Masterminds – Major Concept

Dear Mr. Korman,

 My 8th grade English class is currently reading Lord of the Flies, and as part of this we are discussing the question \”Are people born evil, or does society make them evil?”.

As an activity, each student in my period were given a balloon and a pencil to stab with. The task was simple: if a student’s balloon was unpopped at the end of the one minute activity, they would get a piece of candy. As soon as the activity started, people were up from their seats and attempting to pop everyone else’s balloon. Every student had entered fight or flight mode and the classroom had become absolute chaos.

At the end of the one minute activity, only two balloons remained unpopped. I was one of the two students, and we each earned a piece of candy. After we had all settled down, our teacher stood up and made a simple statement: “Why hadn’t you all just stayed in your seats and left the balloons alone? Everyone would have gotten a piece of candy”. No one had an answer.

I immediately thought of your book, Masterminds, and how it perfectly addressed the question of  “Are people born evil, or does society make them evil?”. The whole series was awesome and was full of great concepts, including this one. So,

Thank you!

TK

P.S. You visited my Washington DC school on November 1st, and your presentation was very entertaining. Thanks again!