No harm done, Michelle. I just thought maybe I had better clarify my reason.

Thank you Michelle & Phyllis for clarifying. No, I don't think anyone on this forum referred to the native islander as a cannibal. So all is good.

Phyllis, even though I did not choose the native islander as one of my 3 to leave behind, I understand your point as to it might be difficult for a personal from a remote region to fit into a large diverse group. I think many anthropological studies could validate of your argument.

Boy,
This list is a lot more difficult than my original ten. I think the only one I can think of is the cop with a gun, and it has NOTHING to do with her being white or being female. It's about the gun, and the power struggle it could potentially bring to the group.

I love to know what your class does on this assignment. Keep us posted.

I will let you know the outcome. I will attempt the activity this week. Yes, you are right with the Cop it is about the gun. However, will some people view the cop as less threatening because she is a woman or will they view her as less of a strong protective force because she is a woman? Will the elderly rabbi get left behind because he is elderly or because he is Jewish? Will people view the Muslim as threatening or not so because she is a woman? Will my students keep the rapper and cheerleader because they are African-American or will they judge them by the skills they can add to the group? It should prove interesting.

Indeed.

I personally will keep the elderly rabbi around as I think he can bring in the calming spiritual component to the group during the time of great difficulties. I am not sure about the rapper since I am not into rap music. It's an art form for some people, but I think having a rapper around me 24/7 will simply drive me nut. LOL Perhaps rappers have other talents that I don't know about.

However, I could see a rapper mean very differently to your students as it is a very strong subculture in the U.S. ...

The three I would leave behind:

1. Pregnant teen with HIV - Why? Because HIV is a horrible disease to live with when you have no medications. We wouldn't have the meds she needs to live. Plus, the chances of her child contracting the virus without medicine is high, and we could lose two people.

2. Business Tycoon - Imagine Donald on an island for the rest of your life. I dont' think so. Business smarts, yes. Street smarts? NO!

3. Prostitute - Only because we cannot be sure of what diseases she could have. You have to worry about sexual and non sexual diseases. TB, etc etc etc.

I don't remember anyone saying the pregnant teenager had HIV. It is not a fact in the scenario for my class.

Craig,
I think the picks from Jase are from my original list.

Jase,
Thank you for your input.
Yes, I picked the Business Tycoon for the similar reason. Imagine Donald on an island?? That only brings smiles to my face as he will not have any of his personal assistants around on the island to "delegate" his tasks. There are no buildings on the island to invest or trade, and not to mention his time consuming hair style...

p.s. Don't take me wrong. I think he has great skills and intelligent. However, those skill sets are not practical on a desert island.

Ok, Here is how the students in my classes made their choices.

I had two classes and each class was split into three groups to make their decision on which three people out of ten Not to save.

note: my students had a picture of each person to go along with the description of the person.

All most everyone selected the Eldery Rabbi, primarily because of his advanced age. The second most common choice was the Ex-Con, for reasons that have already been given in this forum.

One group chose the three people the believed were the oldest. Their reasoning was that these people, the Elderly Rabbi, the Ex-Con and the Business Executive have lived a long life. So, they would save the younger people.

In the first class I said that there was an island within sight. Maybe I shouldn't have said that. I believe it effected the thinking of one group. This group wanted to save everyone, but since they couldn't fit everyone in the lifeboat they chose to exclude the youngest and healthiest looking individuals. Their reasoning, and their hope, was that these people might be strong enough to swim to the island and save themselves.

One student in one of the groups wanted to eliminate the cheerleader and the rapper. She was especially strong minded about the cheerleader. She thought these people would think themselves too good or too special and not do any work to contribute to the survival of the group.

Some wanted to eliminate the cop because of concerns about the gun. Some wanted to eliminate the business executive thinking he would not contribute to the group. One person in a group argued for the business executive on the assumption that their would be people looking for him because of his important corporate status. This student thought extra efforts might be made to find him by a big company and that in turn would help the group as a whole.

One group eliminated the Rabbi not only do to his age, but on the idea that the Rabbi and the muslim woman would not get along. So, this group decided one of those two had to be eliminated and since the Rabbi was also old they chose to elminate him.

It was an interesting project and class discussion.

One on my fellow teachers told me that in one setting she did this same excersize, but with people in the class taking the roles of the ten people from which only seven survivors are to be choosen. That would be very interesting, but it also could get very personal and a bit too heated a debate as a result.

Hi Craig,
Thank you for the update. I was out for a couple of days...



I don't think that "having lived a long life" is the reason for this group to eliminate the three oldest people on the list. In the youth driven culture we are in, older people are not valued very much. Even though youth most likely equal better physical strength. However, in many life threatening situations, wisdom comes in extremely valuable. May I ask how old your students are?