Life and death

Last week one of my pupils went home from school thinking that the end of the world was near. In my geography lection he heard about the supervolcano at Yellowstone National Park. In the scientific broadcast the speaker mentioned that statistically a big eruption of the volcano was imminent. The consequences would be an ecological disaster who would wipe out most life and civilisation in the world. He was honestly worried, and his mother got concerned about him. She called the school asking, if we could do something to calm him down.
A few days after I met the boy. I was taking up the case with him. Though it wasn´t necesarry, because he had already done some personal research into the matter. He found out, that there wasn´t any reason to be worried instantly due to the statistically chance of an eroption.
This boy is just an average pupil. He get interested in schoolwork when it realy matters to him. Well, as so many other pupils do. Because lets be honest, most pupils do the schoolwork because the teachers and parents tells them. Or they do in the matter of achieving good marks. But this incident shows, that when it matters, when it is about life and death, pupils are even doing research by themself.
Isn´t it a shame that most school systems prevent us to take serious use of our pupils personal interest in the world around them?
Maybe it dosn´t have to be literally a matter of life and death, but what if it could be in a figurative sense. Using that kind of interest would sure cause more learning.