New Athenian Academy

Gossip, Rumors, those evil little ideas that get passed around… and in schools they are even more treacherous than normal.

About a month ago, I had a student come up to my desk during worktime.

“I have a question to ask you…”

“Okay, what is it?”

“Well, it’s something I heard, and I knew you would give me an honest answer.  But it’s an awkward question.”

“Just ask me, I don’t get embarrassed remember.”

“Okay here goes… are you pregnant?”

(me laughing hysterically)

“Of course not. Where did you hear that?”

“Just students talking…”

This encounter didn’t phase me.  All I wanted to know was where the rumor started.  Was I having a fat day?  Did someone overhear a conversation about babies and assume?  I never did find out the origin of the pregnancy rumor.  Fortunately, the rumor wasn’t hurtful or damaging.  I even found it rather funny.  For the next couple of weeks, students would ask me silly questions about the “baby.”  “When’s it due?” “Do you know the sex?”  “What about a name?”  We made it a game.

Unfortunately most rumors are no where near this harmless.  They are mean and spiteful meant to damage someone’s reputation.  The students at my school are no different.  You can label kids “good” and “Christian” all you want, but they are still going to gossip and spread rumors.  In fact, I believe its human nature.  Part of our desire to seek out social acceptance.  We shift the negative focus to someone else.  We then become the valuable source of information about others, thus making us popular in social circles.  And don’t even try to tell me that you’ve never participated in gossip and rumors.  We all have.

As a teacher, this becomes a sticky subject.  How do we stop student gossip and rumors when we also engage in it? 

The teachers at my school are not strangers to the Rumor weed.  They love to discuss other teachers’ and student lives.  Stories circulate around the lunch table every day.  Most of the time, the information is harmless… this person is having a grand baby or they got a new car.  Nothing you could call malicious… but then every once in a while it takes a turn.

The same is true of the students.  Most of the time they are fine, just socializing with friends.  And then someone says something malicious about another student.  So how do we handle this?

Thankfully students don’t usually engage in this behavior in my classroom, but this year’s seniors were an odd bunch.  Friends but not really friends, more like frenemies.  Often during work times, they would start talking about one topic and move on to how this student is weird or did you see their clothes today?  When I called out students about their talk, they usually responded with “But I was just kidding around… They (the student being talked about) know that.  We kid Ms. B, it’s what we do.”  How do I respond to that?  Do I yell at them for being horrible friends and really horrible human beings?  Do I left them off the hook because it’s just kidding?  Do I throw them out of class for that kind of talk? 

I am really at a loss about what to do with rumors.  The bible teacher had a series of lectures and discussions about the topic.  I know he meant well, but the students just made fun of him behind his back.  Obviously a heart to heart was not the answer to correcting the behavior.  For now, I will just call students out on their talk when it happens. 

Maybe if someone starts a rumor about them, said gossipers would see the error of their ways and stop.  “Hey did you hear about _____?  You didn’t… let me tell you about them. I just heard….”

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Education Problems by Tobe