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G'day class, today we're going to plot a terrorist attack in Australia

bub

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G'day class, today we're going to plot a terrorist attack in Australia | World news | The Guardian

A school teacher who set an assignment for her class to plan a terrorist attack that would kill as many innocent Australians as possibler did not seek to promote terrorism, education officials said today.

The Year 10 students at Kalgoorlie-Boulder community high school in Western Australia were given the assignment last week in a class on contemporary conflict and terrorism.

Wow :lol:

The teacher chose a wrong topic but at least he encourages creativity!
 
i think that's a brilliant idea though, it teaches the kids to take info and apply logical thinking to achieve a desired goal, and it would also show why terrorism is bad, but i can understand why some people are offended, but in the words of our favourite toe-remover "harden the **** up"
 
You guys have to be kidding. Creative? Brilliant? It couldn't be a more destructive idea. I hope whoever this is gets fired or at the very least severely disciplined.

It devalues the horror of terrorist attacks and their destructive nature.
 
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how? what harm could it cause?

Okay, class, for your homework assignment tonight, pick from the following:

#1 -- How to commit the perfect murder.
#2 -- Best ways to rape a girl and get away with it.
#3 -- How to blow up the school with products made from home.

Some ideas are just so stupid and wrong ya' just can't put it into words.
 
Okay, class, for your homework assignment tonight, pick from the following:

#1 -- How to commit the perfect murder.
#2 -- Best ways to rape a girl and get away with it.
#3 -- How to blow up the school with products made from home.

Some ideas are just so stupid and wrong ya' just can't put it into words.

'cause that ain't a strawman :roll:

it wasn't teaching them how, it was a hypothetical, it didn't teach 'em how to make or plant a bomb, just when and where, and it's not like they couldn't figure that out without doing it at school. When i was in high school, our history teacher, just for fun, told us to figure out how we'd go about invading Australia as the Japanese in WW2, i got an A, i was very proud of that, but does that mean i'm going to become supreme commander of the Japanese army and do it does it?

do you really think your average Aussie 15 year old is going to go and become a terrorist simply 'cause they did an assignment? does that not sound the teeniest bit ridiculous to you?
 
'cause that ain't a strawman :roll:

it wasn't teaching them how, it was a hypothetical, it didn't teach 'em how to make or plant a bomb, just when and where, and it's not like they couldn't figure that out without doing it at school. When i was in high school, our history teacher, just for fun, told us to figure out how we'd go about invading Australia as the Japanese in WW2, i got an A, i was very proud of that, but does that mean i'm going to become supreme commander of the Japanese army and do it does it?

do you really think your average Aussie 15 year old is going to go and become a terrorist simply 'cause they did an assignment? does that not sound the teeniest bit ridiculous to you?

I don't understand your first sentence? What's the strawman? These are examples of the very same thing. Okay, maybe change "the school" to "your local bank." I fail to see a difference. What is the difference to you?
 
I don't understand your first sentence? What's the strawman? These are examples of the very same thing. Okay, maybe change "the school" to "your local bank." I fail to see a difference. What is the difference to you?

you don't see anything wrong with the comparison that asking kids to entertain the hypothetical of when and where they'd stage an attack to teaching them how to rape someone is a bit bull****? they are crimes of completely different nature, they didn't teach the kids how to make a bomb or a chemical weapon, a proper comparison would be on how to choose a good spot to rape someone, but not telling them what to use to rape them, assuming these kids penises are very complicated to build and could easily go off in their faces and kill them.

the simple fact is, if any of these kids are planning on staging a terrorist attack, this isn't going to make a damn difference as they would've figured that out anyway, and if they weren't planning on staging a terrorist attach, this wouldn't have changed a damn thing.
 
G'day class, today we're going to plot a terrorist attack in Australia | World news | The Guardian



Wow :lol:

The teacher chose a wrong topic but at least he encourages creativity!

Well if you are to combat terrorism you do need to learn how a terrorist thinks, (See Body of Lies) it's like chess you need to be able to predict the moves of the opponent, probably not condusive to a highschool class though, probably better for a counter-terrorism seminar like the one I took in College.
 
you don't see anything wrong with the comparison that asking kids to entertain the hypothetical of when and where they'd stage an attack to teaching them how to rape someone is a bit bull****? they are crimes of completely different nature, they didn't teach the kids how to make a bomb or a chemical weapon, a proper comparison would be on how to choose a good spot to rape someone, but not telling them what to use to rape them, assuming these kids penises are very complicated to build and could easily go off in their faces and kill them.

the simple fact is, if any of these kids are planning on staging a terrorist attack, this isn't going to make a damn difference as they would've figured that out anyway, and if they weren't planning on staging a terrorist attach, this wouldn't have changed a damn thing.

The students were asked to pretend they were terrorists making a political statement by releasing a chemical or biological agent on "an unsuspecting Australian community", according to a copy of the assignment.

The task included choosing the best time to attack and explaining their choice of victims and what effects the attack would have on a human body. "Your goal is to kill the MOST innocent civilians in order to get your message across," the assignment read.

