How to Root Out the Rumor Weed

One of my favorite Veggie Tales videos is called the Rumor Weed. According to several online sources, it was the twelfth episode in the Veggie Tales animated series. This video does a great job of portraying the insidious life cycle of a rumor. 

We all know that rumors spread like wildfire and are very difficult to address head-on. More often than not, it’s almost impossible to determine how any given rumor even got started in the first place...or how much, if any, truth actually exists behind the rumor. 

How do we know if it’s a rumor or fact? What should we do when we hear a rumor that we cannot verify? How do we help our students learn the answers to these questions and practice them? I know we would all agree that deliberately choosing to spread a rumor about someone is wrong...always. But knowing what to say and to whom when we don’t know how much truth there is behind the rumor is not so easy to determine. For starters it can be helpful to remind our students that rumors are really just a form of gossip.

 When we hear others saying negative things about another person or a group of people, it is important to begin by asking the students why they are telling this information to this particular group of people. The only time we ever should share negative information about anyone else is if we are in earnest search of getting help for that person. If we are speaking to people who have no power to get help or to implement change, then we must reconsider the value of sharing that information with that particular group of listeners. However, if we are approaching those who have the ability to get help for the situation, then we must teach our students that they must also be willing to be completely forthcoming. 

As you can probably imagine, rumors often spread amongst middle and high school students. As a Christian school, we are committed to doing our very best to approach rumors in a way that reinforces biblical principles. When a rumor is heard by someone, s/he should first ask how the information can be confirmed. If it cannot (or will not) be confirmed, then the listener needs to determine how at risk the situation could be if the rumor were true. If it is low-risk, we want our students to learn to take a stand and ask for those telling the rumor to stop...and then walk away and stop listening. If the rumor has the potential to be high-risk, we want our students to stop talking about it with other students and seek help from an adult who can help assess the danger.

 The only way, however, to avoid rumors from taking root is to pluck their little seeds out of the “fertile ground” as soon as they are sown. We have been talking with our middle and high school students a lot about comparing ourselves to Jesus’ standards than to the world’s standards. We can help our young people imagine a world in which everyone chose to speak only truth…and to speak that truth in a way that encouraged and uplifted weary hearts.

 Although we cannot force others to refrain from planting and watering “rumor weeds,” we can each choose not to add water ourselves to rumor weeds by refusing to repeat rumors to those who are not in positions to make change and by refusing to listen to rumors once they are started. We pray for you as parents, and we covet your prayers for us as your children’s teachers and administrators...as we all teach and model how to pull those rumor weeds quickly and effectively.