Brian Kwan, a high school teacher, pitched something called “the Katy Perry challenge” to all of his students, instructing them to bring Katy Perry to their school, and using good grades as the incentive.
The teacher is being brought into question by the internet, and I’m sure you can see why there may be cause for concern. But nonetheless, the teacher maintains that the project is just “for fun.”
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Call me crazy, but…
Not to jump to conclusions or anything, but something about this situation definitely seems off to me.
A grown adult man is bribing his students with an A+ if they can manage to bring Katy Perry to their school. I just fail to see what’s academic about that, or how it benefits their learning experience.
This is the challenge:
“Any student that can bring Katy Perry to this school and have her talk to me, you get an automatic A+ for my class; a video of her talking and saying my name (shout-out) get you an automatic B+,” BuzzFeed reported.
Brian has been teaching at Anaheim Discovery Christian School in California for five years.
He says when he first came up with the idea for the challenge, it was a joke made simply as a way to relate to his younger students.
“I thought, ‘What kind of an assignment that can get them to laugh but at the same time have a shot at it — be it a long shot?'” he said.
Quite the long shot, I’d say.
“I am a fan of her music and totally enjoyed her ‘Teenage Dream’ album” he said.
“It was then that I was inspired to create this assignment and have the students at least know I have heard of her.” He went on.
Let’s give this guy the benefit of the doubt.
I know how it sounds .
But no one’s perfect. I doubt Mr. Kwan ever thought it would ever escalate this much, and if he did, he might have chosen a different “fun” assignment for the kids instead.
In the past, no students had ever made any real attempts at trying to get Katy Perry’s attention.
But this year, one student decided to go for it.
17-year-old, Jonathan Delos Angeles, took to twitter asking them to do their thing.
And oh, did Twitter ever do its thing, because before Jonathan knew it, his tweet went viral.
“If we get katy perry to our class we will get an A+ if it’s a shout-out then we get a B!! twitter please do your thing,” he tweeted.
He also made an attempt to tweet directly at Katy, asking her to take a video of herself saying “Hi Mr. Kwan.”
Jonathan didn’t think he had much of a shot, but figured he’d try it out anyway. With the power of social media, anything is possible nowadays.
“I did not expect it to happen anytime soon, so I gave it a shot on Twitter,” he said, adding that he didn’t see anything wrong with the assignment “because [Kwan] still teaches the necessary requirements to pass his class.”
He said that he thought the assignment was a “fun” way to boost his grade.
And while that may be true, not everyone on Twitter could agree.
At first, people seemed amused that a teacher was such a big Katy Perry fan.
Some people were even jealous of the attention that Jonathan’s tweet was getting.
But then people started to get confused at what the teacher’s true intentions were.
Some found it odd and creepy that he was using his students as a way to get to Katy.
Some thought Kwan was a crazed fan, desperate to meet Katy.
That might be a bit harshly put, but maybe not entirely untrue.
He’s obviously a Katy stan. But he shouldn’t be judged for wanting to meet his celebrity crush, cause we all want the same thing.
This person brings up a very solid point.
It’s pretty crazy to me that this kid would rather waste his time trying to get Katy Perry to come into his school, or video tape herself saying hello to Mr. Kwan, rather than just working hard and earning good grades.
In response to all the hate Kwan was receiving, he responded saying that the assignment is “completely fun.”
“Students were not required to do any part of this. They can earn their grade based on their own merit of hard work and exams,” he said. “If something comes out of this, cool! If not, hey a person can dream, right? Like I tell my students, dream big [and] shoot for the stars.”
The internet can be a harsh place, and very rarely sees the good in people.
It’s very possible that this assignment was all in good fun, and never something he actually expected to happen.
He’s allowed to be a Katy Perry fan, there’s nothing wrong with that.
But obviously when he’s in a position of authority to children, it’s definitely natural to feel like he has some kind of hidden agenda.
“Teachers do so much just to teach and make things memorable for students, why not have some fun? I don’t see any harm or foul in this optional assignment.” Kwan said.
On top of the assignment just being “for fun,” Kwan also believes that it can be a solid learning experience about social media.
This I can agree with.
Teaching students the power of social media should definitely be something that schools pepper into their curriculum.
“I believe this assignment can show them how powerful social media is” he said.
Adding “I want them to see and learn that all it takes is something small that can become huge,” he said.
So maybe we’re all overreacting.
It’s very possible that his intentions were totally harmless.
He probably was just looking for a fun modern way to relate to his students, and he also happens to be a Katy Perry fan, so that’s the route he took.
Some people joked on Twitter that ironically, Kwan taught his students the real mechanisms of governance.
I highly doubt that this was Kwan’s plan all along. But the fact that he unintentionally demonstrated how governance works to his students is pretty incredible.
And kinda horrible at the same time?
Whether Kwan was plotting this from day one, or he’s just a normal guy trying to branch out to his students in a way they’ll understand, I think the internet might have been a little too hard on him.
I think he’s learned his lesson!
Besides, there’s no way in hell that Katy Perry has any idea this is even going on.
Surely she has better things that she’s doing with her time. At least I hope so!
