IF you assume that the teacher’s motives are pure and that the kids are all bright enough to grasp what’s going on, i.e. that they are being asked to comprehend what was going on in German minds circa 1932 and how Nazism worked, then the aassignment almost sounds reasonable. In the United States at present, those ‘IFs’ are going to seem a bit too big to most people.
But why not turn it around for a positive view? Let’s pretend you’re a merchant or ship owner in Boston in 1774. On March 7, the British close the port of Boston to all commerce damaging your livelihood. The Boston Port Bill is passed on March 25 and the original Quartering Act is amended on June 25 to allow British soldiers to be quartered in uninhabited houses, outhouses, barns, or other buildings if suitable quarters not provided (the “Intolerable Acts”). Argue why this is an infringement of your liberties as an Englishman and present the case for violent overthrow of the now-tyrannical government.
Why don’t schools ever ask students to make these arguments?