So proud of my 14yo 9th grader. His AP Human Geography teacher asked them to argue "pros and cons" of gentrification. He called the assignment immoral and refused to agree you can consider it a "pro" when people benefit from real estate by destroying other people's communities.

Started yesterday and continues today. I'm writing in my office and hear him in class in his room. They're making arguments in small groups to present, and he's trying to convince his classmates it's all wrong and no position can be "pro." Babyboy handling the fight like a champ.

Yesterday's session was wild when the teacher introduced the assignment. He tried to ask her not to force the class to do this debate, and she told him to "calm down" that it wasn't real, it was "only hypothetical." He excused himself from class and went for a walk outside.

Today, the teacher didn't cancel the assignment, so he's using time given groups to present their pro/con arguments to protest against the assignment itself and say why playing devil's advocate is how unethical people try and get away with making immoral arguments unchallenged.

He was so upset yesterday, and I tried to keep calm and not go scream at every adult in that school. He said, "Mama, it's like they're asking me to say the pros and cons of racism." I'm like, do you think you should? He said, no. I said, well, go tell them that and explain why.

Course is AP with College Board created+controlled curriculum, so I suspected it wasn't teacher's lesson plan. She's teaching a packet that I found here with "gentrification pros and cons" class activity. Any lesson can fall on AP Exam, so they teach them.
https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/pdf/ap-human-geography-course-and-exam-description.pdf?course=ap-human-geography

UPDATE: He said class held discussion, and it ended up being all about cons of gentrification with those assigned to argue pro side listing things one could call “benefits” to some people, but also arguing you can’t call them positive given such severe costs and damage to others.