B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:
B’nai B’rith is deeply disturbed by an Albany, N.Y., teacher’s assignment to “argue that Jews are evil.” The veteran teacher has been put on leave.
This lack of judgment by a teacher demonstrates the need for Holocaust education for college-level students preparing to become educators.
We are encouraged by Superintendent Marguerite Vanden Wyngaard’s apology, in which she said the assignment “displayed a level of insensitivity that we absolutely will not tolerate in our school community.”
This situation can serve as an opportunity to re-evaluate the kinds of topics that are used in critical thinking exercises.
The 10th grade students were asked to develop a persuasive argument that Jews were to blame for the problems in Nazi Germany.
It is encouraging that one-third of the 10th grade students refused to do the assignment.
B’nai B’rith is deeply disturbed by an Albany, N.Y., teacher’s assignment to “argue that Jews are evil.” The veteran teacher has been put on leave.
This lack of judgment by a teacher demonstrates the need for Holocaust education for college-level students preparing to become educators.
We are encouraged by Superintendent Marguerite Vanden Wyngaard’s apology, in which she said the assignment “displayed a level of insensitivity that we absolutely will not tolerate in our school community.”
This situation can serve as an opportunity to re-evaluate the kinds of topics that are used in critical thinking exercises.
The 10th grade students were asked to develop a persuasive argument that Jews were to blame for the problems in Nazi Germany.
It is encouraging that one-third of the 10th grade students refused to do the assignment.
