The guy is a bit of a nut, but this seems like a perfectly acceptable assignment
/
He’s been in the news before: MICHIGAN PROFESSOR WEARING SPACE HELMET TELLS STUDENTS THEY ARE 'VECTORS OF DISEASE' IN ZOOM RANT
A Ferris State University professor assigned a paper to students asking them to explain "Why Osama bin Laden should be considered for a Nobel Peace Prize."
Ferris State University History Professor Barry Mehler has assigned the 2,000 word term paper to students multiple times since 2014 in a class titled "The Middle East in the Modern Era," according to a public records request obtained by Fox News Digital.
"Term Paper: Why Osama bin Laden should be considered for a Nobel Peace," a copy of the spring 2014 semester syllabus states. "This is a 300 level history term paper which must conform to certain standards. The paper must have a clear argument and use both primary and secondary sources, Chicago Style footnotes and a bibliography with primary sources listed separately from secondary sources. Further instructions and sample student papers from past years will be available on our class page."
The professor told Fox News Digital that he assigned the paper to give students a view of history "from an unusual angle."
"I often give assignments like this. The idea is to view history from an unusual angle. By the way, I had a student who was in an Army reserves intelligence unit and he had just completed a paper in defense of Saddam Hussein. The intelligence service wants their officers to be able to understand why Osama bin Laden might be seen as a great hero instead of a great villian. You want the student to be able to step out of their own comfort zone and explore the way other people view the world," Mehler said. "As a Jew and a lifelong human rights advocate, I can assure you I wasn't recruiting for Al Qaeda."
The professor is, in my opinion, exactly right: a student should be able to understand and argue in favor of a disagreeable person or idea, and that skill shouldn’t be limited to members of the debate club, or law students (although I doubt law school students indulge in such a mental exercise these days). Indeed, if all students were trained in that skill there might be better understanding on campus, rather than the knee-jerk rejection of any idea that doesn’t fit into whatever the current “proper thoughts” regime holds currency.
