Which One Do You Save?

/ joyroses13

Please tell me the point to my 10th grader’s assignment today in Sociology class.

The class was told that a bomb was coming and they had to go underground into a bunker. The problem was it could only hold 7 people and there were 10. Ten different types of people and you had to decide which 3 you were going to leave behind.

Plus the teacher said that the idea would be for those 7 people to repopulate the earth.

Well one of the ladies the teacher described in the group of 10 was a lady that couldn’t bear children. It turns out no one in the class chose to take her into the bunker. She was one of the 3 not chosen. There also was a old lady not chosen.

The teacher told them that their answers proved that people today still thought less of women that couldn’t bear children and didn’t value them as highly.

The class was confused and I am as well, for she told them that the 7 people chosen had to repopulate the earth.

What are schools teaching our children? Was their really a point to this lesson? I am having trouble seeing it. I remember doing something similar in HS but can’t remember the details or remember what the point of it was.

Do you remember being asked this type of question or something similar when you were in school?

Feel free to share your thoughts below!

31 thoughts on “Which One Do You Save?”

  1. Can’t say I remember this type of scenario at school. I don’t understand it either.
    The logic is not to take the old lady or the one who is barren. What were the other 8 I wonder? How would you know the men were straight? As for 7 repopulating the earth, I’d go for 6 girls of child bearing age and one guy. Why? because the girls would hopefully bear a healthy child every year or so their own health permitting, and the guy would be in his element ( they could later freeze the fruit of his loins and do away with him). I suppose that makes me sexist, and that would be wrong too 😦 Hope at least two are scientists for cloning to speed up the repopulation process. Just a thought!

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  2. My thoughts? I would write to the school and ask for an explanation. If there was some logical basis for such a question, than I would want to hear the answers with appropriate justification. Sounds to me like smart-ass teacher trying to impress her students!

    Based on how you relate the situation, then sterility and age would be sacrificed. Perhaps the third person needed is intended to see if self-sacrifice is suggested? Other than make the students think, and there are more suitable and creative ways of doing that, it would seem to be of questionable value. 🙂

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  4. Seems there is some confusion, and I would definitely ask if the point was made to repopulate then why would the teacher make that comment. Someone is confused or wrong there.

    The point of this type of exercise is typically about critical thinking in emergency situations, and there are merits to the discussion, but the comment by the teacher doesn’t make sense. I’d look into and confirm that was actually how it went.

    Too important a discussion to just let go.

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  6. Dang, they’re still doing that exercise? On the same reasoning, my class put the imaginary gay dude out to get blown up (of course, back then he was called a homosexual and nobody imagined there could be such a thing as a gay parent).

    The point of it is to get kids thinking more critically about why they value certain kinds of people more or less highly, but I agree with the comments here that it is not useful, chiefly because it is so far removed from any decisions made in the real world. I would much prefer to see kids get a folder of resumes and have to pretend to be a hiring manager and decide which applicants to pick; that might actually help to make a dent in some of the prejudices.

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  7. Never had an assignment like this in high school, but we didn’t have sociology. My junior never had this assignment either, but again, no sociology. I wish I had a good answer as to what they were going for….probably just to make them think. Think about what, I don’t know

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    • Thanks for sharing and welcome to my blog!
      I agree about it being to make them think but I believe like the others have said on here that there are better ways to go about it!
      My child didn’t want to take Sociology but had too for a credit. Not too impressed with it so far.

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  10. I was a little confused about this lesson too and after reading your post last night actually thought it over many times. Not of the full context of the lesson and not being there to feel the vibe off the teacher I am thinking it’s a very accurate even though cynical representation of the world in general not just regarding women. Anything that is weak and unproductive we discard, we live in a throw away world. We want perfection or perfect function. I may be completely off tangent but I felt it was an eye opening lesson to the kids to recognise when balance must be achieved in life. And also an understanding of the end of life and accept that we have difficult choices to make even as kids. I have enjoyed reading this post as it gave me lots to think about where and when we can make a difference by the values we teach others.

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  12. Pretty sure I never had this scenario presented to me as a student. I would love to see and hear the entire assignment. Did you ever follow up?

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