Why can't they just read, analyze, and write essays about the books, instead of a lot of acting-out nonsense?
Because discussing, ananlyzing, and grading essays takes time, effort, and subject knowledge on the part of the teacher, whereas role playing comes in a canned program and eats up large quantities of class time which might otherwise have required even more time, effort, and subject knowledge on the part of the teacher.
Amen. I did not realize that English class is about the ability to have feelings. Maybe the teacher could have asked the students to express what the literature caused them to feel.
What a silly assignment. And the logic that a student who asked to wear a swastika did not lose points because that student was attempting to identify with a group is nonsense. By choosing to identify with neither swastikas nor stars, the girl in question was choosing to identify with the silent witnesses to the Holocaust.
I think you've got it!
Because that would assess what they know not what they feel. Remember feelings trump everything these days.