John Oakley on Toronto's new genocide curriculum: Kids should learn about thought crimes in history, too

History serves up many important lessons for teaching, not the least of which is that failure to learn from the past dooms one to repeat it. That axiom is the inspiration for the Toronto District School Board's new curriculum for grade eleven students that will explore genocide in the twentieth century.



After some debate as to which dark chapters in particular deserve the treatment, it was decided to focus on the Holocaust, Rwanda and Armenia. There's certainly enough grist there to flesh out the genesis of racial prejudice and how it can lead to killing on a massive scale.



But not all genocides are created equal, and the three samples cited share the common denominator of racial hatred leading to slaughter. If the TDSB really wants to twig the students' thinking, perhaps they should introduce the purges of Stalinist Russia as well.



The instructive lesson here is how the Bolsheviks murdered tens of millions of their own countrymen, not over race so much as incorrect political thinking. For that matter, they may also want to reference Chairman Mao: He's the guy who coined the phrase "politically incorrect."



With thought crimes today being vigorously pursued through various human rights tribunals, the kids would do well to learn the lessons of the past.