re: “The writing project, assigned before the class read “Night,” by Elie Wiesel, called on the students to research Third Reich propaganda and then write a letter to a Nazi officer arguing that “Jews are evil.”
I’m not so sure this was a stupid assignment. Elie Wiesel was a Jewish man incarcerated at Auschwitz during WW2. His book, “Night”, is about his experiences there. The teacher asked the students to research Nazi propaganda, I’m assuming this was to find out what the Nazi’s claimed was “evil” about the Jews, not to affirm those beliefs, but to teach his/her students how nuts that whole era was. Then, later on, reading “Night”, it would help put that book in context to these kids to understand what political, moral, and social ideas existed in Germany to bring about the horrors of the Holocaust.
I’m not yet sure this teacher was off-base or sinister in this assignment without more info. Remember, kids today have NO CLUE what was going on at that time in history. It looks to me like this teacher was trying to get them to see some of that madness first hand. I could be wrong, but that’s how it is looking to me at this point.
Maybe. I'd suggest that persuading a writer for Der Sturmer the error of his ways might have been a better approach. And I suspect that a high school English class probably doesn't provide adequate background.
I think it was a cover for a larger purpose — surround your true intent around issues that soften opponents objections...kinda like what Google did on Easter...of course, I didn’t pay attention to the fact they used a Catholic Mexican immigrate to celebrate what he did for the poor and oppressed by forming a union to protect them from larger farm/corporate industries...I burned off a letter thinking it was a young Hugo Chavez...but I got wrapped up in the e-mails and what others were saying instead of taking my time and researching the “true” intent...which was to totally ignore Jesus’ Resurrection and in its place - put someone who championed more or less the same cause...I don’t trust the education system anymore......