On being part of the problem...

[guacamole]

I'm really trying to be superman here. I get that not only does society want me to teach the kids facts, and how to think, but to parent them and engage in moral instruction as well. Yesterday I couldn't cope with it.

I work at a Chicago working-class public high school. Yesterday it was, in case you didn't know, Halloween. We let the children dress up. In my fourth period class, I had a "purger" (like from the movie, not someone mocking eating disorders), two video game characters, two zombies, a slutty barnyard animal, and soldier. The other kids were dressed normal. I offered to take a group picture so I called them up by costume:

"Serial killer, Mario, Brown Shirt B-baller, Zombie...Other Zombie...Cow...Wehrmacht." The cut of the uniform and the stahlhelm (Winter Uniform, the distinctive shape of helmet covered by the cold weather wrap). I wanted to just let it go, but...

"Waffen-SS, actually," he says. And then he stands up and shows me that he's okay though, because he's covered his belt buckle with a with a "Brony" sticker.

We were, what? 10 days out from a mass murder of Jews by a white supremacist (who hated Trump, I know.)? And then I have this clown. And I don't think he was trying to be malicious, but he was managing to be thoughtless--we have a good number of Jews on our faculty. I don't think it was moral cowardice to not call him out on it and send him to the deans (which would have been within my right, and probably, my obligations). It was just fatigue, weariness of trying and thinking about everything I need to do and everyone I need to be for all my people. The kid's a good student--does all his work, isn't ever a behavior problem--we've had good conversations about his band t-shirts because he likes classic rock.

I let it pass.

Anyway, I feel like I was part of the problem by letting it slide. I'm not asking for absolution or forgiveness. It's just a weird thing that happened, and I guess, an encouragement to think about how we accidentally come across to people and to take teachable moments to help those we are responsible for learn to be better people.

[Cow Poke]

Yeah

[T-Shirt Ninja]

Maybe he's just ignorant of how bad the holocaust really was? I think a lot of people just genuinely don't know, especially the younger generations that come up as the holocaust drifts farther and farther into the past. I think you probably made the right call to let it slide on this one time. If he's not showing any other signs of favoring Neo-Nazism or white supremacy, then he probably just made a poor choice out of ignorance this one time. Anyway, if you and him ever have a conversation about it in the future, I would suggest he read "The Drowned and the Saved" by Primo Levi. It really details just how horrible the concentration camps really were by a man who survived Auschwitz.

[seer]

Anyway, I feel like I was part of the problem by letting it slide. I'm not asking for absolution or forgiveness. It's just a weird thing that happened, and I guess, an encouragement to think about how we accidentally come across to people and to take teachable moments to help those we are responsible for learn to be better people.

OK, when I was a kid I collected a lot of military stuff, mostly US stuff from the Second World war. But I also had a lot of German stuff, the SS military pieces were the best. It had nothing to do with the Holocaust it was just cool looking stuff. I still think the black Waffen SS uniform (designed by Hugo Boss BTW) is one of the sharpest looking uniforms in history.

[Sparko]

so it is ok to dress up like a serial killer but not a nazi?

[guacamole]

OK, when I was a kid I collected a lot of military stuff, mostly US stuff from the Second World war. But I also had a lot of German stuff, the SS military pieces were the best. It had nothing to do with the Holocaust it was just cool looking stuff. I still think the black Waffen SS uniform (designed by Hugo Boss BTW) is one of the sharpest looking uniforms in history.

He'd been working on collecting the pieces as a kind of "cos-play"--He'd spend quite a bit of money from his crappy teen-age min-wage mcjob to get it. I was thinking more about it from the perspective of it being a teachable moment. I didn't want to send him out and make the teachable moment someone else's job, but I was disappointed I didn't do it myself.

[guacamole]

so it is ok to dress up like a serial killer but not a nazi?

Or Darth Vader (who only killed pretend people). Or a Roman Soldier (who killed Jews too, just a long time ago, right?). Or a slutty cow (who hasn't killed jews, but is just generally inappropriate. I wasn't dealing with that one either. Nothing like a male teacher sending an inappropriately dressed girl down to the deans). This is how fraught it is with difficult sub-text. Am I wrong to be worried about him? About how he might come across?

