Terrorism "2 cool 4 skool" sez Education Dept.

[Rii]

ABC

The Director-General of Education in Western Australia has described a terrorism assignment set for students in a high school as inappropriate.

The assignment for year 10 students at the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Community High School was to plan a terrorist attack to kill as many people as possible.

The students were told to use chemical or biological warfare.

[....]

The principal of the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Community High School, Terry Martino, says the teacher had no intention of offending.

He says he has told the teacher, who is inexperienced but highly regarded by staff, that the assignment was inappropriate.

So ... any ideas?

Strikes me that if the aim is maximum body count then biological is the way to go. Ideally the pathogen should have an incubation period of several days so as to allow for efficient dissemination throughout the nation via transport hubs.

 

[Guartho]

What endgame did the teacher have in mind? What class was this assignment give in?

 

[Rii]

What endgame did the teacher have in mind? What class was this assignment give in?

Seems multidiscplinary to me: Mathematics, Chemisty, Urban Planning....

What? Do i look like I'm here to provide useful information?

 

[Amaris]

I think they should have went ahead and worked it out. I have an idea about what the teacher was trying to convey.

 

[Rii]

What endgame did the teacher have in mind? What class was this assignment give in?

The only additional detail I've found (in all of 30 seconds of Googling) is this:

"The project was part of a Year 10 Society and Environment course aimed at investigating modern international conflicts."

Sounds like their S&E classes are more interesting than mine were.

I think they should have went ahead and worked it out. I have an idea about what the teacher was trying to convey.

The ease with which one is able to compartmentalise reality and distance oneself from one's actions?

 

[Amaris]

The ease with which one is able to compartmentalise reality and distance oneself from one's actions?

Essentially. The idea being that when you create ideas in the abstract, you can play with them as concepts and never truly face what you're actually doing, at least not on any human level. The same thing is done in statistics. It's easy to see a number and understand the meaning without actually connecting those numbers to human beings. It's a neat and tidy way to deny the reality of one's actions.

 

[RJDiogenes]

It's an intellectual and educational exercise. People write novels about terrorist attacks and it's not considered inappropriate. And the Defense Department has many people doing this exact same thing to keep us a few steps ahead of real terrorists.

 

[Rii]

People write novels about terrorist attacks and it's not considered inappropriate.

People write novels about ass-to-mouth too. Well, probably they do; I can't speak from personal experience.

I think the subject of terrorism can certainly be addressed in school. And certainly I of all people don't think that discussion should be limited to the party line; but I question the value of this particular assignment. Granted, we don't have all the details.

 

[Rii]

The ease with which one is able to compartmentalise reality and distance oneself from one's actions?

Essentially. The idea being that when you create ideas in the abstract, you can play with them as concepts and never truly face what you're actually doing, at least not on any human level. The same thing is done in statistics. It's easy to see a number and understand the meaning without actually connecting those numbers to human beings. It's a neat and tidy way to deny the reality of one's actions.

Are you familiar with the theory that there are distinctly masculine and feminine conceptions of ethics? It's worth looking into even if one declines to accept the labels. The emphasis on abstractions -'freedom', 'justice', 'Allah', etc. - over people is, according to the theory, masculine; an extension of the desire for control: the desire to create order from chaos and lend structure to reality.