College textbook used by UNC: Holocaust victims failed to realize their strength

[47of74]

UNC stepped in it up past their necks

Quote

An online textbook, which blames Holocaust victims for failing to tap into their strength, is required reading for nearly 19,000 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill students.

"21st Century Wellness" is part of a one-credit hour Lifetime Fitness course all UNC undergraduates have to take before graduation. The course is meant to teach students how to stay physically fit and make healthy lifestyle choices.

But along with handing out advice about leading a healthy lifestyle, the book delves into other subjects. One excerpt says Holocaust victims who died failed to find their inner strength.

"The people in the camps who did not tap into the strength that comes from their intrinsic worth succumbed to the brutality to which they were subjected," the book reads. The text was contracted for use for two years, but it is currently under review for the fall, a school spokesman said.

 

[refugee]

Spoiler for Holocaust details. Studying that time period gave me nightmares for years afterward.

Spoiler

I should think they succumbed to gas, starvation, disease, bayonets, bullets, beatings, pseudo-scientific experimentation, and vicious dogs (just for starters), regardless of any inner strength they might have had.

That textbook author sounds like an idiot.

 

[formergothardite]

30 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

The people in the camps who did not tap into the strength that comes from their intrinsic worth succumbed to the brutality to which they were subjected,"

Oh North Carolina, just when we were staring to recover from the whole bathroom bill fiasco. 

We once had a blogger who posted something similar and came here to defend it. It was a fairly young man. He insisted that Jewish people like Anne Frank gave up and died because they didn't have the strength of Christ to draw on. 

It is a disgusting mindset and I sadly wish I was surprised this happened in NC, but I'm not. 

[refugee]

Betsy ten Boom and Dietrich Bonhoeffer are two I can think of off the top of my head who did have “the strength of Christ to draw on.”  Gee, what could have gone wrong?

I’m glad I wasn’t here for the discussion with that blogger.

[AmazonGrace]

That's disgraceful, how did that ever pass the editor's desk. How did the writer's head not explode when he or she read what she wrote? Sure, positive thinking will stop you from getting murdered.

So much blame the victims.

[anniebgood]

17 minutes ago, refugee said:

Betsy ten Boom and Dietrich Bonhoeffer are two I can think of off the top of my head who did have “the strength of Christ to draw on.”  Gee, what could have gone wrong?

I’m glad I wasn’t here for the discussion with that blogger.

Do you mean Corrie TenBoom? 

[refugee]

Just now, anniebgood said:

Do you mean Corrie TenBoom? 

No, I mean her sister Betsy, who died in the camp that Corrie was released from by a clerical error.

[Nikedagain?]

Ugh. I live here and work there. There have been rumblings about this for a few months, but to be honest, between the Silent Sam controversy that is monopolizing most of our (local progressives) time and attention, and the NCAA academic "scandal"/investigation that has consumed administration - it really hasn't received the attention that it deserves. 

But there are really no excuses. 

[Alisamer]

On the one hand I'm feeling "Ugh, we have enough idiocy in NC without this" and on the other hand I'm like "Hah, UNC sucks."

For the record, one of my cousins went to NC State, and one went to UNC - a house divided! (Both are great schools, depending on what you are majoring in.) But we are mostly a NC State family, and I was relieved it wasn't State just because it already has a bit of a redneck reputation, while UNC's reputation is kind of the opposite. If I'd been asked which college was using that text, UNC would probably have been one of my last guesses, before Asheville and all the historically Black colleges in the state.

But really, I think that is horrible. How did that possibly make it past editing? How did it possibly make it through the filter most people have between brain and mouth/hands? How did they think that way in the first place? 

[Nikedagain?]

1 hour ago, Alisamer said:

On the one hand I'm feeling "Ugh, we have enough idiocy in NC without this" and on the other hand I'm like "Hah, UNC sucks."

For the record, one of my cousins went to NC State, and one went to UNC - a house divided! (Both are great schools, depending on what you are majoring in.) But we are mostly a NC State family, and I was relieved it wasn't State just because it already has a bit of a redneck reputation, while UNC's reputation is kind of the opposite. If I'd been asked which college was using that text, UNC would probably have been one of my last guesses, before Asheville and all the historically Black colleges in the state.

