Will the Nazi Writing Assignment Get This Teacher Fired?

You’ve seen this, right? An upstate New York school system publicly apologized Friday concerning the writing assignment pictured above in which students were asked to prove their loyalty to Nazi Germany by arguing Jews are “evil” and the source of that government’s problems. [Credit: YNN]

“It displayed a level of insensitivity that we absolutely will not tolerate in our school community,” Superintendent Marguerite Vanden Wyngaard said, “I am deeply apologetic to all of our students, all of our families and the entire community.”

Voicing similar reservations, one third of students refused to do the assignment.

Even though Wyngaard also told the Times Union she did not believe the teacher acted with “intent to cause any insensitivities to our families of Jewish faith,” the assignment has now made numerous national headlines.

Stephen Prothero, who blogs for CNN’s Belief blog, thinks all the criticism is over the top:

New York City Councilman David Greenfield has called for the resignation of the teacher, who has been placed on leave.

…I think it’s Greenfield who is lacking in common sense here. And it’s the superintendent who is being illogical.

I suppose it is possible that the teacher is a closet Nazi attempting to reconstruct the Third Reich in Albany. But isn’t it more likely that he or she is trying to teach students about the dangers of propaganda and the horrors of the Holocaust?

Consider the student who felt “horrible” about doing this assignment. Is that really a bad thing? How are high school students today supposed to feel about Nazism and the Holocaust?

Apparently, what they are supposed to feel (and think) is nothing, because the lesson high school teachers are going to take away from this fiasco is to avoid this topic at all costs, lest they risk losing their jobs.

So what do you think? Is the assignment insensitive? Or is it, as Prothero seems to suggest, designed in part to teach sensitivity? Does it breakdown community or help educate it to be stronger in the future?