I was nine years old when the Holocaust mini series came out on television. And, frankly, it was my first real education of the holocaust.
One that I'm grateful for, because it was an education.
Was it inappropriate for a nine-year-old? I guess it was more appropriate for me to learn about it through the television than for the nine-year-olds that had to live through it or die because of it.
Is it political to remove books like this from a curriculum?
Well, I can say with some confidence that removing a book on the horrors of the holocaust isn't as trivial nor should it be dismissed in the way one would dismiss not serving burritos at a Sushi restaurant. I realize that it wasn't the intent, but that menu metaphor trivializes this, and I don't believe this is a trivial matter. At all.
My opinion: kids should absolutely learn about racism and the horrors of dehumanizing others to the point of genocide. It's terrible, but it best be learned about, hopefully taught that it is horribly wrong, and internalized as something we should strive to never do as a society or as a person. Because, left to our own devices, we might not learn about it, and think it doesn't exist.
At sixteen, I believed the civil rights movement happened in the 1960's, laws were passed, separate-but-equal facilities were done away with, and with it - racism was solved. I believed that.
I was incorrect in that belief. I'm grateful I've had the opportunity to learn, read and listen to come to a more honest understanding of the world around me.