But really, I think that is horrible. How did that possibly make it past editing? How did it possibly make it through the filter most people have between brain and mouth/hands? How did they think that way in the first place? 

LOL. We are sort of a house divided. Hard core Tarheels here, for generations but my son opted to go to NCSU. Sort of blew my mind! My daughter did undergrad/grad at UNC also. She was a history major and never had any "teaching" that leaned towards this sort of philosophy (if she had, I probably would have had to bail her out of jail...)

This textbook has really been a non issue here in our little town, which is shocking and disappointing.  

[Walking Cat Bed]

I did my first master's at State, and I'm never really surprised to see *another* scandal associated with UNC. Even something relatively minor that they seem to be dealing with.

This is why reading through textbooks before committing to using them is a good idea.

[Soulhuntress]

The Authors wrote some other really bad shit.  And look there is woo!  FBYU professors wrote this nonsense.  

Quote

A textbook for a required fitness class at UNC-Chapel Hill calls cancer a disease of choice, describes a theory that Holocaust victims failed to tap into their inner strength and maintains that “many if not most women” who are obsessed with weight have become habitual dieters.

Quote

The book was written by two professors of exercise science at Brigham Young University, including Barbara Lockhart, a former Olympic speedskater who has taught mind/body integration, according to biographical information of the authors. The book explores the power of positive thinking, traditional Chinese medicine and making natural choices about health, as opposed to “surgery, drugs, or other means to achieve your desired ends.”

[47of74]

However there was some good done at UNC today

Quote

The controversial “Silent Sam” statue on the campus of the University of North Carolina has been toppled by protesters.

WRAL-TV reports that more than 300 people gathered at Peace and Justice Plaza about 7:30 p.m. on Monday before marching to the Confederate statue's base and calling for its removal. At 9 p.m., protesters marched down Franklin Street before returning to the statue's base. By 9:30 p.m., “Silent Sam” was down.

 

[Nikedagain?]

It was so exhilarating! 

[PennySycamore]

Would these asshat authors care to explain how and why my sister chose to have brain cancer?

[47of74]

5 minutes ago, PennySycamore said:

Would these asshat authors care to explain how and why my sister chose to have brain cancer?

Or how my uncle chose to have that and brain tumors that ended his life last month?

(I think it was in part hereditary since brain tumors was what ultimately got Grandpa too).

[GeoBQn]

I live in the area and the Jewish community was livid about this.  I want to know how "inner strength" would have helped a Holocaust victim avoid death from poisonous gas, typhus, medical experiments, or a bullet to the back.

[front hugs > duggs]

I was actively involved in the Hillel at UNC in my time there and I know their director raised hell on the university about this. They seem to be content with the solution - "Senior NC Hillel and UNC-Chapel Hill leadership met today to discuss the recent issue regarding the online undergraduate textbook, "21st Century Wellness," and concerns raised about Holocaust education at UNC. We were assured that revisions to the online text have already been underway over recent months. These edits were instituted by the authors and UNC's faculty. We are confident that Hillel's concerns have been addressed."

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article215993275.html

I was so grateful to have the Hillel there since I was a northern Jew. I found the Jewish community in Chapel Hill small and mighty.

 

 

[Soulhuntress]

3 hours ago, GeoBQn said:

I live in the area and the Jewish community was livid about this.  I want to know how "inner strength" would have helped a Holocaust victim avoid death from poisonous gas, typhus, medical experiments, or a bullet to the back.

They twisted Victor Frankl's musings into this bullshit.  Their inner strength horseshit was what the SS believed, Not Dr. Frankl

Quote

After enduring the suffering in these camps, Frankl concluded that even in the most absurd, painful, and dehumanized situation, life has potential meaning and that, therefore, even suffering is meaningful.

.  Which makes more sense than the driveling BS these authors wrote.

[Lisafer]

The authors must be some deeply twisted people if they actually believe this shit. They're blaming Holocaust victims for their own deaths? Are they neo-Nazis? I'm actually serious about this. Do they subscribe to some kind of white supremacist group or something?

And the "diseases of choice" sounds like some kind of Christian Scientist woo to me.