Schiff, Colleagues Send Letter to California Textbook Publishers Urging Inclusion and Expansion of Armenian Genocide Education

Rep. Adam Schiff has been fighting for bigger representation of the Armenian Genocide in American textbooks. –Courtesy photo

Recently, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) announced that, along with seven of his California delegation colleagues, he wrote to major publishers of social studies and history textbooks in California to urge them to include additional information and context about the Armenian Genocide. In 2014, Governor Brown signed AB 1915, requiring the Armenian Genocide to be incorporated into high school social studies and history curriculums. The letter asks textbook publishers to include additional information about the Armenian Genocide in forthcoming textbook editions, noting that it “help students learn about the Genocide both as an independent historical event, but also situated in the broader context of modern genocides, ethnic cleansing, and systemic human rights abuses.”

“The Armenian Genocide is a seminal event, and belongs in any course of study that considers human rights and genocide in history and in the modern context,” Rep. Schiff said. “California has taken the lead in encouraging the study of the Armenian Genocide in social studies and history classes, but putting that principle into practice will require textbook publishers to develop new texts that properly address the Genocide, and contextualize it with other 20^th century genocides, as well as informing students about the unprecedented humanitarian response to the Genocide by the United States.”

In addition to Rep. Schiff, the letter was signed by Rep. Jackie Speier, Rep. Anna Eshoo, Rep. Judy Chu, Rep. Grace Napolitano, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Rep. Brad Sherman and Rep. Alan Lowenthal.

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