Remember, if you can, back to the NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans earlier this year. The biggest story before Demarcus Cousins was traded to the Pelicans was that Kyrie Irving actually thought the Earth is flat. Everyone was asked about the shape of the Earth. Even LeBron James got in on the act.
Lost in all the trade demands from Kyrie Irving these days is that Irving really does think this. But on Friday morning, as trade rumors continue to swirl, Irving’s belief that Earth is flat was mentioned in an NPR story about the growing battle between teachers and misinformation. Those trying to teach, well, real science to the youths of America have to deal with an Internet full of conspiracy theories and flat-out lies as well as point guards saying nonsense on podcasts.
The story mentions a teacher in the University of Pennsylvania grad program whose students really do think the Earth is flat.
She tells her students — like Nick Gurol, whose middle-schoolers believe the Earth is flat — that, as hard as they try, science teachers aren’t likely to change a student’s misconceptions just by correcting them.
Gurol says his students got the idea of a flat planet from basketball star Kyrie Irving, who said as much on a podcast.
“And immediately I start to panic. How have I failed these kids so badly they think the Earth is flat just because a basketball player says it?” He says he tried reasoning with the students and showed them a video. Nothing worked.
I suppose this was inevitable. In the 90s you wanted to “be like Mike.” These days, you want to be whatever crazy garbage you see on YouTube. The amazing thing is that nothing has worked to convince these kids the world is, indeed, round.
“They think that I’m part of this larger conspiracy of being a round-Earther. That’s definitely hard for me because it feels like science isn’t real to them.”
There’s officially a not-insignificant portion of the middle school population that thinks the earth is flat thanks to Kyrie Irving. That seems like a worse
