Why Does Hitler Always Show Up?

7th graders have weird minds. Right now in my 7th grade language arts class we're studying drama. We read a play that's actually a Twilight Zone episode, and they're writing new endings which we're going to turn into iMovies.

Last year I let the kids pick a new theme for the ending...only they ended up not really having themes. When I asked what their theme was, they'd say "uh, it's funny." So this year I let them draw from some themes I made up, hoping to spur on more creativity. The groups that were happiest got "We make our own fears come true," and "We only know how to hurt each other." The other groups weren't as happy with "Sometimes we let our imaginations run away with us," and "We're always surprised at how well we can treat each other." I guess they thought the happy ones wouldn't be as much fun...

Today they're working on the scripts in class, and one group was STRUGGLING to come up with something that logically fit together. We started our new endings in the middle of the play we had read, with a dark, shadowy figure walking down the street, and the townspeople picking up a gun. So the group I'm talking to says "Yeah, the figure is an alien, he's shot by the people, and then Hitler comes up to them."

Uh, where did Hitler come from?

I'm realizing that what is logical to me, is definitely not logical to them. And I think logic is genre-specific, and dependent on how much you've read and watched. These kids thought it was totally logical that Hitler would walk into a small town and onto Maple Street. When I told them it wasn't, they just changed Hitler to a homeless man.

Another, more creative group, had their dark shadowy figure turn out to be an alien whose goal was to midgetize the whole planet. I just liked that they made up the word "midgetize." Although, after watching "Little People, Big World," I'm wondering if midgetizing is derogetory. Better than Hitler, I guess.