Urban Legends: Lessons Learned

The last day before the midterms, I wanted to give my students a little break. We spent most of the quarter talking about folklore so I thought I would step off the standard educational path of Paul Bunyan and talking animal tales and have a lesson on urban legends.

It turned out that my students were just as fascinated as I am about how urban legends spread and about the moral lessons people are suppose to gleam from unsuspecting college kids being terrorized by a serial killer.

I didn't actually include those types of urban legends in the activity. I changed a couple of stories so not to scare the students. One pleasantly naïve student commented, “The children were so smart to hide in the closet!”

I responded, “Yeah….they sure were,” since they certainly were not that smart in the original.

As we talked about the urban legends, a few students sat with their mouths wide open, enraptured. They were especially delighted when I told them about how many people do not get into their car without checking the backseat for a person hiding there or will not flash a car that does not have its headlights on because of urban legends. Suddenly they realized the power a story can have to change behavior.

A number of students ask to keep copies of the urban legends. I told the classes over and over again that the urban legends were just for fun and would not appear on the midterm.

A week later as I am grading one short answer question, I realize just how much my students took the urban legends to heart.

Question: 4. What is folklore? Why are many of these stories still popular and are retold today? Please use examples from stories and articles read in class in your answer.

Here are some of the responses:

1. “Folklore is fun and interesting and gives us lessons. For example, the stories “Check on the Children”, “The Mad Driver”, and “Harvest” tell us to take care of ourselves and always be aware of strangers.”

2. “These folktales are retold many times because these stories often teaches people a lesson like the article we read in class, “The Mad Driver”. It teaches us to be alert when going to drive a car and check your backseats before going in the car.”
(I like how she refers to the legend as an article.)

3. “A folklore is a story that is told to teach lessons. They are mostly untrue and usually a myth. The stories that are told today are still popular because they also teach lessons. These stories have a lot of meaning to it. Like in “The Harvest”. It reminds people not to accept drinks from strangers or you might have your kidneys sold to the black market.”

4. “Folklore warns kids not to do something dangerous by scaring them. Like the tale “Check on the Children”. The children could be safe if the babysitter didn’t spend 4 hours watching TV, by closing and locking the window, and making sure burglars didn’t come in.”

The lessons the students learned are:
• Always be vigilant for a homicidal maniac in your backseat
• Accepting a drink from a stranger WILL make you lose your kidneys to a black marketer
• While watching three hours of television is okay, watching four is certain to end in disaster

Lesson learned.