What a ball of yarn taught my students about how rumours travel

Some lessons work better standing up. On one of our training days, the facilitator handed a ball of yellow yarn to the first person in the circle and asked them to share a "piece of news", then pass the yarn to someone else while holding on to the thread.

Within a few minutes we were all connected by a web of string. Then she asked the last person to repeat the original news. It had changed completely: a name was different, a number had doubled, and a detail nobody said at the start had appeared from nowhere.

What the group noticed

• Every person added a little, usually without meaning to.
• Nobody could tell where the change happened, because everyone trusted the person before them.
• Pulling one thread moved the whole web: one person's message affects everyone connected to them.
• Untangling the web took much longer than building it, just like correcting a rumour.

I teach English at a school in Saida, and I have since repeated the activity with my Grade 10 students. They laughed through it, then went quiet when we compared it to the voice notes that circulate in their class groups.

A rumour doesn't need liars to spread. It only needs people who trust each other and don't check.

If you are a teacher, try it. All you need is a ball of yarn and ten minutes.