As half the world goes to the polls this year, Jeremy Solomons asks: Can even leaders on the wrong side of history be credited for good outcomes? Can awful leaders be awe-inspiring? Explore leadership, leaders and their legacies with your class and push them to develop their critical thinking and argumentation skills.

Exercise: Choose a controversial leader, dead or alive. You may agree or disagree with their position, politics or legacy. Build a picture of some of their decisions that had widespread negative impacts and find some positive aspects to their leadership. Next, play devil’s advocate and try to argue the good or positives that may have come from negative decisions. How might people on both opinion sides see the leader’s legacy? To conclude, students can express their own views on the matter and find nuanced arguments and discourse to express these.