What's in your backpack?

My Honors Literature students set out this morning to save civilization. The class is a Learning Community linked with an honors section of World Civilization, so all the readings in my class focus on the concept of civilization. We'll start of by reading some Rousseau and Thoreau, move on to some Romantic poetry, tackle Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and A.S. Byatt's Morpho Eugenia (the basis for the film Angels and Insects, which we'll watch), and then after midterm we'll look at some postcolonial poetry and drama before finishing up the semester with Art Spiegelman's Maus (so we can consider how our awareness of human horrors affects our understanding of civilization).

Today, though, we're just trying to save civilization. Here is the writing prompt I gave my honors students this morning:

Survivor Marietta A devastating virus is sweeping over the planet, threatening to destroy the entire human race. Fortunately, some wealthy alumni have offered to move Marietta College employees and students to a remote island free of the virus. The island is entirely undeveloped, with no dwellings, no infrastructure, and no electricity, and no one knows what sorts of wildlife might live there. Space is tight, so students are allowed to take only what they can stuff into a backpack. You will remain on the island for four years, after which time the virus will have died out and you will return home to a place devoid of human life. Your goal is nothing less than the survival of civilization. What will you take with you? How will you spend the next four years? What do you need to do in order to assure that human civilization will not perish? Write an essay explaining what part you will play in preserving human civilization.

What do my students want to put in their backpacks? Many offered practical suggestions--water purifier, first-aid kit, seeds, tools, bleach--but others want books (and not just survival manuals). They want math and science textbooks, the poems of Robert Frost, all the Harry Potter books, and the complete Sherlock Holmes. One student wants to pack a copy of the United States Constitution, while another insists on Stephen Colbert's I Am America, and You Can Too! One wants a graphing calculator and 24 batteries, while others want rope, blankets, or a collection of personal photographs.

How do they expect to spend their time? One student imagines himself as a hunter-gatherer, and another thinks it would be a great idea to dig wells and latrines. Most mentioned the need for organization, government, and a code of ethics, and several mentioned the need to keep history, art, and literature alive. "Civilization needs imaginative people, out-of-the-box thinkers," wrote a student who wants to create art on the island, and another wants to keep a written record of the group's experience. One wants to spend her time serving as a peace-maker, and another wants to organize frequent celebrations to provide hope and remind people of their purpose.

They all want to learn--from books, from each other, from their environment. That's a great way to approach education, whether on a remote island or in the middle of Marietta. Now it's up to them to figure out how to survive 15 weeks in my class!