Kids These Days...

This student story deserves its own post, so I'm giving it one.  The name of the student has been changed.  :-)

During a geography/science lesson recently, I was teaching my students about fault lines and tectonic activity.  I was using a map and mentioned that a fault line goes straight through New Zealand, when suddenly a student from the back of the room shouted "NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Startled, I obviously stopped and said, "What's the issue, Jay?"  He responded with, "I am so SICK of people talking about New Zealand!  When are they going to realize that it doesn't exist?!"

Ummmm....what do I do with that?

I attempted to reason with him:  "Jay, I'm really quite sure that it does exist.  For starters, it's right here on the map.  Secondly, I've been there.  So...yeah, I'm pretty sure it's real."  He still didn't believe me:  "People just need to realize that it's a FICTIONAL place.  It's NOT REAL!  I have been alive for ten years - almost eleven - I think I would know which countries are real and which ones aren't!"

I didn't think I was going to get anywhere with him right then.  Plus, everyone in the class was looking at him as if he were nuts.  I decided to go with the response, "Okay, so for everyone here who does believe in New Zealand, here's where the fault line is..." and I went on with my lesson.

I feel like most people have trouble convincing kids that imaginary things aren't real, not that real things aren't imaginary.  That was a new one for me.  Teacher friends - any advice here?  I'm so tempted to assign him to New Zealand on the country projects we have coming up next week, but I think that might just be a little too mean.  Ha ha.