I'm a teacher, and I often give younger students a graphic organizer like this when I want to teach them about controversial ideas. I want students to be aware of arguments for and against controversial ideas, I think that makes them build more sound conceptions.

Like maybe you were really keyed in when you were 14 but there are a ton of kids who really have no idea about anything, all of these ideas are brand new and they have no context, no ethical framework yet, and some of them need something like this to structure their thoughts. At a certain age just getting students to understand what imperialism is and hear some arguments against it can be a small revolutionary act as a teacher.

There are obvious topics this would definitely be inappropriate for, like slavery. I can understand why people would feel weird about imperialism being a pro/con thing, but sometimes the point is that there aren't a ton of good arguments for something. I don't know a ton about (or teach) history but maybe you could put in the left column that it incentivized the romans to build aqueducts in England? Putting a single thing in a column doesn't mean the teacher is arguing for or justifying it.

I don't know, I'm just saying without being in that class it's hard to say exactly how this activity was framed. :shrug-outta-hecks: Like maybe the point is that all the benefits of imperialism go to the bourgeoisie.