Hitler: the man who thought big

It's been a while since I did a History post and as I had a rather interesting class with my year 10 students yesterday I thought I would share it with you on here.
I debated long and hard with myself if I should post this, because I truly did not want to offend anyone or have people think that this is someone that I admire or respect. I don't. It was a critical thinking lesson, in which I wanted the kids to think critically not only about their own lives but the very infamous life of Adolf Hitler as well.

I suppose the purpose of my lesson was to have the students 'think big' about their own lives; what plans, dreams, goals and hopes did they have? What did they want to achieve in their life? What visions did they have for themselves?

My students are quite disengaged a lot of the time (especially with their education) so I thought that this might be a way to motivate them into thinking a bit bigger, a bit grander for their own lives.

And who better to be an inspiration than Adolf Hitler?? :) No, seriously, the man had a lot of obstacles to overcome in his life but he stuck to his plan, he thought big, and he achieved things. Yes, they were some of the worst and most horrific things that history has seen, but he achieved his goals. For ten years (after he wrote his book Mein Kampf) he was focused on what he wanted to achieve and then he did it.

I guess another goal of my lesson was to change the perspective of my students. Everyone thinks of Hitler of a heinous criminal, someone with very little empathy for his fellow human beings. But he was a passionate man, a believer, an influential orator and a doer. I did not, and will never, condone him for his role in the Second World War (which, may I point out we had been studying in class anyway) nor did I excuse his actions in any way. I simply wanted the kids to look at him in a different way, and in turn, hopefully think a bit bigger for themselves in the process.

So, here are the main points of Hitler's life which led him to succeed in exactly the area in which he set out to achieve. Be advised, this is very brief and we came to these points after reading a much longer article.

* Born in 1889 in Austria
* By 1909 (at only 20 years of age) he was homeless and living in a refuge in Vienna
* He did odd jobs - carpet cleaning, sweeping snow, selling postcards which he had painted himself
* During this time he became interested in politics - supported nationalist parties, very resentful towards foreigners, especially Jews
* 1913 went to Germany and joined the army
* Fought in the First World War - was wounded twice, received highest award given to a German soldier
* Bitter and angry at the end of the war, blamed the Jews and the Communists for the poor shape of Germany post-WWI
* 1919 - joined and subsequently became leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party - Nazi Party for short
* 1923 attempted to overthrow the government and was imprisoned for a year for high treason
* In prison he wrote Mein Kampf, an extensive outline of his beliefs and goals for Germany including the Fuehrer Principle, Lebensraum (living space for the German people), the Master Race principle, anti-Semitism and anti-Communism.
* When the depression hit Germany in 1929 more people began to listen to Hitler and the Nazi party's ideas about strong leadership (Fuehrer principle) and anti-Semitic/Communism principles
* By 1933 Hitler had been elected (in a landslide victory) as Chancellor of Germany

And that was where we ended with Hitler's life. I then asked them to think big about their own lives, where would they like to be in ten years time? I wasn't concerned with the logistics of how they were going to get there, I just wanted them dream.

And hopefully their dreams will be for good, not for evil.