If We Don’t Know About The Past, How Are We Supposed To Learn From It?

One of the mantras that has come out of The Holocaust is that unless the learn from the past, we are doomed to repeat it.

Recently, several news outlets have reported that 4/10 millennials are either not aware of The Holocaust, or their knowledge is very basic. Even scarier is that 41% of those polled believe that the number of Jewish victims is exaggerated.

The results of the study create quite a few concerns. First, it reveals the very poor state of the American education system. Second, it opens the door to questioning the facts of The Holocaust, a concept that is especially dangerous in our current political climate.

These kids are our future leaders. If they do not have the knowledge of the past, they cannot learn from the mistakes of prior generations. Which, as history has demonstrated, opens the door to future massacres based on ethnicity or religion.

I feel sorry for our future with these kids leading the way.

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Flashback Friday- FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992)

One of the many teaching methods that parents and educators use is to frame a subject in such a way that a child can understand the concept. Some filmmakers use this concept as the backbone of a children’s film.

In the 1992 animated movie, FernGully: The Last Rainforest, Zak (voiced by Jonathan Ward) is an ordinary guy who works for a logging company. Crysta (voiced by Samantha Mathis), is fairy who lives in a secret rain forest called Fern Gully. In her world, humans are a myth. The Zak enters her world.

Together, they must fight against Hexxus (voiced by Tim Curry), a being created by pollution who wants to destroy Fern Gully.

As a adult, there two points of view when it comes to movies from your childhood. One point of view is that as an adult, not only do you appreciate the film, but you understand the film on a deeper level than you did as a child. The other point of view is that while the film appeals to the children in the audience, it is not as appealing to the adults in the audience.  While I appreciate the message about taking care of our environment, the film doesn’t quite hold up from my perspective as an adult.

Do I recommend it? Maybe.