Some of the best activities I’ve ever taken part in at school have made me rethink things. Whether I am questioning something I had assumed to be a fact, or reconsidering a belief I’ve had for years, I love the opportunity to discover new things about the world or myself. I am amazed with the way some teachers are able to intertwine learning school subjects with learning about yourself. Personally, I find school most impactful when it makes me think really deeply about something. Recently, in my English class, I had one of these rare occasions.
It was the second day of my senior year of high school and my English teacher gave the class a tough problem to solve. We were put into groups of four and given a scenario. It involved a sinking ship with only one, six-person lifeboat to save the ten people on the ship. We had to pick which six people to save, but the only information we were given about them were short descriptions: the ship’s captain, a lifeguard, a veteran nurse, a newly married couple, a possibly pregnant woman, 13-year old twins, a senior citizen with 15 grandchildren, and an elementary school teacher.
At first, I was disgusted by this whole activity. What kind of teacher forces you to pick which four people to kill? That did not seem normal at all to me. Throughout my group’s discussion about who to keep and who to kill, I started thinking more. Was the captain the best hope of the lifeboat safely returning to civilization? Or did he deserve an honorable death with his ship? I assumed it was obvious to save the pregnant woman, but one of my group members thought she had a lower chance of surviving with limited access to food and water because she also had to eat for the baby. That thought had never even crossed my mind. This continued for the other eight people stranded by the shipwreck, and with each conversation, I could feel my opinions changing.
After we made our decisions, the teacher asked us to explain our rationales. He wanted to know what guided our decisions. Some groups picked the people with the best chances of survival, while others picked ones with the most potential in the future. We talked a lot about morals, especially because no group was able to kill the 13-year old twins. Saving them may not have been the smartest idea for survival, but these children could not be killed. It was a moral and instinctual thing; children were always the first to be protected. One particular thing my teacher said stuck out most to me; he told us that our morals change with the situations we are put into.
Thinking back on my life, I realize how true this is. As I’ve grown up, my opinions towards certain things have changed. Even starting this class activity I was not excited about it, but now, looking back on it, this activity really made me think. It made me see how many sides there are to every decision. To me, the most fascinating part of the activity is its underlying complexity. It was not just about who deserved to live the most, but also who could ensure the safety of the other five survivors. We had to consider these different aspects, and decide who would live without knowing anything more than a basic description of the people on the sinking ship. As often as we are told not to judge a book by its cover, in this case, that was the only option. Without knowing these people, we faced the difficult task of deciding their fate.
