A Washington elementary school teacher has been ordered to apologize to students after he handed out homework that compared George W. Bush to Hitler.
In the assignment, the McKinley Middle School teacher wrote to sixth-graders, “Now that we have read about two men of power who abused their power in various ways, we will compare and contrast them and their actions,” according to photo tweet of the assignment published by the Washington City Paper.
The homework then asked the students to compare the Nazi leader and the 43rd president using a Venn diagram, which uses intersecting circles to find common ground between two things.
Tweets about the assignment hit the Web on Wednesday night, prompting a swift response from the city’s schools chancellor, Kaya Henderson.
“No DCPS curriculum says to make these comparisons in any way,” Henderson tweeted, according to the City Paper.
Washington public schools later released a statement saying the assignment was part of an English class unit that focused on war and conflict.
“The teacher deeply regrets this mistake, and any suggestion to malign the presidency or make any comparison in this egregious way,” said the statement published by local NBC.
“The teacher admits to extremely poor judgment and short sightedness and will apologize to students.”
The statement also said the school would send a note home to parents explaining the gaffe.
