Once long ago, I taught science in a public high school. I generally enjoyed it. I generally had good classes and we generally got along very well. One day while teaching my Chemistry class, they were being a little dingy. I wanted to chide them gently and humorously, but did not want to use any insensitive terms nor politically incorrect words. Thus I called them "Smagorians"!
They all laughed then asked what was that.
I said, "Okay. Extra credit for any and all who have in my inbox before tomorrow's tardy bell 'Where in the world is Smagoria.'" And I wrote it on the board so they knew the spelling.
I was more than a little amused at how they all took the extra credit assignment so seriously. That was fourth period. At the end of lunch I had a couple of colleagues ask me what was up. By the end of the day a few more teachers were asking me what I was doing. I did not tell them. All would be revealed in due course.
My students hit every available resource including the early version of the internet.
Fourth period the next day rolled around. There was a mad dash to turn their answers into my inbox. The bell rang and I counted almost 20 responses out of a class of 25 honors chemistry students. I looked through the answers:
- One misspelled / changed the spelling to allow for an actual place name in Italy;
- Someone wrote, "You made it up."
- Everyone else wrote: "Africa."
I asked, "Africa? Where did that come from?"
A student, I'll call Jay, replied, "Oh, that would be me."
"What?" I said. "You didn't even turn an answer in."
"Yeah, I know. I couldn't find where it was."
"But?" I pressed.
"I was so disgusted that I couldn't find it," he went on. "I mean, I looked everywhere and asked every teacher. I was just leaving the library this morning before first period and so-and-so asked me if I found it. I sarcastically answered, 'Yeah, it's in Africa!'"
After everyone realized that they had been had, someone suggested that we should come up with a website so that ensuing classes would be able to see where Smagoria is. One student specifically said jokingly, "If it's on the internet, it must be true!" (And this was about 25 years ago.)
That was near the end of the school year. The next year I had most of those students again in Physics. I gave them a small reading assignment about the discovery of Smagoria. That and other additions made their way onto this website.
Link ==> Smagoria! — The Forgotten Island
The flag of the Republic.
Take away lessons:
1) After this, I told my students that sometimes the answer is, "There is no answer" or "Does not exist." I told them about my Algebra Two class where the teacher had shown us cases that were insolvable by the methods we were learning. We had a huge stinking test on that unit. I was only a little surprised that there was one like that on the test. So I confidently wrote: There is No Solution. However, my confidence eroded when the next one also was insolvable. I reworked those problems twice, then three times. I felt comfortable finally when I got answers to the remaining questions.
Turns out that test had two problems that were insolvable. I caught both of them. It's okay to say it can't be done, but make sure that you have your supporting data.
2) Don't just trust anyone else's answer. They're probably just as clueless as you are. Even the brainiacs in the class got snookered by the "Africa" answer. There is something to be said for the adage: "Trust but Verify."
3) Don't believe it just because your teacher said so—check it out. Likewise, don't believe it because you read it on the internet. I mean, just look! Smagoria and all it's history is there complete with supporting pictures!
