[andyk]

"One of the reasons we're fighting there now is to eliminate the same kind of prejudice and the same kind of treatment of minorities."

I'm not sure about the assignment, but I appreciate his altruistic motive.

[Ben Mugged]

The Holocaust killed Gypsies, Christians, Jews and many others. Reading the Diary of Anne Frank is no more indoctrination into the Jewish faith than reading Lawrence of Arabia is a doctrination into the Muslim religion.

[Red Badger]

Would the kids have complained if they had to wear crescents instead of stars?........

[steel_resolve]

and how America was hesitant to help the Jewish people in the Holocaust

WHat in the bloody hell is this crazy person talking about??? This is the most ridiculous drivel I have heard today. Back up your absurd assumption with facts please. Oh,and by the way, this assignment sucks and is discriminatory against the students who chose not to participate. She should be relieved of her teaching position immediately.

[Tax-chick]

Why can't they just read, analyze, and write essays about the books, instead of a lot of acting-out nonsense?

[Tijeras_Slim]

These moron children ought to learn how the Nazi's treated dissenting lefties.

[HostileTerritory]

"Many people won't learn anything except that their religion (if they're not Jewish) isn't good enough and that being Jewish or expressing Jewish symbols is a better religion and the only way to get the grades we deserve,"

Sounds like a bad idea for an assignment, BUT that is just stupid. Shame on her parents for not setting her straight and preventing her from embarrassing herself, assuming they didn't encourage her.

[laconic]

And no one helped the millions of Cambodians and Vietnamese slaughtered by the communists, either, other than the American soldiers who fought for them.

[Pessimist]

I'm with the kids on this one. This is total PC BS.

I wouldn't want my kid forced into this any more than I would want her to have to pretend she's gay or black for a week.

[PzLdr]

If the principal OKed non participation, why did the studdents who refused to wear the Star get lower grades. And would the teacher have thought the one student "creative" if he showed up in a homemade uniform with the Siegrunen on the collar?

[Fzob]

"My intention with the star was to get them to have some empathy and the feeling of what it was like to have to identify yourself with a symbol,

I don't get it. People purposefully identify themselves with symbols ALL the time. A cross, a hat or shirt with your favorite team, a particular piece of clothing, bumper stickers, alligator shirts, spiked hair, etc.

What they are really trying to teach is how you feel when you are forced to identify yourself with a group that is being persecuted.

[Condor51]

English teacher Harry Mitchell last week asked students to make and wear yellow stars similar to those Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis. The graded assignment, part of a lesson on The Diary of Anne Frank, was intended to teach empathy, he said.

1. An English Teacher has no GD business trying to "teach empathy".
   
2. It's his job to - teach ENGLISH, period.
   
3. If my kid was in this boneheads class you can be guaranteed, they wouldn't partake in this nonsense. And IF as the article states they received a lower grade this 'Teacher', School Principal, and District would see the biggest lawsuit in the history of litigation!!

It's Pollyanna, liberal 'altruistic' crap like this why the education system SUCKS and HS graduates are barely literate. Oh but they'll have 'empathy' and can put a condom on a cucumber, but they can't fill out a stinking job application. Great, just friggin' great.

Furthermore, the Diary of Anne Frank has NO business being part of any public school's class curriculum.

[PogySailor]

I can't recall EVER being required to act out parts like this, other than in drama class. What's wrong with reading, discussing and maybe writing a paper about the topic?

[Old Professer]

Role-playing and group dynamics are behavioral modification techniques by design; the only valid question is who is the designer?

[pabianice]

Doofus.

[Little Ray]

Maybe he shoulda made some of 'em wear pink stars for being homosexual, or whatever other colors the Nazis used for "undesirables." Maybe he shoulda assigned kapos and guards, too.
This was silly and poorly executed.

[Bratch]

---

An assignment intended to teach students about tolerance and the Holocaust angered some students at Pittsfield Middle High School, who claimed it violated their religious freedom. English teacher Harry Mitchell last week asked students to make and wear yellow stars similar to those Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis. The graded assignment, part of a lesson on The Diary of Anne Frank, was intended to teach empathy, he said.

---

Hmmm.

What if it had been a different assignment, say Pliny the Younger's letters about the early Christians?

What do you suppose the response would have been if the teacher had asked to students to wear symbols of 1st Century followers of Christ?

[BlueStateDepression]

I would have worn an American Flag.

[ottothedog]

Teaching about the Nazis/Holocaust/Anne Frank are all appropriate an good, etc. However, I object to these teachers playing mind games with kids by doing these "role playing" activities and such. Just stick to the facts please.

[Alouette]

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.


Pastor Martin Niemöller

[Alouette]

There were brown triangles for Gypsies, purple triangles for Jehova witnesses and evangelican Christians, red triangles for communists, and of course the pink triangle.