Sunday, May 9, 2010

Relief


30 Rockefeller Center - Atlas, originally uploaded by jhandelman.
There is one less load on my shoulders this week. We went back to court to show the judge that my daughter has fulfilled all the requirements for deferred adjudication. She did all of the community service, gave a letter of apology to the department store, and we both took a Decisions class ordered by the court.

In this class, a woman from the juvenile division of TDC told the kids what life in the juvenile jail was like. She showed them the uniforms, including the underwear the kids had to wear. You should have seen their faces when she informed them that someone else will have probably been wearing them the day before. They were laundered daily, but still...EEEUUUUU. She also explained how they would have no privacy - not even in the shower. I think it was an effective speech. They should have her talk to all the students in the public schools.

We also had to do a group exercise in which we were told there had been a disaster and we had to decide on 6 people to save out of 10 choices. There were:

1. A nuclear scientist who caused the accident.
2. The wife of the nuclear scientist who is four months pregnant.
3. A Marxist revolutionary, 3rd year university student.
4. A famous sixty year-old psychologist author.
5. A noted TV celebrity host.
6. Statistician
7. A fifty year- old alcoholic priest
8. A professional football player, very low IQ.
9. A very bright secondary high school student
10. A former presidential assistant who is clever but shifty.

I said to axe the scientist, the Marxist revolutionary, the shifty presidential assistant, and the alcoholic priest. The scientist who caused the problem is not invited, the Marxist revolutionary is out because I would not want him to be pushing for a communist society, we don't need any clever but shifty people in any variety, and the priest is out because he's an alcoholic. There were people who disagreed but I argued until I got my way. After we presented our choices, the instructor asked everyone who did they want on the list that wasn't there and did we make an argument to save them. I was the only one who could say "No one, I argued until I got my way." I'm not sure if that's good or bad.

Who would you have saved?

20 comments:

Vince said...

And you also axed All the trained decision makers. Basically leaving you in total control. So little change there then !!!!!!!!. :D.

Brian Miller said...

what an interesting class...i may have added a child or two...

Amina said...

Hey Jen,
Congrats on your daughter fulfilling all the requirements. I think that speech really should be given in all the public schools, like you said! Definitely 'eeeeow' about the underwear!

Man, that question is difficult! LOL at you getting your way, though ;) I don't think I would want to argue with you, hehehe :P

Felicity Grace Terry said...

Fascinating to read of this programme. To be wearing someone elses underwear, even if they have been laundered, yuk.

A difficult dilemma. I would have to say save number 1, hopefully having caused the situation in the first place, he may be best placed to resolve it. Then to save the pregnant woman would be to save, not one, but two. I'd also keep the high school student as they are young and presumably healthy. Likewise I'd keep the football player who may be good at physically rebuilding. Then the priest, it could be argued that an element of faith could help. How many is that?

jack69 said...

Good post. Information a lot of folk need as you said.
I would probably go with your list. Did the instructor have a 'psycologically 'correct answer'.

I would argue a little for the person wo caused the accident, but I can't figure who would get the ax in his place.
TAke care and hug that daughter tight!!!!

buffalodick said...

Who comes up with this stuff? I haven't the moral right to pick.

Jen said...

@Vince: All their training didn't help them make good decisions.

@Brian Miller: We kept as many young people as we could. The babies would come.

@Sarira: Just the thought of wearing someone else's undies makes me cringe.

@Petty Witter: Those were the biggest arguments - the scientist and the priest. The scientist already caused enough problems and any attempts to undo it could very well make it worse. Just because a man is a priest doesn't automatically make him a man of God and he does us no good if he's not sober.

@jack69: There was no correct answer, but he did point out that the Marxist was a 3rd year medical student and the priest had 20 years of sobriety. That may have changed the outcome if I'd had that info in the beginning. I think the lesson was about perceptions, not making snap judgements and speaking up.

@buffalodick: I didn't kill anyone for real, just on paper. Like a video game...they'll be alive again next time you turn the game on. I would not want to be the one to make that kind of decision in a real situation.

Kelly said...

Interesting exercise with tough choices. On first thought, I'd probably agree with your choices. Some of them you'd sort of want to know more about.... like the TV celebrity. What would their asset really be??

Saumya said...

Wow; great post. That class sounds difficult!! I have no idea how I'd make those choices. Good for you!!

Liz Mays said...

I couldn't possibly decide. I'd be thinking the least obvious choice would be the right answer or something.

Jen said...

@Kelly: That would make a difference. If it was Rachel Ray, at least we'd know we were going to eat well.

@saumya and blueviolet: I suspect part of the reason I got my way is because the others didn't want to choose. They'd rather leave it to someone else.

Poppy said...

I don't know, I probably wouldn't save anyone if I was fighting for my life. I'm not sure how I would react under pressure ...

Mike said...

I am happy that you had the burden lifted. The underwear sharing thing would gross me out, also.

A Lady's Life said...

I think for kids this might be a little hard to decide. The scientist who did this I would give the onus of responsibility to fix what he broke or die trying.
Scientists are doing experiments today which could completely unmolecuralize everything. Which means there would be no end or beginning to people, attached to desks,walls trees cars...all would be one and once started, the experiment would never end and after swallowing the world would continue on into space.
Is man mad? But it is good to ask questions show kids what life on the other side really is like and hopefully kids will understand that crime doesn't pay. It is hard to teach though today when grown ups demand rights to do things without considering that there are children watching.After sending a message everything is ok how do you then say everything isn't ok.If I knew other people wore the underwear I wouldn't wear any. lol

A Lady's Life said...

Thing is. In life people change and I guess if the world was to continue to survive you need the strongest and the youngest and the smartest to continue. The old have lived They might not make it anyway.
:)

gayle said...

I am glad everything turned out ok!! You are right every highschool 9th grader should hear that talk!! Interesting class..

Buckeroomama said...

I couldn't get past the shared underwear thingy.... ewww!

Jen said...

@Poppy: You might surprise yourself. You never really know how you're going to behave until you find yourself in that situation.

@otin and Buckeroomam: Eeew is right. Even if they are laundered that is disgusting.

@a lady's life: But you need some older, experienced people for guidance. Can you imagine if we let teenagers rule the world? Can you imagine if we didn't have any wise old men to ask advice?

@gayle: They might try harder to stay out of jail if they heard what it was really like.

Heather said...

It is so good that they have programs like that nowadays. I hope she really took something from it.

I wouldn't be able to choose. Everybody has qualities of some sort or another.

Jen said...

@Heather: She's stayed out of trouble so far. I'm not sure if it's due to the program.

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