According to a recent news story posted by education news website Chalkbeat.org, Adams County School District teacher Hilary Wimmer was recently named Colorado’s 2020 Teacher of the Year. The Chalkbeat article included an interview with Ms. Wimmer, who teaches business and finance at Mountain Range High School.
To judge by the award and the interview, Ms. Wimmer is dedicated to reaching every one of her students in a meaningful way.
From that article:
Tell us about a favorite lesson to teach. Where did the idea come from?
My favorite lesson is our zombie apocalypse lesson, which teaches students that businesses can solve any problem in the long-term. During the lesson, I surprise the students with an emergency alert announcement about zombies. At first, the students don’t know if the announcement is real, so they get a little worried. After I tell the students that there is not really a zombie outbreak, they have to work together to create a business that would help people during the zombie apocalypse. They love this assignment and their presentations are fantastic…
…I know if I provide the purpose and the chance to use the concepts and content in a meaningful, hands-on way, they will learn and they will retain what they learn.
It’s been a few years since I sat at a student desk in high school, and I remember my fellow students (and myself) being relatively naïve about certain topics. So I’m excited to learn that, when a class full of Colorado high school business students hears their teacher read an emergency alert about a zombie outbreak, they take the announcement seriously.
Some older people nowadays don’t believe that zombies actually exist. Even more importantly, certain older people don’t believe you could create a viable business that would “help people during the zombie apocalypse.”
Luckily for us, our up-and-coming generation of business students not only understand the dangers posed by a zombie outbreak — they are planning ways to profit by it. Turns out, the zombie business lesson is not unique to Ms. Wimmer’s business class at Mountain Range High School. Business teacher Dr. Rudolph Spengler has been teaching a class called “Profit from the Zombie Invasion” at Millennium High School in Stinkwater Springs since 2008.
“Most people totally misunderstand the zombie invasion,” explains Dr. Spengler — who has a Doctor of Divinity degree from Liberty Online University.
“An awful lot of adults see these zombie movies and TV shows and think zombies are frightening. Luckily, the young people here at Millennium High have a much more sympathetic view of the situation.
“Zombies are dead, yes, that’s true… and yes, they occasionally eat human brains. But they have normal desires and foibles, just like the rest of us. They can be shy about asking someone out on a date, for example. They’re typically looking for variety in their diet, with an emphasis on organic produce. A steady diet of human brains gets old after a while, as you can imagine.
“But one thing my students understand — and it’s something most mature Americans haven’t a clue about — is that the zombie invasion is going to be a great benefit to the national economy. Our country has become so dependent upon immigrant workers, but now with the border wall under construction, we’re ultimately going to need to invite the zombies to join our workforce.”
One group of business students at Millennium High has been developing innovative plans for a federally funded zombie training program.
“They probably can’t be trained to fill high-tech positions — they have trouble learning a computer keyboard — but they seem to be adaptable to certain necessary jobs. Dog walking, for example… Uber drivers… Brain surgeons, if properly supervised… And of course, politicians.”
Dr. Spengler noted one key advantage to hiring zombies:
Employers will never need to pay health care premiums.
“They’re already dead!” he smiled.
“I was personally delighted, this year, when the Colorado Department of Education finally recognized the importance of zombies in our high school education curriculum, especially in business and finance classes. I suspect my students and fellow teachers at Millennium High would love to nominate an outstanding teacher, when CDE picks the Teacher of the Year for 2021.
“I mean… me.”