Do teachers normally have this much freedom in making up assignments?

[August]

In the assignment, students were to pretend the educator was a member of the Nazi government. "You must argue that Jews are evil, and use solid rationale from government propaganda to convince me of your loyalty to the Third Reich!" the teacher's assignment sheet said.

This part I don't understand. The class was supposed to be about persuasive writing but the students aren't being asked to persuade the instructor of anything besides how well they can parrot a party line. Short of writing a denial or refusing to write all together it'd be very difficult to fail such an assignment, especially given the voluminous amount of party propaganda to use as a source.



Now, persuading a nazi to become a Jew. Having to argue over all that indoctrination, overcome great skepticism and inherent racism. That would be a heck of an assignment.