I'm not sure how French president Sarkozy's new proposal will (or can) work, but I have to give Sarko credit for having the nerve to propose it. He's already caught a great deal of criticism for doing so.
Here is an interesting personal commentary on the idea of teaching children about the Holocaust.
In fact, this may be a good time to talk about the idea of educating anybody about the Holocaust. Critics of the Sarko idea have said, among other things, that such close learning about the Holocaust is too traumatic for children. Maybe. But then again, learning about the Holocaust is traumatic for everybody who learns it properly. And you must learn it properly -- you must look evil squarely in the eye. I don't like doing it. I don't like looking at the horrifying images or the artifacts or any of it. Reading Anne Frank's diary, knowing what happens to her, makes my heart hurt. (And yes, I first read it when I was a little girl in the fifth grade.) Pain is part of remembering a complete history -- and it's a necessary pain. The alternative is the comfortable forgetting of the past -- and that is far worse.
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