Teacher Is The First Person To Ever Tell High School Sophomore That ‘Santa Isn’t Real’
At 15 years old, the teacher assumed that all of her students knew the truth about Santa.
Ground Picture / Shutterstock A high school teacher feels guilty because she fears she may have stripped one of her students’ of Christmas magic. In a class discussion, the teacher drew a connection from the book they were reading to children who still believe in the mythical Santa Claus.
Surprisingly, one of her students was stunned by this revelation.
The teacher accidentally revealed to her 10th-grade student that Santa Claus wasn’t real.
Sharing her story to the AITA subreddit, the high school English teacher asked others if she was wrong for assuming that all of her sophomore students knew by now that Santa Claus wasn’t real.
While discussing the book “Animal Farm” with her class, the teacher revealed that the animals in the book are “very unintelligent and gullible, easily falling for propaganda.”
“One of the horses couldn't even learn the alphabet past the letter D,” she explained.
When one of her students asked why the animals in the books so easily fell for propaganda, the teacher explained that they hadn’t developed critical thinking skills yet. She used children’s belief in Santa Claus as an analogy.
“For example, you probably believed in Santa when you were younger, but as you got older, you developed critical thinking skills and realized that it would be impossible for Santa to deliver a billion gifts in one night,” the teacher told her students.
Photo: Yuganov Konstantin / Shutterstock
However, one of her students still seemed to not yet have developed the critical thinking skills regarding Santa.
“She then replied with, ‘Wait what, Santa isn't real?’” the teacher wrote. “She looked around her table group and asked the other students ‘You believe in Santa, right?’”
Some of her classmates giggled and appeared dumbfounded by her question. However, when none of them confirmed that Santa was real, the teacher said that the student was upset for the remainder of the class.
Now, she is wondering if she may have accidentally ruined the girl’s childhood after naturally assuming that at 15 years old, she would know that Santa is just a myth.
Many Redditors believed that the student may have known that Santa wasn’t real already, and was simply messing with her teacher.
“She was screwing with you, playing dumb for laughs and attention,” one user commented. “You didn't ruin anything, and her joke was typical sophomore humor. There was no fault here.”
“I feel like you could stand to hone your critical thinking skills a bit more yourself because you're being pranked,” another user wrote.
However, others shared their own stories of spoiling the truth about Santa for kids who they assumed were far past the age of still believing.
“I accidentally did this to a 13-year-old friend when a Santa-themed radio ad came on. I said something like, ‘Isn't it really cool how all the adults pretend when stuff like this comes on?’ and I have been haunted by the look on his face in the rearview mirror since,” a third user shared.
"I was in grade 9 when a teacher did the same thing to me more-or-less word for word," one commenter shared. "My parents were neglectful and emotionally abusive. I clung to the magic of Santa thinking I was a good child. That teacher broke my heart into a million pieces with the truth."
Photo: Ground Picture / Shutterstock
There are several possible reasons that a teenager may continue to believe in Santa Claus.
For some people, the magic of believing in Santa is associated with fond childhood memories. Even as teenagers, they may hold onto that sense of wonder and nostalgia, reluctant to let go of a cherished part of their past.
In some cultures, belief in Santa Claus is deeply ingrained and may be perpetuated through various cultural practices and media representations. Teenagers exposed to these influences may continue to believe in Santa Claus as part of their cultural identity.
According to a poll conducted by MadeForMums, the average age most parents reveal the truth about Santa is around 8 years old. By the age of 9, 62% of children no longer believe and by 10, when they're in the last year of primary school, more than 4 in 5 children know the truth.
While there is no fine print that states when children should stop believing in Santa Claus, you may want to spare them some embarrassment when they reach high school and tell them the truth since the majority of their peers already know.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.