California School District Under Fire for Holocaust-Denial Assignment

[Scootaloo]

90. Except for the whole "critical thinking and argumentative writing assignment" feature

The work sheet has spaces for additional sources beyond hte three listed - that's a not-very subtle hint that the students on the assignment are absolutely expected to investigate further sources for the topic, and outline what they;re using from those sources.

The students then must present the ideas of "their side" and a defense - in their own words - of those ideas.

They must then present what they consider the best ideas from the other position, and why the student considers those the strongest facts the other side has.

They then write an essay as to whether or not their position will promote or prevent genocide in the future if it were adopted. They gst a choice of one or the other; there is no "genocide-neutral" option.

Really, everything you are saying amounts to "teacher says so therefor it is so." That's no way to educate.

As for your examples, such a race debate was probably one of my more formative moments in school - same Alabama school that i mentioned regarding the civil war, in fact. Two students were in an argument, the white student called the black student the N-word, and the teacher stopped the class - not to censure the student and send him out, but to engage the class on the topic. Why call him that word. Do you know what it means? How do you justify it? What do the rest of you think? etc. etc.

Rather than "Oh my god, you can't say that, get out!" the teacher turned it into a learning moment. The student who launched the word was not only chastized, but also educated.