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NY teacher who gave ‘Jews are evil’ assignment suspended
JTA ^ | April 14, 2013

Posted on 04/14/2013 6:47:46 AM PDT by SJackson

(JTA) -- A New York teacher who assigned her students to write a persuasive essay on why Jews are evil has been placed on leave and will be disciplined.

The teacher, who has not been named, was placed on leave from her job at Albany High School on Friday, and could face a reprimand or firing, according to the Albany Times Union.

School Superintendent Marguerite Vanden Wyngaard said in a news conference on Friday, where she appeared with members of the Anti-Defamation League and Jewish Federation, that the teacher will be disciplined by the school district and might not return to the classroom this year.

The district also will bring in sensitivity trainers from the ADL to work with the teachers and their students, the newspaper reported.

Wyngaard said the teacher was a long-time employee whose work has never been criticized but said that her assignment "displayed a level of insensitivity that we absolutely will not tolerate."

The writing project, assigned before the class read "Night," by Elie Wiesel, called on the students to research Third Reich propaganda and then write a letter to a Nazi officer arguing that "Jews are evil." One of the three classes given the assignment refused to carry out the assignment, the Times Union reported.


TOPICS: Israel; News/Current Events; US: New York; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: albany; israel; newyork; waronterror
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1 posted on 04/14/2013 6:47:46 AM PDT by SJackson
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; Lent; GregB; ..
Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

Unless there are issues we don't know about, this seems like an overreaction

2 posted on 04/14/2013 6:48:21 AM PDT by SJackson (The Pilgrims—Doing the jobs Native Americans wouldn’t do !)
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To: SJackson

photo?


3 posted on 04/14/2013 6:51:17 AM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: SJackson

Unless the teacher can point to past assignments like ‘Explain why blacks shouldn’t be educated past the 8th grade’ or ‘Why America is better off if Catholics aren’t allowed to vote’, it is not overreaction.


4 posted on 04/14/2013 6:52:21 AM PDT by jjotto ("Ya could look it up!")
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To: SJackson
History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes.


5 posted on 04/14/2013 6:55:31 AM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: SJackson

Again the inflammatory headline.

The assignment was for the student to imagine themselves as Nazis and write why they think Jews are evil. This is valid creative writing exercise for a history or “social studies” class. Only problem I can see is that she probably has not taught the inter-war period to the students well enough for the assignment; Germany went through a civil war against the communists after WWI.


6 posted on 04/14/2013 7:03:44 AM PDT by Little Ray (How did I end up in this hand-basket, and why is it getting so hot?)
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To: SJackson
Issues we don't know about? Overreaction? I guess it's okay to rewrite history and try to bring about a Renaissance of Jew hating.

All because this cretin was black? The fact is blacks are the privileged ones here; they have grown to feel entitled to say and do anything they want - simply because they are black - the government, the media and the ACLU are their stalwarts. This teacher is evidence of that.

7 posted on 04/14/2013 7:05:40 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: SJackson

Dissing Jews in NY is kind of . . . not smart.


8 posted on 04/14/2013 7:07:47 AM PDT by YHAOS
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To: Little Ray

It is NOT valid in any shape form or fashion. It is an exercise designed to immerse an impressionable student into thinking a certain way, determined by a teacher that has no business teaching anyone. It is questionable even for a college level course, let alone grade school. To think otherwise is naive.


9 posted on 04/14/2013 7:09:12 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: SJackson

I know there have been more and more instances of idiotic things teachers have been asking their students to do.

All of it, is because they all feel empowered by their man in the White House and his ilk, the courts, their unions, and the general apathy people show nowadays.

Things like this are nothing more than probes, seeing just how far they can go and what they can get away with.


10 posted on 04/14/2013 7:13:31 AM PDT by qaz123
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To: Little Ray
If the assignment had been to write an editorial for the 1861 Charleston, SC Mercury defending slavery and secession, would we be having this conversation?
11 posted on 04/14/2013 7:15:12 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (Doing the same thing and expecting different results is called software engineering.)
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To: Little Ray
This is valid creative writing exercise for a history or “social studies” class.
In other news reports she's identified as an English teacher.
Based on that, I'll assume the assignment was NOT based on any material covered during the school year.
12 posted on 04/14/2013 7:15:22 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: YHAOS

This was Albany, not NYC. Not many Jews up there. If the teacher were in NYC, I would imagine there would have been a different assignment chosen.


13 posted on 04/14/2013 7:16:32 AM PDT by Pharmboy (Democrats lie because they must.)
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To: SJackson

Took a lot of doing. If a teacher had said “watermelon” or drawn some curly lines or said this is a picture of moe heads would be rolling.


14 posted on 04/14/2013 7:22:05 AM PDT by I want the USA back (Pi$$ed off yet?)
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To: SJackson

Oh Wow! She gets a paid vacation...


15 posted on 04/14/2013 7:22:15 AM PDT by baddog 219
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To: Little Ray
The assignment was for the student to imagine themselves as Nazis and write why they think Jews are evil. This is valid creative writing exercise for a history or “social studies” class. Only problem I can see is that she probably has not taught the inter-war period to the students well enough for the assignment; Germany went through a civil war against the communists after WWI.


What good can come from having students imagine they are Nazi's and try to wrap their mind around their sick twisted thinking. I'm not venturing any conspiracy theories, but they are plenty of politicians today who wouldn't mind their constituents mastering this assignment a little too well. How does this kind of creative writing teach the students anything that helps them succeed in society? Would you like wager on weather the same children are ever assigned a creative writing assignment pretending they are colonial Americans in 1775?

On a more personal level, this kind of thinking is not healthy for young skulls full of mush. Remember Columbine, they got a little to caught up in what the Nazi's believed.

Should we just add “pretend you're a modern progressive democrat” to all of the other assignments kids receive pushing a liberal agenda?

16 posted on 04/14/2013 7:30:54 AM PDT by Idaho_Cowboy (Ride for the Brand. Joshua 24:15)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

In my case, yes.


17 posted on 04/14/2013 7:32:11 AM PDT by Little Ray (How did I end up in this hand-basket, and why is it getting so hot?)
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To: qaz123

“Things like this are nothing more than probes, seeing just how far they can go and what they can get away with.

No further comments necessary, we have the winner.


18 posted on 04/14/2013 7:33:20 AM PDT by IMR 4350
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To: SJackson

I could see the assignment geared toward the nature of propaganda, like, “what false information did the Nazis disseminate in their war against the Jews that led people to believe Jews were evil?”

But to present the premise that Jews were evil as fact is not “kosher”.


19 posted on 04/14/2013 7:35:04 AM PDT by randita
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To: Little Ray

It is not a valid exercise to invite children to put themselves into the shoes of an evil person. Really, what’s next? Write an essay explaining why the Anti-Christ has been misunderstood?


20 posted on 04/14/2013 7:36:43 AM PDT by DManA
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