Outrage at Oz Jewish school kids being 'asked to dress as Hitler Youth' for history assignment
Sydney, Nov. 9 (ANI)
A prestigious Jewish school in Sydney's eastern suburbs has scrapped a history assignment after a teacher suggested students to dress up as members of the Hitler Youth.
The teacher at Moriah College in Bondi Junction tasked students with an 'empathy assignment' to better understand Adolf Hitler's Nazi movement in pre-World War II Germany.
But after students and parents complained, the college's principal John Hamey stepped in and cancelled the task after admitting that the task was risky.
"To achieve these particular outcomes through the use of 'empathy', as the task required, is highly problematic, subject to misinterpretation, lacking cultural sensitivity, and not grounded in educational best practice," he said.
"There are a range of other more objective strategies that can be used to achieve the same outcome while providing students the opportunity to form a mature and considered response to the events studied,' he said
"The College has addressed the issue with the staff member concerned and has also explained to the students why the assignment was withdrawn," Hamey added.
According to the report, students too found the assignment weird to play the role of someone on the side of the Nazis.
"The teacher gave us a sheet and said that we had to act like a person who lived during the time and someone that supported the Hitler Youth," news.com.au quoted the student, as saying.
"We were asked to dress up by the teacher but before I started the assignment we were told we weren't doing it anymore because some people had complained that it was inappropriate to justify Hitler," the student added.