Learning Activity 2.3

The article listed below is written by Philipp Mittnik and was published in the year 2016 in a peer-reviewed journal by Mercy College. The goal in writing this piece was to make a case for why Holocaust and Nazism should be taught at younger ages in Austria. While its obvious intended audience is educators in the Austrian school system, the information could easily be valuable to parents, those working in government, graduate students, and historians. Of course, the information isn’t limited to Austrians either. People from all over the world who partake in ceremonies to remember those affected by war could find the informative insightful as well.

In addition to being a respected and well-known speaker, Philipp Mittnik has a Ph.D. from the University of Wien. His specialties are in history and political science. He is currently the head of the civic department at the university and has many published works. Needless to say, he is a reliable source who is well-versed in his area of expertise and is trustworthy as far as knowing how to compose professional scholarly work.

It is difficult to say whether or not this article has a bias as I have no idea what the school system is like in Europe, let alone Austria. Yet, I have a feeling that Mittnik is right in his idea that Austria and Germany do not want to be associated with this chapter in history because of the role they played (Mittnik, 2016, p. 138). He also explains that these topics are often merely mentioned briefly as oppose to being explored with deep discussion (Mittnik, 2016, p. 139). I concur with this as well.

I will say that throughout the article Mittnik clearly shows that while he is a scholar he has limited experience working with small children. His article fails to address at what age exactly what level of material should be taught. He does say something about ages nine and ten being good ages to start going with in-depth material on this subject. However, he keeps referencing ‘elementary school levels’ without understanding that children as young as five are included in that mix. Anyone working in a school can tell you there is a difference between a child of six and eight years old. Mittnik does not get specific enough with ages and thus his outline on how to teach this history falls short in a major way. In addition, he criticizes the lack of how often words such as ‘National Socialism’ are mentioned in texts. I personally find that large words like this wouldn’t be suitable for younger ages. Not for what it means but for the complexity of the word itself. Then again, if Mittnik had specified what age these texts were assigned to I may have agreed that the word should be been mentioned more often.

Sources:

U. (n.d.). About Philipp Mittnik / / Political scientist- Austria. Retrieved January 12, 2018, from https://upclosed.com/people/philipp-mittnik/

Mittnik, P. (2016). Holocaust Studies in Austrian Elementary & Secondary Schools. Global Education Review, 3(3), 138-152. Retrieved January 12, 2018, from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1114862.pdf.