Quote:
Originally Posted by akinkhoo
exactly, since even most japanese school reject them, THEY MUST BE WRONG. so why shouldn't what is wrong be removed? should book suggesting the holocaust is not really a bad thing be allow to be used in any school? the percentage is not the issue, in fact the percentage backs the argument that those books doesn't need to be in any school.
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Japan supports free speech. You can publish pretty much anything, in any format you like. The government does not make the textbooks used in schools - they just make an outline of the standard curriculum. Anyone is free to publish a book written in any way they like, fact, fiction, glossed over, etc etc... And call it a "textbook". This doesn`t mean the book IS a textbook, nor does it mean that the book is supported by the Ministry of Education or by any schools. If just means that the author is calling it a "textbook". And if that textbook follows the curriculum, it can be used in a school.
The curriculum itself is just a very vague outline, with certain facts required to be taught. There is nothing in there about how the facts should be presented, how they should be taught, or what "political color" the teaching should have.... Or about what else is presented in addition to the curriculum.
That the controversial textbook was published is just free speech. The author is welcome to put his opinion and beliefs in a book form and call it a textbook. That doesn`t mean anyone will use it... And most likely, very very few people would ever have heard of it or looked at it if it had not been for the huge controversy.
I don`t know about the rest of the world, but I do know that there are far more controversial "textbooks" in the US - aimed at home schooling, etc. Home schooling isn`t common at all in Japan (and could be considered illegal here) so the "alternative" textbooks just have to be tossed out there in the hope that some private school will choose to use them.
There is no reason to destroy or ban the book.