I have a few thoughts about this. Firstly, it's not "politically correct" to omit the holocaust from a syllabus because you're afraid to offend people who are learniong something different at home. It's just political cowardice. You can probably blame it on relativism if you like, but I think political correctness is something slightly different.
The comparison between this and the "creation science" debate in the U.S. is quite apt. In each case, parents of students are understood to have some kind of right to decide what their children learn in school--i.e. they believe that their own beliefs trump school curricula when it comes to controversial matters. If you want to teach your children that the holocaust didn't happen, or that the earth is only 4000 years old, or that the earth is flat, that's up to you--but to expect the school system to toe the line and kowtow to your beliefs leads to a school system that eventually teaches nothing at all.
It's true that history is a fiction--but that's because it is itself produced by historically specific contexts--"history" is a part of history, if you like. That doesn't mean that there's no such thing as an agreed-upon truth, that reaches the level of incontrovertibility. The holocaust is one such truth. So is evolution science. The deniers of these things should recognize themselves as the fringe, and stop trying to inflict their beliefs on an entire school board's curriculum.
Finally, one comment on this post:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Calgaryborn
If you get a chance some time find an old set of encyclopedias dated before 1950. You'll find a huge difference between it and a modern encyclopedia. Christianity's influence on historical events has been omitted or only mentioned when it is seen in a bad light in the last half century..
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Firstly, I'll say that you probably don't want to look to an encyclopedia for historical knowledge. But more importantly, this isn't true at all. Christianity has had a great many influences on historical outcomes, both good and bad. I'll give just one example:
Christianity was instrumental in ending slavery in the United States. This is a widely accepted historical fact that you can find in any number of texts in print and online.
(Just pointing out that the world really isn't out to get you.)