Editorial

Students learn the power of art to provoke

Posted

‘If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the process of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.’

—Louis D. Brandeis, associate justice, U.S. Supreme Court, 1916-1939

Combining what they learned in social studies, English and art classes, two eighth-grade students at South Side Middle School recently created works of art depicting the despicable nature of the Nazi regime. The pieces, which included images of swastikas, vilified those monsters of the past, showing that the wounds the Third Reich created are still deeply felt today. They were hung, along with other student work, in a school hallway.

Once parents and the larger school community became aware of the works, people fulminated about hate and anti-Semitism, and the pieces were removed from the school walls. The students’ voices were silenced.

The students should have been congratulated for their critical thinking and their attempt to interpret German degenerate art — a term used by the Nazis to describe virtually all modern art, which sometimes used swastikas to mock and protest the regime.

Instead, the students’ work was vilified.

Censorship, in any form, has a chilling effect. And make no mistake: Those two students were censored by the school district. Parents were worried that other students might emulate their work, or that they would start committing hate crimes against Jewish members of the community.

Do the Rockville Centre schools ban depictions of cross burnings or the Confederate battle flag when teaching American history for fear of offending black students? Does holding symbols of evil up to the light and exposing them for what they are equal approval?

The irony here is that the students were purposefully using the power of art to provoke — thought, emotion and anger — at the atrocities of the Third Reich. Instead, they provoked a knee-jerk reaction of people who didn’t bother to try to understand the art or the context in which it was created. We’re saddened that those who over-reacted to the artwork included the school administration and the Board of Education.

In the future, those student artists, as well as others, may be much less eager to express themselves. They may be afraid to ask questions or voice unique ideas out of fear that the community will descend on them with vitriol. Is that the lesson we want the students to take away from this incident? For a school district that prides itself on its inclusiveness and students’ freedom to express their ideas, censoring two eighth-graders seems like a step backward.

There’s no question that the swastika is a freighted symbol. It represents the repugnant ideas of the Nazi Party as well as present-day hate groups in this country that espouse intolerance and violence against Jews, people of color and gays. The hatred and evil it stands for should be repudiated. Isn’t that what these students were doing?

“We’re not an art gallery, we’re a middle school,” Dr. William Johnson, the district’s superintendent, said. And he’s right. On reflection, we’re sure all involved would agree that more context should have been provided to the student audience once the works were completed and put on display in the hallway.

But what are students taught when potentially offensive artwork is taken down? Hiding a swastika doesn’t lessen its impact; it only makes it more subversive. Pretending it doesn’t exist doesn’t help anyone. It’s part of history — a dark and depressing part of history, but history nonetheless. It should be taught, not covered up.

Rockville Centre should be above reactionary responses and capitulating to fear and anger. The swastika may make some people uncomfortable, but censorship is never the answer.