I often ask students to plan a straight line route to overfly an active glider site....
No problem with that, or with overflying at a sensible level but, in this case, the OP has been asked to plan a
turning point over an active glider site, and a particularly active one at that. I can see no instructional benefit in setting this particular task and would suggest that it is the instructor who is the 'complete idiot' and not the OP.