School district apologizes for "Jews are evil" assignment

Students were to “research Nazi propaganda, then assume their teacher was a Nazi government official who had to be convinced of their loyalty.”

The teacher’s assignment told students they “must argue that Jews are evil, and use solid rationale from government propaganda to convince me of your loyalty to the Third Reich!”

Do you think this assignment was a legitimate “devil’s advocate” thought exercise? Was there a better way to do it, or was the subject simply unacceptable no matter how it was worded?

I am just now reading and hearing that a lot of these recent “I cant believe the school thought this was ok” assignments are tied to the new Common Core stuff that a lot of people are so opposed to. I am so new to the discussion that I dont really have anything to contribute, but a lot of parents seem to think that this is a really big deal. That the Common Core is pretty much a brainwashing method that has nothing to do with real academics like reading, math and writing. Instead it has to do with analyzing and changing students attitudes towards diversity, morals, moldability to change without questioning authority and self esteem.

Are you more aware of what it is Susan?

invalid because there are still today racists who propagate that idea, probably in that school district and the students are too young to separate fantasy racism from real racism that perpetrates real damage. maybe for a college project, but i would have made the assignment be about the countries who rationalized why it was good to give up the jews and other minority groups.

Crystal,

These assignments are stemming from the ungodly predisposition predominate in public education, not common core. I completely disagree with common core, but it is not the cause of this.

Simply looking at reports since 1/1/13 there is a very real desire to derail, discredit, destroy the Judeo-Christian values that many n this country still hold to. this happening at all levels of education including the college level. It is imperative for parents to build a solid biblical foundation for their children to grow on, so our children can develop a biblical worldview that is solidly built upon the Scriptures.

Common Core proponents claim that the new standards help students think more deeply, but from what I’ve seen, they direct students more to what to think rather than how to think. One aspect of CCS that many teachers are concerned about is the significant reduction in literature studies in favor of ‘informational’ reading, which sounds good, but it’s the choices of informational reading that are worrisome. And since the Common Core Standards are owned and copyrighted by the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers, teachers will not be able to diverge in any meaningful way from those standards.

I think the Common Core Standards are a cause for concern, as they are tied to gov’t funding, NCLB waivers, and all the money strings tied to various businesses who stand to make a tremendous profit if these standards are adopted.

There have been other instances reported lately of students in schools and colleges being required to do some very controversial ‘thought’ exercises, such as stomping on a piece of paper with the name of Jesus printed on it, creating ‘wanted’ posters for runaway slaves, and writing a comparison of President Barack Obama to Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. In my opinion we can teach critical thinking without pushing the envelope in this way.

Thanks for the clarification on CC. I appreciate it.

[Susan R]

Common Core proponents claim that the new standards help students think more deeply, but from what I’ve seen, they direct students more to what to think rather than how to think. One aspect of CCS that many teachers are concerned about is the significant reduction in literature studies in favor of ‘informational’ reading, which sounds good, but it’s the choices of informational reading that are worrisome.

I agree that as it stands, CCS looks as though it offers some flexibility. However, the ink on the CCS for English and Math is still wet, standards for other subjects such as history and science have yet to be presented, and the real biggie -testing- is still in the works. IOW, we don’t know what to expect, or what students will be required to learn in order to score well on the inevitable high stakes testing to follow. I think more obvious ‘indoctrination’ efforts will show up later, after CCS has been adopted and interwoven into our nation’s schools to the point where withdrawing would be even more monumental than the implementation.

In most cases, teacher latitude is a good thing. However, when teachers use their liberty in this way, or schools adopt curriculum with these kinds of assignments, I think we have to ask ourselves who is on the bridge our nation’s academic ship, and why are they driving it onto the rocks?

I have lived in Albany for over 20 years now and our church is located about 15 minutes from this school. This is one of the most liberal places in the Country and Albany High School is one of the worst schools around. I believe they have about a 50 percent graduation rate.

This assignment is consistent with the anti-American agenda that permeates the thinking in most of the public schools in this area. The thinking in this area is becoming more like Hitler’s Germany all of the time.

There are somewhere around 30,000 Jews here in the Capital Region and they obviously did not appreciate this homework assignment.

I can’t contribute a whole lot to this situation, and this one specifically may very well have been over the line or intended to do harm, but I think its legitimate to have high schoolers and higher argue for something that they clearly don’t agree with, It definitely builds logical and critical thinking skills which are especially lacking in conservative circles. The issue in a public school environment is how do you find something that your entire class will disagree with. It would take something fairly big to do so. I would find it hard to assume that this was malicious towards Jews even in today’s world, especially when the article gives no testimony from the “offending” teacher.

[Susan R]

I agree that as it stands, CCS looks as though it offers some flexibility. However, the ink on the CCS for English and Math is still wet, standards for other subjects such as history and science have yet to be presented, and the real biggie -testing- is still in the works. IOW, we don’t know what to expect, or what students will be required to learn in order to score well on the inevitable high stakes testing to follow. I think more obvious ‘indoctrination’ efforts will show up later, after CCS has been adopted and interwoven into our nation’s schools to the point where withdrawing would be even more monumental than the implementation.

In most cases, teacher latitude is a good thing. However, when teachers use their liberty in this way, or schools adopt curriculum with these kinds of assignments, I think we have to ask ourselves who is on the bridge our nation’s academic ship, and why are they driving it onto the rocks?

I have no idea what Common Core is, but why would they need to change the education system to “brain wash” kids. The current age graded form of education already creates a peer based model of education that solely disburses information instead of teaching one how to learn through logical thought. Then uses the built in effects of peer pressure to make sure no one questions the information being presented.

Susan,

First, CCS for science just came out; social studies have been out. Unfortunately, the only CCS for social studies are language arts applications.

Second, testing is currently designed to be handled by the states. Each state establishes their own tests based on CCS. That doesn’t mean the feds won’t eventually try to “standardize” the testing as well, but it is currently left to each state.

Third, I think we agree on pretty much all of this, except for the one fine point I mentioned earlier. CCS does not establish the content to be used in teaching the standards, only the tasks students are supposed to perform given any random content. Districts and schools largely determine the content, and teachers largely determine how the content is presented.

Because it was brought up above by paynen-

You mentioned that logic and critical thinking skills are lacking in the current education-especially among conservatives. I wonder, could you point to some ways to teach oneself these topics? I feel as though my education in these areas is lacking and just didn’t know where to start in teaching myself-and then my children. My sister on the other hand was born with a very logical mind. She can talk circles around me and I am still trying to figure out what I said that was illogical. LOL Feel free to PM me if anyone wanted to as I know that it is off topic for this thread.

“Educating” the children in the same fashion as Hitler’s Germany in the past and like many Palestinian schools in the present is dangerous.