Anarchy!

This week, I created many activities to explore the four facets of Computational Thinking. As seen in my Self-Assessment, Computational Thinking is an area of weakness for me. I published my activities to my group members and they gave me some feedback and are trying out a "play test" of my activities. In this post, I will "play test" an Algorithmic Thinking Activity created by Tom.

Here is Tom's activity description:

We all can come to agreement that our governing body is what is in control of our country. Although we elect them, they make the decisions regarding what bills are written and what bills are ratified into law. Ask yourself this question, what if the whole government body was disassembled. What might occur in our society? How would people react? Who would enforce the law? Would money still be relevant? Write down in steps what would happen if the government was disassembled.

Here is my play test:

1. Inmates would walk out of jail

2. Adults would run to stores to load up on food, firearms, seeds

3. Government officials would lose all power and lose occupation of places like The White House

4. Many families with children would stay in their homes and lock the doors/ board up windows

5. Infuriated and tired citizens would overrun government owned properties

6. People with unstable homes/living situations would likely move into government built structures

7. Children would not have formal schooling, teachers would need to offer private or small group schooling

8. Many might go hungry without government subsidized nutrition programs, but stealing would not be punishable so hungry people could likely take food from grocery stores

9. Money would lose value and people would forget about brands/ fashion/ aesthetics and begin focusing on surivival and food

10. Adults would begin googling things like "how to plant a garden

11. People will need to choose whether or not they will continue to work for free. Some will continue to provide essential services; most will not

12. Adults would begin assembling groups to overtake their regions and choose to keep some previous laws, while removing those in which they do not agree

13. The United States of America will not be united across state boundaries, instead including self-governed pockets and territories

14. The pockets will look different, some safe and some dangerous, depending on whether the needs of the inhabitants were met

I found this activity to be particularly useful during this time. Sometimes, we need a little reminder that the government is, in fact, a useful entity. I love that Tom added questions to the activity description. This helped scaffold the task and trigger deeper thinking.

I quickly moved into an anarchy type of scenario, and then moved into reliance on the good will of some people. I don't think that the United States of America would stay united against the disassembled government; our country is too large and diverse. I think people would go back to dependence upon land to grow food and dependence on firearms to protect the land.