Either something is wrong with the 7th grade students in Miss Winston's English Language Arts class, or they are actually enjoying Jack London's The Call of the Wild.
For the last few days, Winston has prepared herself for the worst: a bunch of crosswords with vocab words from the novel, prizes for whoever stays the most quiet during Silent Sustained Reading, and even swapping the book out entirely for a 4K Bluray DVD of the 2020 Harrison Ford movie adaptation.
Are they fucking with me? she asked herself. They're fucking with me, right?
But from the moment she issued her students the novel, they were eager to fully engage with the pre-reading activities she had prepared for them. During one slide where she was explaining how London's own experiences influenced the novel, one student said, "I've heard the Yukon territories to be frightfully dangerous back then."
Another asked if he was also the author of White Fang. When she confirmed, a student then said "Oh, I hope we read that, too,"
As the students began to talk about what other books they would like to read in the future, one of the students in the front asked if the class could get back on track so that they could begin the novel. The students, a little embarrassed, all chuckled and politely asked Miss Winston if they could get right to reading.
"Um, yes," she said, eyeing them suspiciously.
For the next few days her students completed their assignments and submitted their reading logs on time. In class, the students raise their hands and are looking to have an actual fruitful discussion about conflict and theme.
She assumed that the story would draw in a lot of her reluctant readers, but not like this. This is weird.
This seems...wrong.
One student even asked if there were any supplemental nonfiction articles they could read so that they could "better understand the social milieu of the time and place with which London wrote. "
Okay, something is definitely wrong.
Are they fucking with me? she asked herself. They're fucking with me, right?
Later during lunch, Winston looked up any news stories in the area that might have explained her student's behavior: was this the latest TikTok trend? To troll the teacher by ironically doing the reading and submitting homework? No, nothing she could find.
She pivoted and searched for something else. Perhaps the town has a poisoned water supply? Any gas leaks in the area?
Nothing.
Days later, Winston looked a little disheveled, kept up at night about what they must be planning.
"They're up to no good," she said to herself.. "Either that or this is some kind of sick joke, a long-form prank of some kind!"
"Hello, Miss Winston," one student interrupted her. "Most of us have just finished Chapter 5. Can we discuss the conflict between the laws of civilization in opposition to the wilderness?"
"Yeah," one student called out from the back. "We were talking about the book outside of class, and there seems to be some misunderstanding about how the codes and hierarchies within the pack sheds light on the failure of Hal, Charles, and Mercedes "civilization.’”
He put "civilization" in air quotes. The children laughed.
WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?
She thought about old episodes of Twilight Zone or some Kafka that she read in college, but there was no real explanation for their sudden participation with the reading.
"Miss Winston," one student asked. "Is there a reading quiz you can give us on this. I just want to make sure that I'm prepared if and when you are going to assign a test or final project on this book."
“Yeah!” the students collectively yelled, competitive now, eager to see who would do best. And if it wasn’t them, they would try harder next time.
Miss Winston slowly backed away from the class but was stopped by the board. She weakly reached to her top desk drawer and opened it, revealing the 4k Bluray DVD.
"Does anyone want to watch this," she gasped, barely getting out the words. “The dog is CG and Han Solo is in it.”
There was a deafening silence before one of her lowest-performing students stood up and smiled.
"Watch it?" he asked incredulously. "Why would we want to do that? It might ruin what I've imagined in my head."
As if on cue, all of the students took out their books and begin to read enthusiastically.
Miss Winston started crying and slumped down onto the floor, crawling into a pathetic ball resembling the fetal position.
"I'm not emotionally capable of handling whatever this is right now," she muttered.