All Alone

ELD. English Language Development. So, while they spoke English, they weren't fluent. This was the advanced group.

They had two worksheets. One of them asked them to write a story. The prompt asked them to imagine that they had a time machine and that they could go to any time past or future. When would they go? What would they do? Etc.

One boy was incensed by the question. Time travel is not possible, he explained. I agreed, but explained that this was a story, and he could make things up.

But he wasn't having it. It took a bit for me to get what was bothering him, but eventually I got the gist of what he was saying.

He could imagine someone building a machine that could take someone back in time. But, he argued, once you got there, you'd be all alone. Because the people in the past are now dead, so they wouldn't be there when you got there. Because they are now dead.

It's an interesting theory. One I haven't seen in any of the time travel theories before.

I, of course, argued that if you go back in time, you're going to the time when those people would have been alive. But he wasn't having it. He insisted that if you went back in time, you'd find empty cities.

Of course, he was all about how the Illuminati are real and various other conspiracy theories too. Not that one has to do with the other.

Sometimes I'm amazed at how their minds work.

Mermaids Are Not Real

"Mermaids are real."

I spent three days at the continuation high school last week. On two of those days, two different students informed me of this mermaid thing.

"It was a documentary on the Discovery Channel."

Now that I think about it, I'm sure that this came up other times as well, but I hadn't been in a position to ask follow up questions. These days, however, I could.

The first time we were in a computer class. The student explained that he had seen it on Facebook. Someone posted a link. There were pictures. There was video. Mermaids actually exist.

I was dubious. Students also believe in the Illuminati. In fact, I think that was one of the arguments against that I used. And of course I was informed that I was mistaken--the Illuminati are real.

Sure they are.

I believe a lot of things that most people would call crazy. (I don't blast them on the blog all that often.) But I draw the line at mythical creatures. Bigfoot? The Loch Ness Monster? Hoaxes. Mermaids? Whatever they had seen had to be fake.

Right?

The second time it came up was the next day in the journalism class (the class that writes the school paper). They were doing current events. The current events they discussed were real news events, but somehow the conversation got sidetracked into the mermaid thing.

One girl swore to everyone that she had seen the Discovery Channel documentary, and that mermaids really do exist.

Now, I'm still pretty sure that this isn't real. But now I need to do some research. Because this myth has gone viral, at least amongst the students at the continuation high school, and I need to find out what's behind it.

Turns out, my mother had seen the same doc. With my nephew. But it wasn't a documentary. It was more of a mockumentary. A quick Internet search, and I found what it is everyone has been talking about.

It was on Animal Planet, not the Discovery Channel.

• From Business Insider. 
• And more of an explanation as to the phenomenon of the "doc". 
• Some of the videos via Animal Planet's website. 
• And the disclaimer that the continuation high school students seem to have missed. 

It's War of the Worlds all over again. For a new generation.

The End of the World

Last week, I covered an art class on Tuesday and Wednesday.  The last two periods were high school classes.  The first three were middle school.

The first group of the day were 7th graders.  They were a loud group.  7th graders can't regulate their volume.  They're either silent or rock concert.  There is no in between.

I tried to keep circulating, but I found that most of the time I ended up at the front of the room.  I was trying to keep peace between two tables.  One table spent most of the time talking about horrible and gross things.  This bothered a girl at another table, but she's a whole post of her own.

The boys started talking about horror movies.  I told them that zombies, if real, wouldn't ever take over.  Then they moved on.  They ended up talking about the end of the world.  The whole 2012 thing has gotten way too much publicity, and the kiddos are scared.

As always, I attempted to talk them off the ledge.  I tried explaining that the end of the world has been predicted so many times that there's no need to believe in it now.

William wasn't buying it.  He had a dream where the moon blew up and...  Here's where my understanding gets foggy.  There was something about how the moon blowing up led to the Earth falling and an ice apocalypse or us being pushed into the sun.    It made no sense.

So, I attempted to explain some things about gravity.  I explained that the Earth was falling, right at this moment, through space.  Just as the sun is.  Just as the whole solar system is.  Just as the whole Milky Way galaxy is.  And gravity keeps us attached to the planet Earth.

William kept coming up with doomsday scenarios, and I kept explaining them away.  Maybe after 8th grade science, some of his fears will be dispelled.  I hope so.

Then again, it could have just been random talk to pass the time.

Conspiracy Theory

High schoolers can be so gullible.  They believe every crazy story that comes along.  I have had serious discussions with them about the chupacabra and the world ending in 2012.  No matter how I explain, they will not believe that these things are not real.

Thursday and Friday I covered shop.  Well, it was two periods of wood shop and four of computer graphic arts.  Because of safety issues (and theft issues), they had to do bookwork while their teacher was out.  They seemed to think that it was busywork, and most refused to do much of anything.  (It was busy work, but that doesn't mean that their teacher won't make it worth points.  In fact, I know he'll make it worth a lot of points, but that's a whole 'nother blog post.)

I spent most of the time walking the room and asking them to do something.  They had other things to talk about.

One student asked me if I was in the Illuminati.  The only thing I know about the Illuminati is that they were featured in Angels and Demons.  They don't really exist.  I said as much to the boy.

The boy explained to me that they are real, prevalent in rap music, and I should look it up on YouTube.  YouTube as a source?  Of facts?

Okay, so I looked it up, but only so that I could provide links.  But really?  They believe this stuff?

Then the boy told me about "Yes We Can" being...  Oh, you just have to go and see.  I can't type this with a straight face.

I took some time to explain how this reversing of audio has been done before.  I told them about "Paul is Dead".  How it was a hoax.  He thought my information interesting, but it didn't dissuade him from believing.  Sigh.

I left that group and went to talk to other students about, oh, I don't know, doing the assignment.  I had put this whole discussion out of my mind.  The next period came in and left.  Then another.  So it was later in the day when...

"Have you heard of the Illuminati?"

Different boy.  Different class.

"They don't exist," I said.

"Oh yes they do," the whole table told me in chorus.  They then all did this hand thing--holding both hands together with thumbs and fingers forming a diamond that they looked through.

I walked away very, very quickly.

The stuff that they believe!