Lecturer Explores Need for Holocaust Education in Primary Schools

Thursday, 24 November 2011

Is it appropriate to teach primary school children about the Holocaust? That is the question to be answered by a University of Worcester principal lecturer at a major conference next month.

Dr Richard Woolley, Head of the Centre for Education and Inclusion in the University’s Institute of Education, has been invited to speak at UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation) on December 15th.

The conference, held at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris, is titled: Is it relevant to teach about the Holocaust in primary schools?

Dr Woolley is the author of Tackling Controversial Issues in the Primary School, which, as well as the Holocaust, covers topics such as bereavement, sexuality and antiracist education.

“Primary schools should only teach about the Holocaust if they are very well prepared and have a good structure,” Dr Woolley said. “It should not be taught just because it’s the right thing to do.

“There must be clear objectives of what is to be achieved; otherwise it could actually have a negative impact on such young children.”

Dr Woolley said there should be limitations to what young children are exposed to.

“Primary-aged children only need to know that people were killed, they don’t need the details of how or the horrors of what happened behind the gates of the concentration camps,” he said. “That comes later when they are older and able to deal better with such distressing facts.

“However, that is not to say they shouldn’t be taught anything about the Holocaust; just that it must be age-appropriate.”

Holocaust education is compulsory in secondary schools in England but not in primaries. Increasingly primary schools are choosing to mark Holocaust Memorial Day in January each year.

At the conference Dr Woolley will share examples of good practice and talk about the need for schools to address the subject with sensitivity and caution.