CONCORD, N.H. – Earlier this month, the New Hampshire State Board of Education announced the passage of a new administrative rule requiring local school boards to provide Holocaust and genocide education programs to children no later than eighth grade.
The decision came in part to honor April as Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Month.
“Clearly understanding how the Holocaust and other genocides occurred may be key to preventing similar violence in the future, which is why education on this sensitive topic is vitally important to promote peace among future generations. We take this moment to reflect on the millions of Jews and others whose lives were cut short through unimaginable pain, and remember how that hatred can still result in brutal consequences. Learning from this tragedy and remaining watchful is a step toward peace,” said the board in a released statement.
According to a document released by the New Hampshire Department of Education, Commission for Human Rights and Department of Justice, the programs do not conflict with the “divisive concepts” legislation passed last year as schools are “allowed to discuss as part of a larger course of instruction, the historical existence of ideas and subjects identified” in the law, which prohibits schools from teaching that one identified group is inherently superior or inferior to another, one group is inherently racist or sexist or oppressive, or that one group should be discriminated against or one group.
The new administrative rule can be found in its entirety here.
