Sit enough monkeys down at typewriters, and eventually they will bang out the complete works of Shakespeare. Or sit enough higher primates down at computers equipped with Common Core standards, and eventually they will assign groups of students the role play activity shown below.
According to a parent who posted the worksheet at the Facebook page Common Crud, the assignment was given to a ninth-grade history class. In it students were asked to “take on the persona” of one of the four dictators shown and to “write a speech articulating and defending their goals and perspectives.” One of the objectives, she notes “was to learn the ‘strengths and weaknesses of dictators.’”
This exercise comes as no surprise at a time when teachers are assigning students the writing of suicide notes, teaching them that freedoms sometimes need to be relinquished for the greater good, and warning them that they can be arrested for badmouthing Barack Obama.
