Hello Bob,
I hope that as a (science?) teacher you teach your students to be skeptical, and then give them some of the tools needed to be able to evaluate what they hear, or what they are being taught. I have some stories on this, and on specialist medical doctors vs chiropractors (Chiropractor wins my example), or specialist MD vs alternate medicine MD, or in my own field, the structural model being used at the highest levels in southern California vs the one that passes its own predictions.
So, have you ever looked at the evidence yourself for a correlation between sunspot activity, quakes, arson fires? Have you done it statistically? A couple of periodic functions are liable to look to the casual observer like they correlate, when they don't. Outdoor arson fires are going to be correlated with the weather (dry, wind). Building arson fires may be correlated with the day of week or time of day....
Chris