Don’t blame our kids’ ignorance of world history on the fact we don’t teach it.
That seemed to be the message offered by a Thai education official yesterday amid criticisms of the lack of history in the kingdom’s classrooms that accompanied the weekend scandal over a member of pop group BNK48’s decision to wear a T-shirt bearing a swastika.
Speaking to reporters about 19-year-old Pichayapa “Namsai” Natha’s fateful decision to rock a World War II-era Nazi battle flag to a televised rehearsal on Friday, Nitsuda Apinuntaporn, director of Academic Affairs and Educational Standards Bureau, insisted the singer’s education was not to blame, Matichon reported.
“I don’t see the curriculum as the problem. It is more about carelessness,” she said.
“We can’t blame the child [Pichayapa] either, because she didn’t know any better… It happened because the adults around her didn’t take care of her. Her managers should have screened her outfit before letting her go on stage.”
Nitsuda added that she thinks that Thailand’s current history curriculum is fine as is.
“I don’t think it’s necessary to adjust the curriculum, because history are facts that can’t be changed,” she said, failing to address the fact that certain currently ignored facts might deserve a mention going forward.
The photos of the BNK48 rehearsal, which went viral this weekend, have drawn both criticism and — somewhat dishearteningly — defense from the public.
The band, however, seems to have its heart in the right place. Earlier this week, after a sit-down with Israeli Ambassador Dr. Meir Shlomo, the Thai pop idol group pledged to campaign for Holocaust and anti-semitism awareness.
We can’t help but shake our heads at the irony that the Thai academic director can’t own up to their curriculum shortcomings when a 19-year-old “child” — who offered a tearful apology during a concert on Saturday night — can.
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BNK48 to campaign for Holocaust awareness after member wore Nazi shirt at televised rehearsal
