Georgia school makes sixth-graders create Nazi mascots and parents are furious

[workinclasszero]

Georgia school makes sixth-graders create Nazi mascots — and parents are furious
Elizabeth Preza 06 OCT 2017 AT 11:33 ET


School officials in Gwinnett County, Georgia, are investigating a sixth-grade teacher who asked her students to draw a Nazi mascot as part of a class homework assignment, AJC.com reports.

According to the assignment, students were asked to envision “the year is 1935 and you have been tasked with creating a mascot to represent the Nazi party at its political rallies.”

“Think about all of the information you have learned about Hitler and the Nazi party,” the assignment directed. “You will create a COLORFUL illustration of the mascot. Give the mascot a NAME. You will also write an explanation as to why the mascot was chosen to represent the Nazi party.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/10/georgia-teacher-assigned-sixth-grade-students-to-create-a-mascot-for-the-nazi-party/

[ck4829]

1. Wow, the alt-right really is reaching to get new ideas

[workinclasszero]

6. Looks like the alt reich is trying to get em brainwashed

young.

[Iggo]

11. Too cheap to hire an ad agency.

Oh, Alt-Right.

[spanone]

2. what thee fuck?????

[smirkymonkey]

9. That's all I am able to say these days.

[LexVegas]

3. Any of them draw of picture of Trump? nt

[gratuitous]

4. "You will create . . ."

Somehow I think the instructions were a little more peremptory in the original German.

How in the ever-loving blue-eyed world did the teacher think this was a good idea??? But isn't it weird how all this vermin-encrusted bullshit has come oozing out since January 20? It's like they feel they've been given permission to parade around in public again. For some reason that nobody in the popular media can quite identify.

[cwydro]

5. How bizarre. nt

[ProfessorGAC]

7. "Think about all of the information you have learned about Hitler and the Nazi party"

If the information provided was accurate, there would be no need for a cute mascot.

Methinks the "information" was about what a great guy Hitler was.

[canetoad]

8. Despite the comments here

I think this is a very good teaching idea, given the storm around fake news, social media and RW propaganda swirling at the moment.

Sixth graders - eleven, twelve years old? They are on social media. They would have heard of Trump/Russia, maybe without fully understanding how the election turned out the way it did.

The brief is to imagine themselves in 1935. A time when the Nazis were thought of by many as a legitimate solution to Germany's problems. If this exercise illustrated to them exactly how propaganda and fake news resulted in the installation of Hitler, it's easy to draw a straight line to the election of Trump, the dangers and seductions of fake news and RW lies flying around the internet.

I believe the teacher had a more noble motive and was using a legitimate and pertinent method to pass it on to the kids.

[Sanity Claws]

13. I disagree

Couldn't she have asked the students to create something to counter Nazis?

[canetoad]

14. You first have to be aware

Of who the nazis are and the methods they employ to advance their agenda. IMO this is a very good way of doing that.

[Sanity Claws]

15. Yes but making them aware means showing them what is already out there

not asking them to create something new.

Asking them to create something new set off alarms in my head. It was as though Nazis were using crowd sourcing to find a way to appeal to young people.

[canetoad]

16. I get what you're saying.

I guess I'm translating it to contemporary times, where RW propaganda takes a different form, that is not always recognisable when seen on social media. It's a deep rabbit hole.

[Mr. Ected]

10. Gwinnett County is very multi-cultural and diverse

It's not necessarily a bastion of right wing nutfuckery like so many other Georgia counties.

[haele]

12. I wonder where the teacher got that workbook form?

Most K-12 teachers don't have the time or resources to create something like this on their own, and use workbooks to supplement projects in their curricula. There's typically an approved list of resources for them to pull from.

I'm also wondering how this "make a mascot" project got past the curricula review the head of that Social Studies department was supposed to have back in August. Especially under the section identified as "Nazis and Propaganda".
On edit - While I don't have a problem with teaching how propaganda is used as a tool of power to sixth graders, I still have question this - most 12 year olds brought up in working class America being babysat by TV might have problems with differentiation between a study of how propaganda works to normalize ideological deviance to affect society, and the actual participation in propaganda by "creating a mascot" - which is used to normalize deviance by turning ideology into a team sport.

Some 12-year olds can figure it out (hell, I read the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich when I was that age), but from experience, it takes a lot longer than a week to create a clear view of what propaganda is for kids who hadn't grown up with subtle social coercions pointed out and discussed.

Haele