[seer]

He'd been working on collecting the pieces as a kind of "cos-play"--He'd spend quite a bit of money from his crappy teen-age min-wage mcjob to get it. I was thinking more about it from the perspective of it being a teachable moment. I didn't want to send him out and make the teachable moment someone else's job, but I was disappointed I didn't do it myself.

I doubt if he had bad intentions, but you could still take him aside and explain why it might be offensive to some.

[Sparko]

Or Darth Vader (who only killed pretend people). Or a Roman Soldier (who killed Jews too, just a long time ago, right?). Or a slutty cow (who hasn't killed jews, but is just generally inappropriate. I wasn't dealing with that one either. Nothing like a male teacher sending an inappropriately dressed girl down to the deans). This is how fraught it is with difficult sub-text. Am I wrong to be worried about him? About how he might come across?

It was Halloween. I think you did the right thing. People get too worked up about kids playing dress-up. Was the kid a bit lacking in selfawareness? Sure. Was he trying to be a white supremacist hate monger? no. He was wearing a costume for a holiday where you are supposed to dress up like evil and hateful things. People dress up like scary things to make them less scary. Whistling in the dark.

[One Bad Pig]

Maybe he's just ignorant of how bad the holocaust really was? I think a lot of people just genuinely don't know, especially the younger generations that come up as the holocaust drifts farther and farther into the past. I think you probably made the right call to let it slide on this one time. If he's not showing any other signs of favoring Neo-Nazism or white supremacy, then he probably just made a poor choice out of ignorance this one time. Anyway, if you and him ever have a conversation about it in the future, I would suggest he read "The Drowned and the Saved" by Primo Levi. It really details just how horrible the concentration camps really were by a man who survived Auschwitz.

He's an interesting read (I've read The Periodic Table).

[rogue06]

I'm really trying to be superman here. I get that not only does society want me to teach the kids facts, and how to think, but to parent them and engage in moral instruction as well. Yesterday I couldn't cope with it.

I work at a Chicago working-class public high school. Yesterday it was, in case you didn't know, Halloween. We let the children dress up. In my fourth period class, I had a "purger" (like from the movie, not someone mocking eating disorders), two video game characters, two zombies, a slutty barnyard animal, and soldier. The other kids were dressed normal. I offered to take a group picture so I called them up by costume:

"Serial killer, Mario, Brown Shirt B-baller, Zombie...Other Zombie...Cow...Wehrmacht." The cut of the uniform and the stahlhelm (Winter Uniform, the distinctive shape of helmet covered by the cold weather wrap). I wanted to just let it go, but...

"Waffen-SS, actually," he says. And then he stands up and shows me that he's okay though, because he's covered his belt buckle with a with a "Brony" sticker.

We were, what? 10 days out from a mass murder of Jews by a white supremacist (who hated Trump, I know.)? And then I have this clown. And I don't think he was trying to be malicious, but he was managing to be thoughtless--we have a good number of Jews on our faculty. I don't think it was moral cowardice to not call him out on it and send him to the deans (which would have been within my right, and probably, my obligations). It was just fatigue, weariness of trying and thinking about everything I need to do and everyone I need to be for all my people. The kid's a good student--does all his work, isn't ever a behavior problem--we've had good conversations about his band t-shirts because he likes classic rock.

I let it pass.

Anyway, I feel like I was part of the problem by letting it slide. I'm not asking for absolution or forgiveness. It's just a weird thing that happened, and I guess, an encouragement to think about how we accidentally come across to people and to take teachable moments to help those we are responsible for learn to be better people.

You can't fight every battle that comes your way nor should you feel obligated to.

[KingsGambit]

Realistically I don't know if you could have done much. It's not like a high school kid isn't going to know that dressing up as a Nazi is going to be controversial; no doubt that's his very point. I remember talking with the school librarian back in high school. He told me lots of boys loved to check out Mein Kampf, thinking they were edgy, then they would actually try reading it and find it was a snoozer.

If anything else this emphasizes the importance of teaching about the Holocaust. Kids at the very least need to know what happened and not have it swept under the rug; if they want to go on to joke about it afterward, it's on them. In my semester of student teaching 9th grade history, I devoted a whole day to it, and wasn't my normal joking self that day.

I was the same way in middle school. I was obsessed with communism even though I didn't actually know anything about it, other than that it was edgy.