In a letter, Sara Lennon, of the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine, argues that it is appropriate to add teaching about genocide and the Holocaust into middle school science education (“Students can do this,” Dec. 16). She mentions the fact that “people expressed concern that students are too young to learn about such weighty topics, or that the subjects are too high-level for their comprehension.”
However, not mentioned is the fact that adding such topics to science education would require that some other topics be reduced or eliminated. Should we eliminate, say, natural selection in favor of teaching genocide? Should we eliminate global warming in favor of teaching eugenics? Should we eliminate earth science in favor of teaching about the Holocaust?
I see nothing wrong with teaching about the proposed subjects, but watering down science education in order to do so involves the injection of politics into our understanding of the real world. Students would be better served if they could trust that what they are learning is free of such political considerations.
William Vaughan Jr.
Chebeague Island
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