Say what? Symbolism Quandary

I have an interesting tidbit from my classroom today.

This was my bell ringer slide for the day:

This is what I expected for an answer:

In EACH class at least 7 kids had one of these two answers:

"Their mother lied about who their daddy was."

"They had different fathers."

This befuddles me for a couple of reasons:

1. WHY would they think I would ask a question about paternity? What kind of classroom do they think I am running here?

2. When I was explaining the bell ringer I told them to consider SYMBOLISM (which I know they cover in 7th grade).

What does this say about my students mindset?

Also, there is no way that I can reset my mind to think like them to that extent.

How do I begin reprogramming them to think like scholars if that is the first thing their brains go to.

Maybe I need to create a poster that says, "This is English class, not Jerry Springer."

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