gimmick
Educating children about the Holocaust is a gimmick, according to the Tory leader.
"The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Holocaust Educational Trust expressed disappointment after the Tory leader highlighted the government-sponsored trips to Auschwitz in a list of "Gordon Brown's 26 gimmicks" The Guardian, 23/02/08
While gimmickry is a central tenet of politics for a long time, educating children about the darkest chapter in European history is not something I would consider a waste of time.
I see the Tory leader is being gimmicky with his cries of gimmickry.
Posted by Evil European
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15:38
3 comments:
I'd call it a gimmick. 2 students from every six form get to be "educated" more than the rest of the class about the holocaust. Why exactly? Why do only two kids get this privilege from each school..and as the tories point out why are the government not fully funding this initiative if it is supposedly so important?
Educating about history is very important, for all kids, but what exactly specifically warrants a minuscule percentage of all the pupils in 6th form each year being sent to the camps themselves? I'm not saying it's a negative, but it *is* a gimmick.
Clearly the UK government cannot afford to send all students to Auschwitz. Why send only some? Because this educates at least some students to become witnesses to new generations.
We see people downplaying the Holocaust, we see young people say "it was all so long ago" and yet we see again and again humans' delight in repeating the mistakes of the past. Quibble about the numbers of students sent if you must, but don't dare to dismiss the entire programme as a "gimmick" just because you don't think enough students are sent. The true gimmick is a politician dismissing the entire programme as a gimmick.
There's the saying, "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." This programme, however inadequate, is at least a step in making sure people don't forget the past.
"Quibble about the numbers of students sent if you must, but don't dare to dismiss the entire programme as a "gimmick" just because you don't think enough students are sent."
No-one has said that the idea/programme is a gimmick and the Tories have been misrepresented in this case, just that trying to gain political capital over funding less than 1% of the student body to go is essentially trying to curry favour without actually doing anything in real terms. That is a gimmick policy through and through.
"There's the saying, "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." This programme, however inadequate, is at least a step in making sure people don't forget the past."
You seem to have misunderstood the reality of the situation here, people already DO go on trips to Auschwitz, and schools and parents already stump up money of their own to ensure their kids do remember this tragic event. What the government has done here isn't going to change that or help it.
And it's also key to say, I feel, that I never went to Auschwitz but I did watch the documentaries at GCSE level and saw the pictures in the study books. While I'm sure going would have had an even greater impact I don't believe that children are exactly lacking by simply learning from a good teacher with good resources at their school. Which is lucky because of the 27% of children in poverty and thus might not be able to afford to take the highly informative trip the government is only willing to fund 2% of them to go.
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