Chatwin’s got something amazing
by Dominic Leading Fox
How easy is it to tell what’s real and what’s fake? What is science and what is pseudoscience? These are the questions that Mrs. Chatwin wants her students to think about with her new, fascinating and frankly off-putting classroom decoration.
A few weeks ago, Chatwin came into possession of a cardboard box: it was double-taped, fastened tightly with big nylon ties and (as it turns out), encased another box inside. Naturally, the OHS Journalism class was filled with curiosity and apprehension when Chatwin chose them to be witnesses for the grand opening.
The buzz in the room only strengthened when Chatwin affirmed that whatever was in the box was “entirely real.”
Slowly, the class peeled back the last flap of the box to reveal the object inside. Under the final cover, they felt an unmistakable material: scales.
What was revealed was horrifying: beady eyes, uneven fish teeth, giant fins, scales all over! What kind of creature did Mrs. Chatwin acquire? Amidst the chaos in the room, Chatwin entered with a laugh. Informing everyone that it was, in fact, not real, she calmed down the audience.
“It is an art piece by Juan Cabana. I happened to get it on a Facebook oddities website, and I was very intrigued by how it looked,” Chatwin explained. “It is a very well-done art piece in that it looks very realistic, it could definitely be alive. I knew that I could take that and use it in the classroom because kids would come in and go, ‘is that real?’ And I could say, ‘yes it is!’”
Photo of art piece, taken by Olivia Voth
Chatwin bought the piece in order to light a spark in her students’ minds about using critical thinking to understand the world around them. It is out-of-the-box (get it?) methods like this that make her one of the most unique and fun teachers at Owasso High School.
“I want the kids to think as they look at this creature, ‘where did it come from?’ ‘How did it get there?’ ‘Why would Mrs. Chatwin have it on her wall?’” she expressed. “We have creatures out there that we talk about all the time. The Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, all kinds of things that we have footprints and blurry photos from, and so a big part of growing up and learning about the world around you is actually using some scientific evidence.”
By using the eerily realistic “mermaid” head, Chatwin gets her students' attention without them even realizing it. They see all kinds of real animals hanging on her classroom walls, but when they come across an alien creature from the deep sea, they have no choice but to stop and wonder, “what is that thing?”
“When somebody is that good of an artist [they can] make something that, if you were to hold it and look at it, you don't really see seams, and you don't see stitches, and you don't see anything,” Chatwin excitedly explained. “So is it really a mermaid, or is it not? Gotta come see!”
Chatwin’s unique object has already brought many students to question its legitimacy. This is only the beginning of the mermaid’s reign of terror, as it will go on to frighten and confuse students for years to come. Future generations must learn: to combat the fish, you must utilize the power of scientific reason.
Photo of Chatwin and the mermaid, taken by OHS Journalism