General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Idiot Teacher Asked 4th-Graders to Give 3 Good Reasons for Slavery [View all]zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)Generally I agree with you. In this particular case I think the students were too young for this particular challenge.
I had a collegiate level course that did something like this. You were assigned a topic and a point of view and you had to write the paper and make the verbal argument for the position, whether it was a position you held or not. It is a useful educational tool. A fellow student of mine was assigned the "anti-MADD" topic once. It was interesting because he did his homework and made a "good" if no convincing argument. The person assigned the opposite position basically "mailed it in" and came off looking badly. It was a lesson if nothing else in being prepared, even for the obvious.
There is an english expression that basically starts out "I don't understand...". It's usually a preface to making some counter argument. I am fond of making the pedantic point that if you don't understand, maybe you should endeavor to do so prior to pontificating. It is useful to know the opposite argument, if for no other reason that to counter their points in making your own.
But for this class, and these students, it would probably be more useful if they were assigned topics with which they had some first person familiarity instead of something as obscure to them as slavery.