High school students asked to compare Lenin/Stalin transformation of Russia to Obama’s transformation of America

Now this is what I call one heck of an assignment. Even the student interviewed below thought it was appropriate, but realized why it caused some angst. As soon as word got out and people started complaining, the school principle reprimanded the teacher and withdrew the assignment. Kudos to the teacher for actually trying to teach students something important.

Here’s the actual assignment and the story below:

obama_lenin_stalin_comparison

FOX 19 – Several students and parents at Kell High School in Marietta are upset about an assignment handed out by a social studies teacher on Monday.

The assignment asked students to find evidence for a comparison of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin’s methods of changing Russia from a capitalist country to a command country to President Barack Obama’s methods of changing the United States from a capitalist country to a socialist country.

Jay Dillon, spokesman for the Cobb County School District, told CBS Atlanta News that the teacher who handed out the homework assignment was a fill-in teacher.

After the assignment was brought to the attention of Kell’s principal, the principal discussed the assignment with the teacher, and the assignment was withdrawn.

The teacher who assigned the homework is still employed at Kell High School.

“I think this is very common, this isn’t out of the ordinary, it happens both ways,” said Jake Carnes, who is in the class where the assignment was given.

“The mistake made (by the teacher),” said Carnes, “was the line crossed between comparing our president to someone like Stalin, even though we are most definitely progressing toward a socialist union.”


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