History repeating
School should be permitted to continue role-play
By: Editorial Board
Issue date: 1/16/08 Section: Opinion
College students used to large lecture classes will probably agree: Learning by doing is better than just having to sit and listen.
But when an eighth-grade English teacher at East Hoke Middle School took a new approach to teaching "The Diary of Anne Frank" and employed a role-playing project for her students, she ran into opposition from parents and was forced by the school board to discontinue it.
Despite the complaints, the teacher had every right to continue her lesson - it was completely optional and, in fact, a useful learning tool.
During the project, students were assigned to be either Jews or Nazis, and the "Jews" of the class can't talk or participate in activities without permission from the "Nazis." The students switch roles the next week.
We don't see what the problem is. The exercise had been done the last two years without complaint and variations of it - used, for instance, with eye color to illustrate the civil rights movement - have been successful.
Like many historical events, the concept of the Holocaust is hard to grasp, and this opportunity to make it easier to understand is a good way to approach teaching it.
Besides giving the middle school class a very real idea of what occurred during the Holocaust, the role-playing illustrates to students why the Holocaust was so terrible.
We highly doubt that students assigned to act like Nazis for a week would develop a lingering Hitler-like complex.
More likely, the middle school dictators would realize how silly it was that they couldn't be in the company of their "Jew" friends and see the injustice of the Holocaust in a whole new light.
As the permission slip that students brought home clearly stated, the exercise was designed to "show the students the dangers of ignorance, silence and prejudices."
If we don't learn about history, and do so effectively, we risk repeating it. A few Hoke County parents could benefit from that lesson.
But when an eighth-grade English teacher at East Hoke Middle School took a new approach to teaching "The Diary of Anne Frank" and employed a role-playing project for her students, she ran into opposition from parents and was forced by the school board to discontinue it.
Despite the complaints, the teacher had every right to continue her lesson - it was completely optional and, in fact, a useful learning tool.
During the project, students were assigned to be either Jews or Nazis, and the "Jews" of the class can't talk or participate in activities without permission from the "Nazis." The students switch roles the next week.
We don't see what the problem is. The exercise had been done the last two years without complaint and variations of it - used, for instance, with eye color to illustrate the civil rights movement - have been successful.
Like many historical events, the concept of the Holocaust is hard to grasp, and this opportunity to make it easier to understand is a good way to approach teaching it.
Besides giving the middle school class a very real idea of what occurred during the Holocaust, the role-playing illustrates to students why the Holocaust was so terrible.
We highly doubt that students assigned to act like Nazis for a week would develop a lingering Hitler-like complex.
More likely, the middle school dictators would realize how silly it was that they couldn't be in the company of their "Jew" friends and see the injustice of the Holocaust in a whole new light.
As the permission slip that students brought home clearly stated, the exercise was designed to "show the students the dangers of ignorance, silence and prejudices."
If we don't learn about history, and do so effectively, we risk repeating it. A few Hoke County parents could benefit from that lesson.
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