I have a handful of students who fervently believe that the world is going to end in 2012, and over half of all my students are at least somewhat nervous about the possibility. I had several students who asked me about the world ending last year, based on vague urban legends they had heard about “some ancient tribe predicting it will end in a few years” – I’m guessing they mean the Mayans? But this year, thanks to the advertising onslaught for the movie “2012,” it is an ever-present concern for many of the kids in my classroom, who seem to think that the movie is some sort of documentary.
The problem has become even more pronounced now that we are on the Earth Science unit, because basically every time I introduce them to some new feature of the Earth, some kid calls out “IS THAT THE PART THAT IS GOING TO KILL US ALL IN 2012?!?!” and all the others start to freak out about it. I really don’t know what to do, because despite my constant reassurances that 2012 is just a made-up movie and that as far as we know the Earth is fine, a lot of them seem to genuinely believe we are on the verge of Armageddon. Stupid movie advertisers.
I don’t even want to think about what it will be like to teach this unit in 2012…
mar-mar
Haha. This is too funny. Kids do have a unique way of freaking out over such insignificant things.
On a serious note though, I think this would be a great opportunity to incorporate into your lessons the fact that scientific theory is based on evidence rather than intuition, superstition, folklore, hunches, rumors, etc. I’m guessing you’ve already covered this with them, but here would be a great opportunity to re-visit this information so they could see for themselves exactly what that unit was pointing out.