The Patriot Post® · Classroom Assignment Compares President Trump to Fascists

By Todd Starnes ·
https://patriotpost.us/opinion/60528-classroom-assignment-compares-president-trump-to-fascists-2019-01-14

If you need any more evidence that many government-run schools have been turned into indoctrination centers for the Left, consider the assignment presented to teenagers at Haverhill High School: “Some People Claim that Donald Trump is a Fascist: Time to check it out.”

The assignment relied on a list of 14 characteristics of fascism obtained from an article published by the Council for Secular Humanists — not exactly a bastion of fair and balanced reporting.

The assignment generated considerable debate among many parents — some of whom accused the Massachusetts school district of anti-Trump bias. “ have an older child that had the same teacher a couple of years ago. He did not receive the assignment: Why or Why Not is Barack Obama a Fascist,” one parent wrote on Facebook.

Principal Glenn Burns wrote a letter to parents apologizing for the controversy and for the assignment.

“It was evident to us that the prompt may have skewed the debate or provided the perception that we were looking for scholars to prove Donald Trump was a fascist,” Burns wrote. “This was not the intention of the assignment and we apologize to those that felt that was the experience we were trying to create.”

Maura Ryan-Ciardiello, a school committee member, told the Eagle Tribune she had other concerns with the teacher’s left-wing lesson.

“If you’re discussing the president, especially when you’re teaching, you should refer to him as President Trump and not Mr. Trump, as was noted in the assignment,” she said. “I find that to be disrespectful and that goes for all presidents.”

What’s still not clear is why this sort of lesson was a part of the classroom curriculum in the first place. Are teachers at Haverhill High School in the habit of analyzing allegations of fascist behavior in other presidents?

The world history teacher at the center of the controversy does have a few supporters — including ninth-grader Patrick Zbitnoff.

“The assignment was built to teach you what the signs of fascism are, and what signs Trump might show, but based on my research, I found the president not to be a fascist,” he told the Eagle Tribune. “Even some of my more liberal friends did not find him to be a fascist, which surprised me.”

Surprising, indeed.

Although, it is refreshing to know that impressionable, young minds can withstand the daily brainwashing and indoctrination they are subjected to in government-funded classrooms.