EDUCATOR OF THE WEEK SO FAR

(Thanks to Stan Miles)

Comments

[nora]

I must thank them for making me feel like a better teacher before I even go to work! As long as I can stop myself from humming 'Edelweiss' in class today, I should be good.

[Siouxie]

they DID win...

[Nebbisk]

I think "Springtime for Hitler" would have been a more appropriate recording to play over the loudspeaker. Catchier toon, too!

[OtheU(manity)]

Perhaps they were merely following orders ... ?

[tropichunt.com guy™]

Nebbisk: Perhaps they should play "Springtime for Hitler" at the NEXT game...

[Olo Baggins of Bywater]

Never give the inmates access to the PA...

Hello radio dispatch....this is codename hardhat, code name hardhat...do you read me over...

- Was that Lardass?

hardhat, code name hardhat...do you read radio dispatch

- Hey, got something for you Lardass...

[ron]

ve vin---or the mascot gets it.

[Punkin Poo]

I guess the "Hail Mary" pass is not in their play book. However, the "Hiel Hitler" IS.

[Meanie the Blue]

Speechless.

That is all.

[angel]

Not to get serious or anything, but does it scare anyone else that the German exchange student and the American students didn't know enough history to recognize Goebbels' name when they downloaded the quote or didn't think anyone would mind if they played a Nazi speech? What are they learning in history now?

[Olo Baggins of Bywater]

The whole Nazi thing doesn't resonate in kids the same as it does for us old farts. They probably haven't seen the films of the camps, nor heard about all the nastiness that makes this a sensitive issue yet today, 65 years later. They probably figure nobody remembers.

The problem with history is that the books can only be so thick, yet history keeps happening. Some content needs to fall out, and we'll always disagree about exactly what parts can be removed.

[ron]

They are teaching the same thing they taught me.The Battle of Hastings was in 1066.

[Meanie the Blue]

I'm with you angel. The world remains full of zealous fools and bigots, and unwittingly assisting them through ignorance of the past is unconsciounable. Perhaps the exchange student and his/her American friends thought it was a funny joke or maybe even somewhat sophisticated satire, in which case they might be forgiven. But it is unforgivable for them not to have been educated about the depths of the depravity and criminality that was the Nazi regime. There are forms of satire that can make you laugh even as you contemplate such inhumanity, and Mel Brooks' "The Producers" does just that, but people know what to expect from him. However, to be so unaware of the context of a Goebbels speech that you would spring it cold on anyone just boggles the mind and chills the heart.

I am of German heritage, and my kids are going to know all about it, guaranteed.

Apologies to all who know me as a guy who likes to be funny, and to those who come here expecting nothing but laughs, but this is a raw subject for me.

[Meanie the Blue]

Popel!

[Edgar Greenberg]

I think the explanation was kinda lame. They wanted to hear "On to Victory" in German? So they play a 90 second speech by Joe Goebbels. That's like someone shouting Heil Hitler, then explaining that he thought my name was Hitler, and he felt like saying hello in German.

[Meanie the Blue]

In case you didn't figure my 9:30 post out.

[The Dread Pirate Chris]

STILL NOT FUNNY
I am {not sure which adjective I want to use here} that the opposing team and the spectators could identify, without any context, an antique recording played over lousy stadium speakers of some guy ranting in a foreign language as a Goebbels' propaganda speech. Not that I condone its use in any setting other than education of how not to be a decent member of the human race.
/STILL NOT FUNNY

To idiot students: "No soup for you. Two weeks!"

[Meanie the Blue]

*SNORK* at the Soup Nazi reference.

As for the principal's lame apology....

[casey]

I have worked in Charlotte and lived in Gaston County for the past 17 years. The students that recognized the speech were from a private school in Charlotte while the students that played the speech were from a public school in Gaston County. I feel qualified to make the following statement: Gaston County makes West Virginia, Alabama, the Appalachians, etc. seem like the cultural centers of the universe. The average person in Gaston county probably has a 7th grade eductation. They are truly simple, ignorant people. Not stupid mind you, just ignorant. I don't necessarily see anything wrong with that, but it is surprising since the county is so close to Charlotte. The county is changing for the better however, as more and more upper middle class professionals are moving there to avoid the congestion and high taxes of Charlotte/Mecklenburg County. I dont anticipate the need for more dentists any time soon though.

[Bumble]

{{{Blau}}}

Is it sad that popel is one of the handful of German words I know? Dictionary.com declines to translate it, but I've got a couple of German Calvin & Hobbes books; I remember reading it in those. :-)

[Siouxie]

*snork* @ the Soup Nazi!

[insomniac]

(Colonel Bogey's March or 'Bridge on the River Kwai' or Ajax commercial)

Hitler has only one left ball
Goering has two, but they are small
Himmler has something sim'lar
But Goebbels has no balls at all!

[Clean Hands]

The German exchange students I've hosted and supervised over the years have been uniformly pretty well-informed about their nation's history, and particularly its Nazi past.

Nationalism, even to the extent of prominently displaying a flag, is vaguely unsettling to them; the same is true of the Japanese kids I've worked with.

I imagine that it would be exceptionally difficult to study that period of history, mindful of the fact that the soldiers and police forces that committed the atrocities you're discussing were likely your own grandparents and their friends....

[Meanie the Blue]

CH - In my experience, what you say is true for most contemporary German students, though I have no basis for making any assertions about contemporary Japanese other than what I read of them.

As particularly difficult as it may be for young Germans to grasp the realization of their own forebears' possible culpabilities, it seems to me to be absolutely essential that they and everyone else (whether German or not) understand, or at the very least be aware of, what took place.

[Dux]

In the history books I've studied there are always several profoundly disturbing images of the Holocaust, and I find it hard to believe that these students were completely ignorant of what they were doing. More likely they were just insensitive morons.
In one of my high-school history classes the teacher told us a story of how when she was teaching WWII in a different school and talking about the SS, she pointed to a blonde student to illustrate the Aryan racial features that they looked for in recruits, only to find out that the boy's grandfather had been in the SS. Luckily she didn't get in trouble for her mistake, but I'm sure there are some people who would've sued over something like that.
And Springtime for Hitler is very funny song that never, ever, ever gets out of your head. It's been stuck in my head for over two days now.

"Hitched up my pants, and conquored France, now Deutschland's smiling through!"