One of the hardest aspects to teaching history is showing students how the dots connect to the present day. Too often, history class feels like a collection of things that happened long ago, with hardly a glimmer of relevance to the world we live in. But the forces that shaped the past continue to shape us and understanding these concepts and forces makes us better citizens.
Case in point: the swirling, toxic mix of economic downturn, national identity, and hate.
Grade 10 is in the early days of one of the most fascinating, controversial, and important topics in 20th century history: Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. If Hitler was the archetype evil-doer–heck, he’s a byword for evil these days–then how did he come to be the ruler of an important, powerful nation? Why did many Germans support him in such enthusiastic ways?
Perhaps a better question to ask is why do black African-born football players endure racial taunts in 2012? Why has there been a recent uptick in violence against Gypsies in Hungary? Why do followers of Hitler–so-called neo-Nazis–still roam the streets of Germany, Greece, and America (to name a few countries)?
Playwrite Eugene O’Neil once remarked, “There is no present or future, there is only the past happening over and over.” Or maybe it’s better to quote the Bible: “There is nothing new under the sun.”
The ideas and actions of Hitler didn’t happen. They’re happening. My hope is that from all the knowledge of the Nazi era that Grade 10 will learn about, discuss, and analyze this year, and beyond the exam they’ll sit in May, they will see that the most important concepts in history cannot be neatly tucked away in a textbook. They live on.
2012, not 1936