This author contends that contemporary issues classes no longer have currency, as standardized test results are the litmus test for education. In many schools, students are isolated from firsthand accounts and formal study of events that textbooks will one day proclaim as defining experiences of their generation. According to Doyle, schools tend…

Until recently, schools in Poland have done little to discourage anti-Semitism and have not taught about the Holocaust nor explained why there are virtually no Jews in Poland. Curriculum modifications in the next school year will introduce the subject at the elementary-school level. (SLD)

Explains that writing national history involves much more than arranging facts and dates, which is why, over 50 years after the end of World War II, the Japanese are still arguing about what actually happened during that time, Japan's role in war crimes and aggressive actions, and how to present it all in textbooks. (SM)

Describes a collection of materials on Czechoslovakia that can be ordered as teaching aides to connect history lessons on democracy to the present situation in Europe. Contains the following materials: (1) a biographical profile of Vaclav Havel; (2) maps; (3) literature; (4) photos; (5) readings; and (6) teaching activities. (JS)