Story Archive

Using Their Braiiins

An assignment by a ninth-grade teacher at Parkers Prairie (Minn.) High School has angered parents. One question asked which three people the students would sacrifice during a zombie apocalypse, and why. Another asked for students to name 25 household items useful for killing zombies, and “write a scene” with a character killing zombies with those items. Principal Carey Johnson defended the assignment, saying it was part of “a nationally recognized curriculum called Zombie-Based Learning.” (Yes, really.) But David Hunter, a teacher in Washington state, rejects that. “The Zombie-Based Learning that I’ve written and published does not talk about people dying, killing zombies or even weapons,” Hunter says. Rather, his curriculum is about “outsmarting and out-thinking” zombies to survive. “It worries me that these [questions] were seen as good ideas,” he said. (RC/St. Paul Pioneer-Press) ...The curriculum is about teaching kids to think. School staff might try learning the lesson too.