CHAPTER 6: Facing History and Ourselves: Noble Purpose, Unending Controversy

Over the past several decades, both historians and educators have voiced various concerns about the way the Holocaust is taught in secondary schools in the United States (Dawidowicz, 1992; Lipstadt, 1995; Newmann, Marks, & Gamaron, 1996; Riley & Totten, 2002; Shawn, 1995; Totten & Parsons, 1992; Totten 1998; Totten & Riley, 2005). Most articles that analyze Holocaust curricula confine their criticism to issues surrounding the selection of content materials and historical inaccuracies (Riley & Totten, 2002; Totten & Parsons, 1992). Few offer a comprehensive examination of a Holocaust program from mission statement to teacher support/inservice to user evaluation, and most important of all, student impact.