Posted on 04/14/2013 6:20:00 AM PDT by grundle
ALBANY — High school is full of hypotheticals, like “How does one solve for x?” and “What happens if I skip class?” But this week, students at Albany High School were given an alarming thought puzzle: How do I convince my teacher that I think Jews are evil?
That question was posed to about 75 students on Monday by an unidentified 10th-grade English teacher as a “persuasive writing” exercise. The students were instructed to imagine that their teacher was a Nazi and to construct an argument that Jews were “the source of our problems” using historical propaganda and, of course, a traditional high school essay structure.
“Your essay must be five paragraphs long, with an introduction, three body paragraphs containing your strongest arguments, and a conclusion,” the assignment read. “You do not have a choice in your position: you must argue that Jews are evil, and use solid rationale from government propaganda to convince me of your loyalty to the Third Reich!”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Hint to Albany HS students. Just lift some rhetoric from Obama about bitter clinging Christian gun owners. Easy A.
This is a poorer than average area. Doubtful the students can read adequately, making this exercise even more suspect.
This apparently was NOT a debate class learning both sides of an argument.
The students were instructed to imagine that their teacher was a Nazi and to construct an argument that Jews,whites,blacks,asians,mexicans were “the source of our problems”.
An easy way teaching a hate mode so they can grow up to be reporters.
And, still, American Jews continue to vote for liberal Democrats... even though liberal Democrats are the biggest Anti-Semites around
I had a teacher with a number tattooed on his forearm. Needless to say, he never asked us to justify the nazi position for him.
Asking ‘How do you solve for x’ is not a hypothetical question unless x is expected not to in fact exist. The question become hypothetical when it is being asked in the absence of any demonstration the the situation ever has existed or ever will exist. In that sense fantasy novels are huge hypothetical questions. However, a mathematical function which has a determinate answer must in fact generate a result which either does or readily can exist. So the question is not hypothetical.
The author of the piece appears not to have the best grasp of English language. Nor do any of the putative editors (whose existence might be hypothetical).
Nick Brino, a 10th grader, said he had heard about the assignment from a classmate. “I thought it was wrong,” he said. “But she was flipping out, saying if anyone was going to do it, she wasn’t going to be their friend.”
Ugh. Nevermind my previous post. I misinterpreted who the student was quoting. Must drink more coffee.
This actually could have a been an excellent thought provoking assignment if, and this is a big if, the teacher included as part of the assignment to also explain how propaganda is used to manipulate people and how people can be taught to recognize it when seen.
I guess this exercise would have been ok if it had been to write propaganda on how conservatives are evil. I believe I read somewhere that she was going to follow up the exercise with reading a book about the suffering of a Holocaust Jew. Which might have evened out the discussion - “see what this leads to.” I think this is a knee jerk reaction.
I think her whole point was to show how state-controlled propaganda can be used to demonize people and plant ideas in the minds of the public. She was probably considering this to be the classic in demonization and wanted to use it as an actual example to show that propaganda “works” in the real world.
Maybe she didn’t present it very clearly, or perhaps she should have made it less personal - that is, asking the students to write an analytical piece, rather than one putting themselves in the shoes of the German newspaper readers who were the targets for this propaganda and manipulation.
NAZI ideology is default democrat party philosphy.
There is no viable, arguable difference.
As for the ovens, their position will gradually "evolve".
Let's not give it time.
Liberal haters think nothing of making groups they consider inferior the target. She probably never thought to make HER ilk the hypothetical target as in, “Write a persuasive argument as to why public school English teachers are evil”.
“How do I convince my teacher that I think Jews are evil?”
I will take David Axelrod, Rahm Emmanuel, Cass Sunsteen and George Soros for 100 Alex.
Jews aren’t evil. Some of them were Communists that Hitler wanted to do away with. The rest of us were collateral damage.
All in proper context... and I know there are real and threatening problems in the school system, it is undeniable. I just think we need to keep things in perspective
NY teacher who gave ‘Jews are evil’ assignment suspended
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