Monday, November 06, 2006

Repetition...It Keeps Repeating

Here's a lovely story from my fellow teacher Ted.
Today his classes were visited by the local health clinic to tell the students all about their options.
Questions about STDs? Come to the clinic.
Other health issues? Come to the clinic.
You get the idea.
Here's where the story gets better.
The clinic supervisor, who was there to speak to the class, asked the students to name five "uncurable" STDs.
The students were quiet for a minute...then the ice was broken.
"HIV?"
"That's right," the supervisor said. "Can you name some others?"
It goes quiet again.
"HIV?" another kid puts forth.
"We've already heard that one. Can you think of another?"
Again...silence.
A hand shoots into the air and is called upon.
"Um...AIDS?"
"Well, AIDS comes from HIV, so we already have that one. Any others?"
"Oh...Oh!" a kid starts from the corner.
"Yes?" the supervisor says quietly.
"HIV?"
"Are you kidding? We've had that one already. Haven't you been listening? There are four others to name."
Two other hands shoot into the air.
"Bearing in mind that we have already named AIDS and HIV, name one of the other four."
The two hands slowly slink back to the depths.
Dead silence, Ted explained to me. They had dead silence for another thirty seconds while the supervisor prayed for an answer not tied to HIV.
It never came.
There are two sad factors here as I see it.
1. It shows that the kids didn't listen to the supervisor at all.
2. It shows that kids didn't listen to each other as well.
Even sadder? After the supervisor left, Ted asked his class if they could name any of the other diseases besides HIV. The first answer? "HIV."
Repetition...it keeps repeating.
Namaste.

8 comments:

Nic said...

Are Ted's students in middle school? Because I swear that sounds like every 7th grade class I've ever had.

I always wonder if those speakers from "outside" leave thanking their lucky stars they're not public school classroom teachers.

Ironic said...

Nope.
High school all the way.

Admin Worm said...

FVOA

(Future Voters of America)

They'll be paying your Social Security some day. Invest wisely!

Anonymous said...

Leab aren't you glad you were stuck with us Smart Seniors first.... :D

Anonymous said...

So what were the other 3?

Ironic said...

HIV/AIDS
Herpes
Hep B/C
HPV
Genital Warts

Arthur Willoughby said...

Uhhh...I'm a right-wing extremist, but I don't think I'd toss the political aspect into this.

Hey, Leab...speaking of repeating...this post has been repeating for a while, doncha think? tb

Anonymous said...

*sung to the Scooby Doo theme*
"Leaby, Leaby, Leab
Where can you be?
You haven't posted in days now..."

Where in the world is Leab now?

H-Squared