How would you kill a million people? Explain your answer.

Students at a school in Western Australia were recently given the following assignment: plan out a terror attack on “an unsuspecting Australian community.” Assume that you have access to chemical or biological weaponry, and that “your goal is to kill the MOST innocent civilians in order to get your message across.”

My initial reaction was the same as the one you probably just had. Is that teacher insane? What a sick, disturbing assignment to give a bunch of kids.

And then I remembered what I do for a living: I plan out hypothetical terror attacks. (As well as thefts, murders, and other evil events.)

Pictured: hypocrisy

It would have been fantastic if I’d had more opportunities to practice these skills at school.

It’s not as though I’m the only one with a job that demands them. A friend of mine used to work in counter-terrorism. His job required him to design terror attacks, and then work out how to prevent them.

I can see why people are offended by the assignment, but the ability to imagine disasters is essential. Not just for writers (and film-makers, game-makers, etc.) but also for anyone hoping to avoid them, i.e. everyone. How do you burglar-proof your house, for example, if you can’t imagine how you might try to break in?

On another note entirely, it’s really hard to make an interesting school assignment. This was probably the most excited these students had been all year.

I suspect that the teacher is being disciplined as I write this. But if the punishment isn’t a lifetime ban from teaching, and if I ever have kids, I want them in her class.



MITIFOTIT:
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Romance covers are ripe for parody on worldoflongmire.com: