Now the COVID-19 outbreak has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, many countries are considering closing their schools and kindergartens. In fact, some states already have. This measure is necessary to stop the infection from spreading.
Whether they’re going to school or not, kids never stop surprising us. They have the most brilliant ideas, especially when faced with doing something they might not be inclined to do.
Schools in Wuhan Are Down. Or Are They?
In Wuhan, the Chinese city where it all started, lots of children are now spending their days in quarantine. Although the circumstances give us nothing to be cheerful about, most were more than happy to hear that they won’t have to go to school until further notice.
However, this measure provided us with an amusing story, bringing a little bit of laughter back to our lives, and reminding us just how resourceful children can be.
Now schools are temporarily closed in Wuhan, kids have some time off to enjoy life without homework. However, as it’s unknown just how long this epidemic will last, the authorities decided that the kids would miss out on far too much valuable schooling. So they came up with the idea for an app to allow kids to continue with their schoolwork remotely. The app is called DingTalk and was supposed to help each child keep up with their studies.
Obviously, Chinese students weren’t amused by this app, and they’ve found a way to get around it.
How Kids Beat the System
There are situations when you don’t know if you should get mad or be impressed. What these kids did definitely has the wow factor, if it probably didn’t turn out to be particularly beneficial for them in the long run.
According to the London Review of Books, a publication closely following the situation in Wuhan, the “brats” discovered a way to take the app down and get rid of their homework. The article says that “somehow the little brats worked out that if enough users gave the app a one-star review, it would get booted off the App Store. Tens of thousands of reviews flooded in, and DingTalk’s rating plummeted overnight from 4.9 to 1.4. The app has had to beg for mercy on social media: ‘I’m only five years old myself, please don’t kill me’.”
The Internet Loves It
We all know this wasn’t a very responsible thing to do, but you simply can’t be anything but impressed by their ingenuity. Internet users all over the world believe this is hilarious and are congratulating the kids on their ingenuity.
Maybe we shouldn’t exactly let them get away with this, but we should definitely thank them for making us laugh at such difficult times. At least they haven’t let the coronavirus take away their creativity or sense of humor… Maybe just their homework.