High School Students Take "Conspiracy Theories" Class

The students over at Oxford High School in Oxford, MA. are probably not familiar with the Common Core curriculum. I mean, let’s face it, when you were forced into compulsory education did you really care THAT much about the curriculum? However, when I was speaking with a family friend who is a junior attending the high school, she pointed out something to me that she knew I would find interesting. A class called "Conspiracy Theories". "The class is varied in the topics but one thing we talked about was the moon landing being a hoax, we had to write a paper explaining why it was, or wasn’t a hoax". She also stated that the class does mention ’The Illuminati’, but "most of the kids only relate it to pop culture", and that the class seems to focus on it in that context. She said, "like Jay-Z and Rihanna being members of the Illuminati." I contacted Oxford High School to see if I could track down the teacher for this class. The teacher, Aimee Russo, did not e-mail me back to answer any questions. However, this is a course description on the High School’s Web Portal: This course will explore conspiracy theories throughout history. We will explore subjects from aliens to music and pop culture to 9/11. They will challenge you be (sic) constantly questioning the truth. You will hear many sides to many stories and have to discover for yourself what you believe really happened. You will be researching, reading, and writing about conspiracy theories. You will also partake in many class discussions and complete projects that exercise your creativity, thinking skills, presentation skills, and collaboration skills. The class, "explores" such "theories" as, 9/11, AIDS, Paul McCartney, Elvis, and cancer conspiracies. However, I was told specifically by a student that the class goes deeper than that.

[...]

Read the full article at: www.activistpost.com...

That's awesome

I learned nothing in high school, the only thing school in general ever taught me was to read and write, the rest of my time spent in ISS hall snorting lines of Ritalin and doing graffiti.. I definitely would have been stoked on this class, though

Perhaps a prerequisite for the class should be a Critical Thinking or Logic class. Just my two cents here but introducing a young person to conspiracy theories without the previous classes first may actually derail some youth form a successful path in life.

Next thing you know those student will pop up here and believe everything they read

It makes you wonder what the purpose is. Ironic though, to have conspiracy theories about a conspiracy theory class. Imagine a student delving into what the curriculum or schooling in general really is about...

So are they going to get the students used to conspiracy theories so they do not follow up on things with an open mind to find if they are true or not? They will start to think of all conspiracy theories as games, not realizing that they could be real.

How many things start out as conspiracy theories and then materialize as reality. I would say thirty percent. If people are conditioned to think they are just a part of society that doesn't materialize, they will become part of the system that blows them off. They will have been schooled at debunking things with allowable practices, discounting any practices that are not allowed to be used in the game.

I think this is a possible good conspiracy on it's own. A conspiracy of raising shills. They will have excellent credentials for a government job when they graduate.

It's nice being able to visualize a conspiracy with everything, maybe I could get a job teaching a class.

reply to post by Mamatus


Centuries ago, there was a model of curriculum for serious students to follow, Among the foundational subjects was the "trivium;" namely, grammar, rhetoric, and logic. These were considered the first among "liberal arts."

Interesting how today, trivial things are unimportant and trite (rather than foundational understandings).... and liberal arts is jeered and scoffed at as impractical. I wonder how that happened?

reply to post by introspectionist


I learned about conspiracys in grade school. At a book fair they had, a book that was chalked full of conspiracys, but they masked it as Mystery's? I didnt know about this until I got to ATS and on of the first Conspiricys I read was a Mystery that I had read about when I was Just a kid. It was the Sinking of the Titanic and the book that book that was written years earlier called "The Titan" or something like that

If the class is properly done and "goes deeper" as the student says, then it will work like this:

A conspiracy theory is introduced, the details and claims are examined along with its historical development and where it started and how it got to where it is now.

Then the actual facts are examined against the claims of the conspiracy theorists. And the debunkers of the conspiracy theory are given their say.

After the conspiracy theory is shown to be what it is, the instructor will go into the psychology of the conspiracy theorist. Why do they believe what they believe? Where do their theories fail logically? Then the conspiracy theory is compared to a real historical conspiracy which has some things in common.

As the genuine conspiracy that actually happened is compared with the conspiracy theory that can't be proven and is in fact highly unlikely or even impossible, the students will gain great insight into how to think logically and critically and avoid the easy and seductive trap of conspiracy theory thinking with its closed-loop self-pleasuring that's all over the internet.

Could be a very good class. A springboard towards logical and critical thinking students so they can discern facts from fantasy. Because conspiracies do happen, but real conspiracies are nothing like the silliness we're all subjected to.

Its very good that such classes can be real today, mostly because of all of the uncertainty and actual conspiracies going on in the real world. We're surrounded by so many lies and disinformation that we dont know whats real and what isnt. So i welcome these classes and i wish they become a thing here in europe too!