This is a lot to take in. Big ideas. Strange questions.

You don’t have to have all the answers. None of us do. As teachers, we’re used to leading with certainty. But real learning doesn’t start with knowing. It starts with honesty, with saying, “I don’t know; let’s learn more together.”

The future has always been uncertain. But now it feels faster, more wide open. We’re not just preparing students for tests or college anymore. We’re preparing them to live in a world that’s both familiar and brand new.

With the information shared on the previous page, it is clear that the government, the Vatican, and academic institutions are taking this topic seriously. We can no longer afford the cognitive dissonance that allows us to ignore what is happening. Our responsibility is to prepare children for the world they are inheriting. Avoiding this topic does them a great disservice.

And here’s the truth: kids are not the ones panicking about “aliens.” Adults are the ones who change the topic to sports or politics. Kids are curious. They engage. They lean in. They love a mystery. They are fascinated by mythology. Young kids believe in dragons and gods, in beings from the sky and creatures beneath the sea. When we ask questions about UAPs or what it means to be human, they do not shut down. They perk up.

If you tell a classroom of kids that it is on congressional record that many UFOs are reported coming out of the ocean, you will have their full attention. This topic opens doors to wonder, critical thinking, and meaningful exploration. There are countless entry points for further investigation.

See the Domains of Inquiry for questions to bring to your classroom today.

This kind of mystery brings true engagement. It’s a living puzzle. A story that hasn’t been solved yet. And it asks them to think deeply, feel deeply, imagine wildly. That’s what school should be.

As a teacher, aren’t you curious too?

As a scientist? As a historian? As someone who thinks about belief, meaning, the shape of things? This is not a gimmick. This is the biggest story we’ve ever been invited into. If we say we care about preparing kids for the future, then we need to face the future with open eyes and open minds.

All the things we say kids will need, teachers will need too. Critical thinking. Media literacy. The ability to ask, to listen, to unlearn. To tell fact from spin. To change your mind when new information comes in. To hold questions without rushing to answers.

They’ll also need emotional intelligence. The ability to understand what they’re feeling. To stay centered. To connect for real with other people. To stay human in a world that’s constantly shifting.

And they’ll need wonder. And so will we.

Wonder is what pulls us in. It makes learning real. It brings the spark. The sacred. A mystery opens the door to awe, and awe makes us brave. It keeps us asking. It keeps us growing, reaching, stretching.

But we also need to stay grounded in research. There are treasure troves of primary source materials waiting to be explored. There are scientific paradoxes that deserve serious attention. If we accept that this is happening and it doesn’t fit within our current model of reality, then our model of reality needs to evolve. We can’t just discard things that don’t fit into our paradigm of what is possible.

As AI advances, what makes us human matters more than ever. Machines can write essays. Mimic speech. Spit out data. But they can’t feel. They don’t wonder. They don’t love. They don’t make meaning from mystery. They can’t hold paradox. They don’t sit with grief or wrestle with joy. They don’t pray or dance or get goosebumps from a story. We do.

Some things about being human are beyond any machine’s reach. That’s our power.

And it’s why questions like these, about UAPs, consciousness, reality, might feel so strange. They stretch us. They challenge what we’ve been told. They ask us to rethink science, rethink history, and rethink ourselves.

What if we’re not alone?

What if some of the stories we’ve always heard only tell part of the truth?

What if asking the right questions is more important than having the right answers?

We don’t need to know the answers. We just need to stay curious.