Syracuse Jewish Community gives standing ovation to Jordan April and Archer Shurtliff, from Oswego (NY)
Legal Insurrection Reports: On February 15 two 17-year-old central NY high school students—Jordan April and Archer Shurtliff—raised objections to a homework assignment in which they were required to either oppose or defend the extermination of Jews.
Their teacher, Oswego County High School teacher Michael DeNobile, asked them to:
“write an internal memorandum within the highest ranking offices of the Nazi party in regards to your support or opposition to the Final Solution of the Jewish Question.”
Presumably the goal was to teach the students critical thinking, thereby promoting one of the Common Core’s desired skills.
Here’s part of the assignment (the full assignment is linked here):
But asking high schoolers to roleplay Nazi officials at the 1942 Wannsee Conference and “put themselves in the shoes of Hitler’s top aides” supporting a plan to eradicate Jews isn’t a lesson in critical thinking—it’s unethical and dangerous antisemitic crackpottery.
Jordan and Archer aren’t Jewish, and neither of them has had any extensive study about the Holocaust. But they both immediately intuited the problem with the “Wannsee Argumentative Essay”: forcing students to argue in favor of mass killings and genocide.
CNY students upset after being asked to defend Nazis, Holocaust for homework https://t.co/awHIGLW67M pic.twitter.com/T5IUR6cwrZ
— syracuse.com (@syracusedotcom) March 30, 2017