I kid you not. I overheard this conversation between some of my high school students.
Student 1: Did you just hear what he said?
Student 2: No, what?
Student 1: He said he’s going to Hawaii this summer.
Student 2: Okay?
Student 1: This SUMMER!
Student 2: I don’t get it.
Student 1: You can’t fly to Hawaii in the summer. The sun is too hot. The plane will blow up.
Student 2: I didn’t even think about that. Maybe they’re going to drive.
Student 1: What are you talking about? You can’t drive to Hawaii. Do you know how far Hawaii is? It would take forever to get there.
😀😁😂😄
Here is a second one:
Girl: “Why don't people on the bottom of the Earth fall off?”
Teacher: *face slowly morphs from being astounded to realizing he might not know how to explain in terms she can understand.* “…uh…. Uh….”
Class: “…uuuuuuh….”
Me: “GRAVITY!”
Girl: “Ooooooh…. Well then why don't they feel upside down?”
Teacher: *still astounded, trying to dumb down answer.*
Me: “Gravity makes “down” feel like the center of the Earth.”
Girl: “Oooooh I get it now.”
Me: *internally* No you don't. Not at all.
I felt bad for giving her a conceptually incorrect answer, but we didn't have all day, and the teacher pondered it for a second, realized it would get her through life as much could be expected of her at that point, and shrugged and got in with the lesson.
I probably should have been nicer; she might not have asked before because she's been worried about seeming stupid (she was) but her tone suggested it was the first time she'd thought of it. I’ll never fault someone for asking a question, but… That just took the cake. It was over 8 years ago and I still remember the event vividly.
Another girl, different day: “How do you determine the waterness of something?”
Teacher: “The… waterness?”
Girl: “Yeah, how much water something has in it… I can't remember the real word for it.”
Teacher: “Like saturation?”
Girl: “No not that…”
At this point the whole class asked the girl in varying ways what she meant, but after five minutes the teacher decided it was too much a diversion and she had some gross concept error that couldn't be fixed at the time. (EDIT: During this five minutes, we ruled out the obvious; viscosity, volume, et cetera) I, however, ignored the lesson (the material was being presented slowly enough I could learn it myself with periodic glances and little thought) and spent a good 15–30 minutes trying to figure out what “waterness” was.
I finally realized it:
Me, Randomly during the lesson: “You mean density, right?”
Girl; “YES!”
We then had to spend the next few minutes explaining to her just what density was.
Lol.
3rd grade student: “My mom got arrested for slapping my sister.”
Me: “Oh, my word! I’m so sorry. What happened?”
3rd grade student: “My sister found out my mom was sleeping with her boyfriend and she called my mom a whore.”
Me: … (staring in bewilderment)
Sister and boyfriend were 15. Mom was NOT arrested for slapping the girl - she was arrested for suspected statutory rape! SMH…
Check out the part 2. Lol 😄😉
