HOWARD COUNTY, Md. – A public school lesson is coming under criticism because it trivializes dictators, according to a Maryland parent.

Stephanie Morgan has a son in 9^th grade in Howard County, Maryland. His class assignment was to impersonate a dictator. Students’ options included Italy’s Mussolini, the Soviet Union’s Stalin, Germany’s Hitler and Japan’s Tojo, according to a portion of the lesson provided to EAGnews.

Morgan told EAGnews:

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“I am literally sick and outraged. … My 9th grade son comes home and tells me his next assignment in history class is to pick a dictator from the mid-20th century and take on the persona of one of these dictators and write a speech articulating and defending their goals and perspectives. The purpose of this lesson is to teach the students to understand the world through their perspective. One of the objectives was to learn the ‘strengths and weaknesses of dictators.’

“They were told by their teacher that the goal was for them to imagine that they are the dictator they research, to act like the dictator, even to assume the voice, movements, gestures, and facial expressions of the dictator. You will see that it instructs the kids to ‘remember dictators like to impress their people and fellow dictators, so make yourself sound great.’ Can’t you just picture the scene this assignment will produce among 15 year old freshman in high school?”

Perhaps even more bizarre, the lesson notes that the dictators were racist, but students can’t reference that. “Though the dictators were racist, your speech will not make racial or religious remarks or references,” the lesson states.

How else can students learn about Hitler and ignore the fact that 6 million people were exterminated because they were Jewish?

The lesson focuses on nationalism, militarism and the desire for territorial expansion.

“You will also notice that throughout the assignment, it teaches that the driving force of this evil is nationalism (patriotic pride), militarism, and expansionism but no discussion of the desire to control their people’s lives through statism (or collectivism) out of pure lust for power,” Morgan noted.

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“This assignment is unlikely to be unique to my son’s classroom and even if this teacher changes this assignment in this one classroom to appease one parent, that does not change the reality that this assignment is being done and that it is being repeated to hundreds of 9^th graders throughout the county,” she said.

The lesson, titled “The Rise of Dictators,” appears to be the work of Valerie Bayarddevolo-Fine, according to a complete version posted on DocStoc. The portion Morgan provided to EAGnews can be seen here.

A version of it – with Stalin deleted – was also found on the Washoe County, Nevada school district website.

“What is character building or instructive in the exercise? Pretend you are the devil and make his perspective clear to fellow students?” Morgan said.