Victor Meldrew Alert

I don't believe it! Or rather, I wish I didn't, but knowing how our education system is run, I'm afraid I do. Via Little Green Footballs, I find this shocking report:

Schools are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils, a Government backed study has revealed.

It found some teachers are reluctant to cover the atrocity for fear of upsetting students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial.

There is also resistance to tackling the 11th century Crusades - where Christians fought Muslim armies for control of Jerusalem - because lessons often contradict what is taught in local mosques.

[...]

The study, funded by the Department for Education and Skills, looked into 'emotive and controversial' history teaching in primary and secondary schools.

It found some teachers are dropping courses covering the Holocaust at the earliest opportunity over fears Muslim pupils might express anti-Semitic and anti-Israel reactions in class.

The researchers gave the example of a secondary school in an unnamed northern city, which dropped the Holocaust as a subject for GCSE coursework.

The report said teachers feared confronting 'anti-Semitic sentiment and Holocaust denial among some Muslim pupils'.

It added: "In another department, the Holocaust was taught despite anti-Semitic sentiment among some pupils.

"But the same department deliberately avoided teaching the Crusades at Key Stage 3 (11- to 14-year-olds) because their balanced treatment of the topic would have challenged what was taught in some local mosques."

While I would agree that too much History teaching is simply Nazis, Nazis, Nazis - I studied History to A-level and spent more than half of my education in that subject focusing on Hitler and his minions, with virtually no attention whatsoever given to British history - it is ridiculous that pupils are allowed to dictate the curriculum. The case in point is especially ridiculous - if a Muslim pupil started denying that 2+2=4 would teachers simply gloss over basic arithmetic for fear of causing offence? Supposing that they deny that the world is round? Or, more realistically, supposing they simply object to the teaching of other religions in Religious Studies? Will that subject then become Islamic Studies?