A Sparkle Forgotten, but Not Gone

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”

-        George Santaya

Dear Madam Principal,

            As an educated person in a highly visible position in our community, it is imperative that your guidelines for curriculum at this school be formulated with integrity and truth.  Future lives depend on it, especially in the realm history.

           

As a junior in high school, I was astonished to find that certain facts regarding large scale genocidal atrocities have been left out of my textbook.  The witnessed and recorded Rape of Nanjing, from December 1937 to March 1938, is missing.  My history lesson today will not be complete or accurate.   The population that was massacred on this date, and the reasons why, are just as important as the populations massacred during the holocaust. 

Beginning in kindergarten, students are trained to find patterns; adding the story of Nanjing into a pattern of ethnic territorialism may have been helpful in understanding the coming crisis of WWII.  Patterns, and lessons learned from those facts, help students understand the early elements of disputes among humanity, especially in areas of ethnic and political differences.  They may apply those lessons learned to help prevent another atrocity.  Students today are leaders of tomorrow.

Another instance of a pattern ignored is the story of Sierra Leone in Western Africa.  No information is available in our textbooks explaining the absolute horror of this war over diamonds.  Territory was savagely fought over and crimes to the population, especially women and children, were almost unimaginable.  The lessons learned from that conflict should be taught to students.   Unrest around the world is blossoming today, and one of the main disputes will be the control of territory with oil reserves and oil shipping lanes.  Oil is today’s diamonds, conflicts will be territorial. We need to find peaceful answers for the sake of humanity.

Teaching the truth about history allows students to fully develop a sense of pre-emptive strategy to avoid conflict.  If the truth is withheld because my class is to “sensitive” to handle the images, then you only need play one game of Modern Warfare to know that students are already exposed and active in a virtual world of violence; win by killing…irony at its best.

           

So, it is important to me that our schools provide the most up-to-date information regarding historical and present day facts. Then, as a bonus, add a class in logic so that we may use sound strategies to solve future problems.

            Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Jane Q. Public

Celebration High School       

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic

http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/diamond-sl.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Santayana