1st overland/ undergraduate expectations

 

I had never heard of this trip from London to Singapore. It's interesting to think about six undergrads from a college taking a trip like this. 

Think about the fact that those undergrads would not only need to be intelligent and adventurous, but they would need to have some practical wits about themselves. It reminds me of Pirsig' s book. Those young fellas, would need to know how to use a winch, how to adjust valves, how to adjust points, how to adjust brakes, how to repair and rebuild things, how to read a compass, how to survive in the wilderness etc. Think about this... can today's undergraduate student drive a manual shift/clutch car, change a wheel/tire, read a map? Could today's graduate navigate a tricky section of road, cross an unstable bridge, problem solve on the fly as things come up, deal with boarder agents, and navigate the political and professional requirements of the job? Could today's graduate get along with each other for a prolonged period of time? Could today's graduate simply deal with the uncertainty of the situations these six individuals would have found themselves in? After listening to students talk about the anxiety that their daily life brings to them while they live in a civilized world with a rather posh existence, I reckon this trip would be quite a stretch for most college graduates. This trip would take some serious work and require fortitude beyond what I have come to expect from most of my students. I might note, that this is not without me trying to hold what I see to be an appropriate  expectation. 

What has happened to our modern "civilization"?