Based upon the reaction by the Albany city schools and citizens alike, I think we may have wandered off point regarding the teacher and the "think like a Nazi" writing assignment. I understand the 10th-grade teacher in question had created this assignment in an effort to teach the students "persuasive writing."
The assignment required the students to examine and analyze Nazi propaganda in an effort to use these arguments within the required essay.
Within the news every night and elsewhere, we find people making an argument that is often incomplete or flawed. The convinced individual may even think us crazy for not understanding his or her viewpoint, and sometimes may even resort to "that's just how I feel." I have always believed the best opinions are created by the resolution of contrary arguments, however ridiculous they might be.
Maybe we don't trust ourselves to have created an open and disciplined environment that is necessary to allow critical thinking to thrive, and that our young adults have been given this skill? We know that bias and prejudice have never been easily identified where fear and opinion preside, and that perhaps fear is only the possibility that truth may erode our favored opinion.
I would guess this same fear was pervasive in pre-war Germany and, without any examination of the argument, evil found a home.
Grant Adkins, Galway