Students and Zombies

First posted on FB 3/15/14:

I have this terrific crop of students this year. Five are in an accelerated lab methods/archaeobotanical research class I created this semester. We spend all day Friday together. Each Friday they learn a different artifact class, sort/process samples or tours a local archaeology lab. Its quality time for them and me. Yesterday they worked on resume and I encouraged them to remember to apply for scholarships. On the front of the TMCC page right now is a link to scholarships with a link to a list of scholarships. A number of them are basically creative writing contests worth $1k-$1.5k which is a super lot for these students (for most students). The one that really appealed to them was writing about what you would do during a zombie apocalypse. Ok I get it, its trendy now--surprised its not trending to the right of this box as I write this. But what unnerved me was that two (not one) of my students admitted that they spent a lot of their time in their current mindless job (at the Gap) thinking about what to do if the zombies show up, where she would go, etc. And the other student said he thought about it a lot when he worked for Home Depot. So the competition is on, which is good for them. But this is what my brightest students are thinking in their mindless jobs--I think I now get what the zombie craze is all about.