Classroom Time

I was trying to lead a discussion about a short story we had just read in class when a student said, "my little nephew had a dog and it bit half his face off, (she pulls down half of her face with her hand to illustrate) and now he gets twenty thousand dollars! And he gets to spend it himself!" She said this little anecdote like he was the luckiest little boy in the world.
As we navigate through this world of teenagers, we do our best not to fall into these little areas of misinformation and weirdness that are set like booby traps all around us. It is my charge to teach the greatest percentage of my students the most standards possible in a set amount of time. Actually, in a very short amount of time. Juvenile information sets must be continually pushed to the background as the students inch forward in their learning and race forward toward adulthood. They have no idea how terrified they should be, and that's a good thing.