by Reagan Reese
A nonprofit organization launched its digital curriculum Thursday for students to learn the “horrors of communism.”
The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) has launched its Communism: A History of Repression, Violence and Victims curriculum featuring 10 sections and 33 chapters of material to help school districts teach the basic theory and ideology behind communism. Fully sourced and peer-reviewed, the curriculum is aimed at high school sophomores and covers the tools and theories of communism, which is lacking in schools, VOC told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“The most important aspect from my point of view, is that this is a topic that, for some reason, is just not taught in schools anymore,” VOC CEO Ken Pope told the DCNF. “When I was teaching at the university level, and I’m talking to a lot of other friends who are still teaching students, they don’t get this when they come out of high school. They don’t have an understanding of the basics of communism or Marxism or socialism, or any of those topics at any level.”
The organization released the first section of the curriculum which includes lessons about religious repression, propaganda and characteristics of an oppressive regime. Through classroom activities and suggested reading such as “Animal Farm” by George Orwell, students learn definitions of socialism, marxism and totalitarianism.
Pope told the DCNF that part of the reason the curriculum was created is because communism lessons are lacking in schools and younger generations do not understand its harms.
“One of the surveys we commissioned back in 2020 showed that 40% of Americans have a favorable view of socialism and you look at some of the Gen Z numbers, 30% of people have a favorable view of Marxism, we got 18 to 20% of the Gen Z folks say communism is a more fair system than capitalism. We need to start educating people about the true nature of those systems. Break it up between what they promised and what they really delivered to them.”
The chapters touch on China’s religious persecution and the Marxist-Leninist view of religion. Students are taught how America’s Bill of Rights contrasts to communist works such as the “Communist Manifesto.”
The rest of the sections and their respective chapters will be released in the coming weeks, a press release stated. For schools and teachers who already have their year planned, the curriculum is designed so educators can substitute chapters and sections to fit their lesson plans.
Aside from learning about the main components of communism, the curriculum examines victims of communism’s stories to teach about the damage of the theory, Ambassador Andrew Bremberg, the president of VOC, told the DCNF.
“The most important aspect of the curriculum is that it tells the story of the victims, not just the tyrants and their crimes,” Bremberg said. “It is ever so critical that we examine communism through this lens — this ideology is not some far off, historical tyranny or a failed attempt at utopia. Communism is a nefarious ideology that seeks to crush the human spirit, to stamp out the animating light of liberty, individualism, private property and religion. Communism is a contagion that forces neighbors, friends and family to spy on each other.”
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Reagan Reese is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Teacher and Students” by Kampus Production.
