Rant

The class was Intro to Health Careers. I've covered it before. Although, not so early in the school year.

Normally, they'd be working on modules, but due to an unexpected and harsh cold (it laid her flat for a week plus), the teacher had not had a chance to get them started. So, the assignments were a bit different than what I'd expect.

This particular day (I covered the class for three days) they were posed two questions. How do vaccines work? Do vaccines cause autism? To find the answer, they were to search online. Then they were to write up their answers, with at least a paragraph of explanation per question.

Fifth period. While every other student jumped on Google, Samantha immediately opened a Word doc and started typing.

Eventually, she filled a page. Curious, I ambled over and asked the obvious question. "Already know the answer?"

"Yes," she said. "I got into a rant, though. I'm not sure if that's allowed."

So, I read what she wrote. To "check".

Her description was well written. She compared how vaccines work to athletic training or dance classes. It was clear she understood the underlying mechanisms. The rant was saved for question number two.

As far as rants go, hers was rather tame. She mentioned a Reddit post, ignorance, and previously rare diseases becoming more prevalent. I didn't think she'd gone too far, especially considering that the teacher had pretty much asked them to take sides in this.

It's heartening to see well-informed students. It isn't as rare as it may seem from this blog. (The well-behaved and intelligent students rarely make appearances here, mostly because the other students are funnier to write about.)