Meinertzhagen’s Haversack is actually a reference to the Haversack Ruse, employed by British Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen during World War I. In 1917, the British were having a difficult time defeating Turkey and taking Gaza. To create a ruse or 'red herring' Colonel Meinertzhagen doctored a bunch of fake war plans, put them in his bag, tricked a few Turkish soldiers to chase him on horseback, and during the course of the chase, Meinertzhagen dropped the bag, deliberately.
He had filled the bag with fake letters from home and rations as well as some money, to make it seem as though it was an important bag he really didn’t want to lose. More specifically, however, he put doctored maps and military plans inside to throw them off track. He made sure the nap sack seemed legitimate and valuable.
The Turkish soldiers found the bag, or haversack and were so convinced that the documents inside were authentic, that they sent them up the chain of command to Turkish intelligence. Turkish military planners then changed their game plan and their war strategy accordingly. They were expecting to be attacked from one side, when in fact they were attacked from another. The ploy worked, and the British took Gaza.
We all learn best, remember events easier and are more willing to participate if we are curious about what is going on. If the intrigue is there, so is our engagement. A magic show would be predictable and boring without sleight of hand. If the act was lacking showmanship and misdirection we would literally see right through the magic. It is all about building suspense. But, more critically to entertain we also need to add some distractions, diversions and even a little frenzy. In the classroom, if students feel some uncertainty, even a level of discomfort, they will have to reconcile with the notion that they are not all knowing. That events unfold in mysterious ways. The more we can throw a wrench in their thinking and get them to reshuffle their knowledge base, the more adept they will get at handling adversity.
Meinhertzhagen's Haversack A Classroom Experiment
Escamotage or trickery in the classroom is all about painting a level of perplexity and dilemma. Creating a lesson where students are not merely the participant and problem-solver but also the architect, cartographer and engineer. Alternate endings occur depending on what clues students find and how they decide to construct their arena, their field of play. Each new piece of evidence steering them down a different path. While some are telltale or dead giveaways others are more cryptic or challenging. This is what keeps students interested. This is what keeps them 'gladiators' battling and conquering.
I decided to implement Meinhertzhagan's Haversack, into a classroom lesson, bag and all. I knew I wanted it to only last one class period so I had to make it solvable with a level of motivation and urgency. I basically had to introduce it with showmanship and passion. I had to lure them into a false sense of security, all the while, giving them the confidence to succeed. How did I do this? I described what Meinertzhagan's Haversack was, like I did above. Then I asked, "Can you be fooled too?"
Let me preface this by saying this lesson was an engagement or hook lesson. My students had not dived into the digestive system yet. I knew they had basic knowledge of the process but the specifics were a bit hazy for them.
I placed paper bags around the room: each containing a picture of a different organ of the digestive system, the structure and function of a different organ (ruse #1) and then various examples of what could go wrong in a different organ, i.e diseases etc. (2nd ruse). There was one bag out of 10 total, in which every piece of information was correct. But I didn't tell them this. They eventually figured it our on their own.
I also placed baggies of what 'food' would look like as it passed through the various organs: mashed up bread, chunky liquids, solid chunks etc. These were placed around the room on different tables (ruse 3) because some were totally wrong: whole M n M's or dry cookie crumbs. They also had to match these with the correct organ. Students had a lot of misinformation and they had to work together to sort out all the facts from the falsehoods, as I call them. This incorporated not only collaboration and communication skills but also processing and reasoning skills. There were a lot of options and a lot of steps to go through to find the 'truth'.
Leaving false information throughout led them astray but they used their common sense and deciphering skills to organize their knowledge of the digestive system, not just structure and function but on a much deeper level. This activity occurred before we took notes or even mentioned the design and purpose of the digestive system. So I knew that they would have to look at the pictures and decipher what food would look like at each stage. Also, that they would have to use process of elimination to discover some of the answers. Every student had a different piece of the puzzle to solve and they were excited to mingle and share ideas. They struggled at first but then once they determined how to cooperate and discuss the clues effectively the pieces fell into place.
Students discovered that even with some misdirection and red herrings that if they slowed down and really took the time to listen to one another that everything they needed to know to solve the puzzle was right in front of them. This activity worked really well. I plan on using it again at the end of the human body unit incorporating all of the body systems, to make it more challenging and suspenseful.
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