I agree generally with your post, but you’ve got me puzzled about the journalism assignment.
Obits seem a basic and straightforward part of journalism, and giving students the assignment to write their own, a fairly common assignment BTW, seems a chance for them to have some fun, be creative and think about what they’d like their lives to be. Even if it’s not something to your daughter’s taste, that’s pretty common to have to deal with in school, journalism and life.
Perhaps there is something about the OCD angle that I’m not getting?
It wasn’t the obit part that bothered me. The teacher required that the obit be CURRENT (if you are 12, the obit is for you dying at around 12). They could not write an obit for yourself at 98 or something.
Seemed a bit gruesome. The OCD part came into play because she obsessed about writing her own obit for present time, and it being a self-fulfilling prophecy.