I agree nothing wrong with making kids think, but I still say just throwing out his own opinion was not the best way to do that. He could have easily made those statements as questions (what if's). And I doubt the kids in the class are being graded on how well they can remember the teachers opinions, but being graded on what thier text books say. I have a daughter and I know for a fact that if one of her teachers was throwing out opions like that, I would have some concerns about him/her. He was getting paid to teach, and not simply use his alloted time as his personal soap box. I may not run to the school board, but I would for sure ask for some sort of conference with him. And I cant find any links that state what the topic of the day was scheduled to be,, so I really dont see where this debate had anything to do with geography, it sounded like he was bringing up situations that involved almost every area of the world at one time or another.
But in all fairness, when I read the transcript it sounded like the kid had plenty of chances to speak his own opions, and that the teacher responded to them in a proper manner.