"If it was intended to teach them about the impact, the effect of terrorism on innocent people and to try and extract sympathy, empathy and regretfulness in the aftermath, then I think that it's a positive move. Anything else and it's plainly stupid."
Kalgoorlie-Boulder student Sarah Gilbert, 15, told the newspaper she was horrified by the assignment.
(I've snipped at various points.)

This assignment was insensitive, stupid, unprofessional and a host of other derogatory adjectives one could come up with. My examples are no different. Hypothetical terrorist attack=hypothetical rape attack=hypothetical bombing attack="pretend you're a murderer." Just plai ridiculous.
 
(I've snipped at various points.)

This assignment was insensitive, stupid, unprofessional and a host of other derogatory adjectives one could come up with. My examples are no different. Hypothetical terrorist attack=hypothetical rape attack=hypothetical bombing attack="pretend you're a murderer." Just plai ridiculous.

If the professor also added a second part to the assignment as to how to prevent such events, this assignment could be used.... Or at least law enforcement agencies should keep an eye on the class to learn some things.

It's like hacking computers, they hold competitions as to who can crack their systems and also wants them to help find how to secure the security holes. This could be interesting if and only IF they learn both how it execute things and how to prevent them... but then again... this class is about conflicts and terrorism, why does someone need to learn how to do that much damage, just learn why they are doing these atrocities....
 
(I've snipped at various points.)

This assignment was insensitive, stupid, unprofessional and a host of other derogatory adjectives one could come up with. My examples are no different. Hypothetical terrorist attack=hypothetical rape attack=hypothetical bombing attack="pretend you're a murderer." Just plai ridiculous.

insensitive to whom? there hasn't been a terrorist attack on Australian soil since 1915, stupidity is a matter of opinion, and the teachers profession is to teach, and that's what this assignment was doing.

and i still don't think those things are equal, and repeating it won't change that.

personally, i if was going to plant a chemical weapon, it would be in the underground areas of Flinders Street Station, so there it could spread through the Melbourne Loop to the other 4 underground stations, and i'd do it at about 5:30pm, to catch the people on their way home from work.

****, now i must be a terrorist.
 
I am going to come down on the side of saying this was a good lesson. In the coming years, we have to expect and plan for more terrorist attacks. Teaching teenage children what the terrorists will look for in a place to attack, and making them reason as a terrorist would, provides them a better set of tools to help prevent such attacks.
 
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insensitive to whom? there hasn't been a terrorist attack on Australian soil since 1915, stupidity is a matter of opinion, and the teachers profession is to teach, and that's what this assignment was doing.

and i still don't think those things are equal, and repeating it won't change that.

personally, i if was going to plant a chemical weapon, it would be in the underground areas of Flinders Street Station, so there it could spread through the Melbourne Loop to the other 4 underground stations, and i'd do it at about 5:30pm, to catch the people on their way home from work.

****, now i must be a terrorist.

I'll simply agree to disagree. This is so stupid it's not worth arguing about.
 
I really can't for the life of me figure out how this wouldn't be the same as assigning kids the task of -- hypothetically -- planning to shoot up a school. Any argument you want to put in favor of this teacher's assignment would apply equally well to that.
 
I really can't for the life of me figure out how this wouldn't be the same as assigning kids the task of -- hypothetically -- planning to shoot up a school. Any argument you want to put in favor of this teacher's assignment would apply equally well to that.

because, it's possible for a kid to shoot up a school, i'm yet to meet any 15 year old that's built a chemical or nuclear weapon, i mean, i didn't make thermite 'till i was 17.
 
Well, my daughter is about the same age as those high-school students and I've been trying to think about what my reaction would be if she came home with such an assignment. I guess it would depend on how the assignment was worded and what the follow up discussion to it would be. I think the teacher in the article used the wrong language in the assignment and she didn't make it clear enough if there would be a discussion about the impact the fictional attack would have on the people who survived it, their families and the country as a whole. I also agree with the poster who said that the assignment should have been a two-parter covering both the terrorist attack and the best ways to prevent it.
 
Well, my daughter is about the same age as those high-school students and I've been trying to think about what my reaction would be if she came home with such an assignment. I guess it would depend on how the assignment was worded and what the follow up discussion to it would be. I think the teacher in the article used the wrong language in the assignment and she didn't make it clear enough if there would be a discussion about the impact the fictional attack would have on the people who survived it, their families and the country as a whole. I also agree with the poster who said that the assignment should have been a two-parter covering both the terrorist attack and the best ways to prevent it.

I think it encourages strategic thinking and careful planning.
Sometimes you have to come up with crazy off the wall stuff to get youngsters interested.
This is definitely it.

The prevention aspect isn't a bad idea.
 
(I've snipped at various points.)

This assignment was insensitive, stupid, unprofessional and a host of other derogatory adjectives one could come up with. My examples are no different. Hypothetical terrorist attack=hypothetical rape attack=hypothetical bombing attack="pretend you're a murderer." Just plai ridiculous.

Your examples are completely different. First of all, they zero in on specific, personal atrocities, one invokes psychosexual trauma, and the other gives a direct target.

I bet if it were put in the context of an ROTC class doing something similar to impress the impact on them, you wouldn't be having mouthfoaming fits over an instructor trying to creatively engage that class.
 
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