In-class exercise on September 21, 2005:

Students put their names on one side of a blank piece of paper and on the other side they identified three items that were precious to them in life. The students one by one discussed what was precious to them and asked questions of one other. The instructor participated in this exercise as well. At the conclusion of the discussion the instructor asked the students to rip their papers into ten pieces and to throw them into the center of the classroom. The instructor then asked the students to find their own pieces (from the large pile of pieces in the center of the room) and to reconstruct their papers. The instructor wished students good luck, added that he empathized with the difficulty of the task, and coldly left the room with his paper intact.

Here are some of the student online responses to the September 21, in-class exercise:

Example 1 :

Luckily I was able to find my pieces and with the help of another student who had some tape, I stuck them together. I noticed that many students had problems. There was a desk of "spare parts" that people kept coming to and I noticed some frustration. After some of us had put our pieces back together, we started to help others. I couldn't help noticing that this was probably the way it was for the Katrina survivors. Helping others put their lives back together, even though there were no material things to speak of to put back. Family and friends were the first things most people put on their papers as being most precious, and I'm sure there was a lot of help from others in trying to find their loved ones in that region, just as we did in class. I felt relieved to have my pieces of my life put back together to give to my instructor even though they were ragged and didn't quite fit, but in a real life catastrophe, I am sure many of the victims may not have been able to put the pieces back as I am sure some of the students had difficulty finding their pieces. I felt it was up to me to do this job because I knew the instructor was not going to help or be concerned with my pieces of life.

Example 2 :

I realized that it was simply an exercise, so my feelings were minimal. Rather than jumping in enthusiastically, I decided against escalating the mayhem that seemed to result from all the students looking for their lost pieces. Confusion and overcrowding immediately took place. I wanted no part of either. Although I didn’t feel a lot of anxiety toward the task, it was obvious that many of my classmates seemed to be very anxious indeed. I realized that a point of the exercise might have been to have us realize, in a small way, what so many of the Katrina victims had to experience. Victims of the flood are going to have to deal with Insurance issues, rebuilding their homes, replacing the irreplaceable and mourning the loss of things that would never be found. I felt humbled to see how the class members, myself included, reacted to such a small exercise - - and our responses gave me a fright to think how we might all react in a serious situation.

Example 3 :

The process of putting the pieces was interesting. The class had sort of a mixed view of how to accomplish the task. Some of the individuals took what pieces they thought were theirs and they just left almost right away. Other people walked around and actually took from other people's pile while they were searching elsewhere. Some people got angry, feeling like someone must have taken their piece. Some of the people in the room were disappointed that they hadn't ripped their paper a certain way. Others got very upset when some people seemed to just get it, they were able to put theirs together and just go home. I was very frustrated trying to put my page back together. I asked for the assistance of the people around me. They were very nice and were able to help me. There were three of us that sort of threw our sheets in one area so we took all the sheets in that area and just started dividing them up. I felt really frustrated that some people were just leaving. After I had all of my pieces I had to stay, because someone found one that fit with mine and they weren’t finished yet. I went upstairs and borrowed some tape. I didn't want to leave without putting mine together. I actually taped it all together once, but I did a lousy job; so, I had to start over. After I was finished, I stayed to help some of the people who had helped me earlier. Everyone actually left except four of us. We ended up with A LOT of extra pieces. We decided to put them all together because they were just lost, lonely, and had no matches. The four of us went together to turn our sheets in. We wanted to prove that we had accomplished our task. We knew that the instructor was not there, but we still wanted to do what we knew we needed to.

Example 4 :

There was definitely a lot of understanding of power, poverty, class, and culture within this exercise. The different dynamics of people roaming around and looking to steal, or those who just took what they assumed was theirs as a result they had much more power. I know that they didn’t take pieces that were always theirs, and that created a lot of problems for the rest of us. There were obvious differences by how people accomplished this task, ones that could relate back to the culture of individuals. Some, like myself, wanted the help of others, and then to help. Other people wanted to do it all on their own without the help of anyone, and were not at all concerned with helping others. You could tell that some people just weren’t going to be helped and that they just ended up folding because of the lack of support, and just went home.

More to follow: