressure and withdrew an assignment requiring students to argue that the Holocaust did not occur, NRO is supporting the dissemination of an unbelievably offensive ideology that was formerly only espoused by psychotic tyrants such as Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Unlike the vast majority of respected opinions on the subject, Cooke bases his abhorrent position on claims that “There really is no better way of teaching critical thinking” than allowing debate on whether or not the Holocaust in fact occurred. Seriously?! As a practicing attorney for 26 years who developed critical thinking skills throughout my education, I feel confident in asserting that Holocaust denial has absolutely no place in the development of that skill set. And it certainly has no place in any classroom that desires to teach anything other than perverted ideologies and anti-Semitism -– period.
This is not about free speech. Holocaust deniers have every right to pronounce their idiocy if they so choose. But our classrooms are places in which students are taught not just to think but facts as well. The Holocaust occurred -– period. It is a fact not open to debate. If Cooke feels strongly about teaching critical thinking, then perhaps he could pen columns about all the classrooms that have shut down debate on global warming or whatever the latest left-wing terminology is being used to describe that obsession these days. If Cooke is so concerned that “so many discussions nowadays are conducted between narrow and sternly policed rails, any movement outside of which is instantly punished with accusations of bigotry or insinuations of malice,” perhaps he could pen a blog asking that teachers have students debate the question of whether or not Islam is a religion of peace. I’ll bet that would go over smashingly well in the public square.
ArchitectGuy on Israel 