As a teacher, I know the difference between taking students out of their comfort zone and needlessly distressing them. I am referring to the "Think like a Nazi" assignment given to Albany High School sophomores. The teacher in question did the latter. Stress does not promote learning. It causes students to shut down.
But the topic, itself, was deeply flawed. As it was framed, it presented a cartoonish view of Germany at that time. One can never hope to explain the enormity of the Holocaust by simply ascribing a set of evil ideas to a small group of national leaders. The Holocaust never could have happened without the complicity of the German people and of the governments of neighboring countries. The Nazis did not invent anti-Semitism. It was deeply rooted in German society and throughout Europe and had been for centuries. But they were masterful at using propaganda to exploit this existing prejudice, as well as the fears, national humiliation and economic distress following Germany's defeat in World War I in order to realize their ambitions of international dominance.
We can never know what they were thinking, and in the end, it doesn't really matter, because we can see what they did and the consequences of what they did. What is of more interest is what the people of Germany were thinking.
A far better assignment for the students would have been to have them examine how it was possible for millions of "good" people, like themselves, to allow such monstrous things to happen.
Richard Horan
Albany