Purple Hairy Monkey Butt

Remember the game of telephone? We whispered a phrase into our friend's ear but as the message was passed it was increasingly distorted. Well, I think I've found it again in secondary education.

I have this activity that I like to do. Teach the kids sequencing and logic... they start out with a timeline of inventions and then are asked a series of questions, easy questions mind you:

Why are there no photographs of George Washington? (The camera was invented 15 years after Washington died).

Which was invented first the escalator or the elevator? (Otis invented the elevator first).

You learn interesting things, like we had traffic signals before we had light bulbs OR cars and that karl Benz (as in Mercedes-Benz) actually invented the first practical automobile, not the tycoon from Detroit.

But here is the thing, when you cheat the teacher knows it. Some answers were written in the wrong blanks true... so...

Q: What is a telegraph?
A: Alfred Nobel

Q: If you lived in a small town in Colorado in 1880 how would you get a bicycle?
A: The Wright Brothers

Two thirds of the class said people started moving to Houston in 1900 because of the prostitutes and factories.

But they also copied from a kid with bad handwriting so:

Q: How did they open tin cans during the Civil War.
A1: With knifes.
A2: With a knifes or shoot them.
A3: Short them or with knife.
A4: Short them.

Q: If you lived in 1900 what would you do for fun?
A1: baseball
A2: freeze tag
A3: pretzels

and finally:

Q: If you lived in 1850 how would you close your raincoat?
A1: buttons
A2: butter