A private school in the US is making news for giving assignments to Class 8 students on Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. According to Fox5 Atlanta, the students were given a series of questions asking them to rate some of Hitler’s characteristics as a leader. A screenshot of the question-and-answer assignment given by Mount Vernon School in Atlanta to the students has been posted on X by Fox5 reporter, highlighting the sections that are causing controversy.
EXCLUSIVE: An Adolf Hitler themed school assignment is causing controversy at the Mount Vernon School. 8th graders were asked to rate Hitler as a “Solution Seeker” & as an “Ethical Decision maker.” At 5&6pm on @FOX5Atlanta: students & the school respond. pic.twitter.com/sxEJq11mLy
— Brittany Edney (@BrittanyEdney) May 14, 2024
In one of the questions, students were asked, “According to the Mount Vernon Mindset rubric, how would you rate Adolf Hitler as a ‘solution seeker’?”
Another one asked students to “rate Adolf Hitler as an ethical decision-maker”.
Both the questions included options like “Lacks Evidence, Approaching Expectations, Meets Expectations, Exceeds Expectations”.
The questions sparked an outrage with some parents expressing concern and questioning if these are anti-semitic in nature.
Students too found the questions “troubling” and wondered if the questions glorified the Nazi leader.
“Obviously, that looks horrible in the current context. Knowing Mount Vernon, we do things a little odd around here,” one student told Fox5 Atlanta.
One student said he can see the school’s intended approach to critical thinking.
“I can definitely see why they’d be upset, but overall, I think it’s important to look at both sides of the coin in every situation and I think it’s important to be able to compare and contrast everything that’s happened in our world history, whether it’s been good or bad,” said the student.
The outlet also spoke to some former students who said these questions weren’t given to them during eighth grade.
When school officials came to know about the phrasing of the questions, they removed if from the school’s curriculum.
The principal of Mount Vernon, Kristy Lundstrom, wrote in a statement that the assignment was “an exploration of World War II designed to boost student knowledge of factual events and understand the manipulation of fear leveraged by Adolf Hitler in connection to the Treaty of Versailles.”
