Tapped for Information

Here's the funny thing about being a teacher: kids will accept anything you say, as long as it's off topic. When I'm up there leading a lesson, the students want nothing to do with what I'm saying. But as soon as they take a conversation off-topic and I have some kind of comment about that, I am suddenly an authority. I'll be circling the room trying to shut down the side conversations, then encounter one about Scooby Doo and feel compelled to put my two cents in like the big hypocrite that I am. I had a pair of students insisting that Scrappy Doo was cute, but by the time I had my say, they were in agreement that Scrappy was the downfall of the cartoon series.

I try not to abuse this power too often, because I think it's important for kids to reach their own opinions if they're ever going to become independent thinkers, but sometimes I can't help it. Most recently, I found kids discussing how much healthier bottled water is than tap water. Before I refocused them, I couldn't help but take the opportunity to educate them a bit on the subject. I ranted that most bottled water has been found to be no more healthier or cleaner than tap water, and that in blind taste tests, most people preferred tap water. I spouted about how expensive it is and how having name brand water boils down to a status thing, which mirrors our world's elitist and unfair approach to ownership of water supplies. I continued that bottled water is horribly bad for the environment and that although the plastic bottles can be recycled, 3/4 of them aren't. Furthermore, the energy/oil it takes to transport water to our stores, particularly from foreign countries, is astronomical for something you can find even more easily locally.

And they listened. They don't listen to me say much of anything, usually, but when it comes across as a distraction rather than a legitimate lecture, they eat it up. Plus, since I'm a teacher, they take it as truth. I believe my aforementioned rant to be entirely true, so it's not like I'm pulling the wool over their eyes, but still, these teenagers are antagonistic by nature, so the fact that they don't argue with me demonstrates how atypical these circumstances are. I'm going to have to stage supposedly off-topic lessons in the future for topics that are most important for them to grasp.

Once my bottled water rant was over, the class was silent until a single student finally dared to voice eir own opinion: "My favorite kind of water is from a hose."

I have to agree, hose water is pretty damn good.