kurt johnston (middle school pastor at saddleback) are writing a series of six books for middle school kids called ‘the middle school survival series’. the first two books, my faith and my family, come out in january. each of the books has 75 little chapters on a wide variety of topics. they can be read very non-linearly, though they are grouped into themed sections of 4 – 8 chapters. [[ooh — i just heard from our publisher that these were being overnighted, and will be in stock at the ys store at the cincy convention today! i’m stoked to see them.]]
anyhow, we’re working on the 2nd set of two right now, which will (theoretically) release next fall. they are ‘my friends’ and ‘my school’. in the ‘my school’ book, we’ve planned a fun little section on ‘middle school urban legends’. much of the book will have more depth — this section is actually pretty light, but intended to dispel a few things. right now we thought we’d touch on ‘trash canning’ (stuffing smaller kids into trash cans), ‘mystery meat’ (that processed stuff in the lunch room with questionable origin) and ‘my dog ate my homework’ (which actually happened, in real life, to my daughter last year). but we feel like we need one or two more, and we’re stuck.
any ideas you could suggest?
technorati tagged for youth ministry
swirlie – that thing with the toilet…. i mean, i think that is an urban legend….
there’s the book drop too… everyone drops their books at a certain time to upset the teacher. we just all got held after class five minutes :\
How about the “pool on the roof” legend?
tony — swirlie, great!
kara — yeah, we totally did that in JH to one of our teachers. so, i’m not sure it’s an urban legand if we’ve all done it!
brian — that’s hilarious; someone else mentioned that one to me (they had it as “pool on the 4th floor”), and i didn’t think it was common enough. but you mentioning it says i could be wrong!
What about a “crazy custodian”? We always heard outrageous stories about our school janitors going through students’ lockers after hours or stealing food from the cafeteria. Think: “Carl the Janitor” from “The Breakfast Club,” but less savvy.
There is always the -putting something in your neighbors drink- salt & pepper as well as left over food items. Just a thought.
Ha, Ha….I haven’t thought about trash canning in years. That was my number 1 biggest fear going into junior high!
How about the “being stuffed in your locker”???
for all your cold climate folks there’s the kid who is supposidly stuck on the basketball courts with his tongue stuck to the pole.
As a side note, whatever ones you choose, I think a movie clip reference where they made the incident part of pop culture would be good. Obviously this one was immoralized by the Christmas Story.
Also, anyone who could give real life stories about whether it happened or ever saw it happen or even were just freaked out about the possibility would be funny. Like maybe a lunch clerk who could really explain mystery meat would be funny.
Side note #2. I once saw a high school student put a coin in a quarter operated candy machine and stick his hand under the thing and along with his mike and ikes came a cockroach. AHH! That has no point, but this blog line reminded me of it.
The permanent record
What about buying a “key to the elevator” from an upperclassman? Or is that a freshman thing?
there are a couple that come to mind:
Every school has a teacher/staff member with a carpet knife in their bottom right hand desk drawer who slices and dices the juiciest children.
or
what about the staff room mystery? What actually happens in the staff room? Is it all couches and jacuzzies and massage rooms like the legend says or why exactly have so few students ever come back from that room to tell thier story?
i also think about the common understanding we all had in junior high that if we all sat on one side of the bus it would definately tip over…
dumpster diving, for sure!
The pool on the roof is a great one. I remember being told that as well.