How Young is Too Young To Learn About Evil?

Amy Kuras — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:32:00 GMT

So, this isn’t going to be a funny post, y'allz, but I want to get the opinions of our readers on this one.

Where I live, we have a small, but very community minded, Jewish population. One of the things they’ve done is to create a well-regarded Holocaust museum and memorial center, the first freestanding such place in the country. Among other things, they run a speaker's bureau of Holocaust survivors who speak with school and community groups about their experiences. Connecting with children and young people, so that the horrors of the Holocaust are never forgotten, is a huge part of their mission. That's also accomplished through school tours, which are mostly aimed at high school and middle school students.

But some people believe that more needs to be done to reach the youngest kids, those ages six to 10 years old. To that end, the museum plans a children's gallery aimed at that age group.

Hmm. I am just not sure what to think about this. On the one hand, I want to shield my kids from knowing about the true extent of human ugliness as long as I can. On the other, you can’t fight injustice and evil if you never go face to face with it, and maybe starting earlier is better. And my oldest is only three, so I have no idea how she'd handle it when she's twice this age.

What do you think? Is elementary age too young to learn about the Holocaust?

Strollerderby : how young is too young

How Young is Too Young To Learn About Evil?