Speaker 1: Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Guess what, Mango? What's that?
Speaker 1: Will?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 3: I know I brought these glue bottles into the studio
Speaker 3: here and that we have put what do you think
Speaker 3: Maybe we're on our fifth round of spreading it on
Speaker 3: our hands and peeling it off.
Speaker 1: Just because it's so much fun.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, it's so fun. But there's actually a
Speaker 3: reason that I do this. I do this in classrooms
Speaker 3: now because I'm here to prove a point. I actually
Speaker 3: need you to know that the glue that kids use
Speaker 3: in schools, it's not really.
Speaker 1: Glue at all. What do you mean by that?
Speaker 3: It's a misnomer. And when I say misnomer to the kids,
Speaker 3: they looked at me puzzled. But they need to know
Speaker 3: what the word misnomer means as well. But true glue
Speaker 3: is derived from natural materials like animal byproducts, plant resins,
Speaker 3: and since school glue like Elmer's, is actually made from
Speaker 3: synthetic materials, that technically makes it an adhesive. This is
Speaker 3: a very very important point.
Speaker 1: Man. I loved the idea of you just like stomping
Speaker 1: around the second grade classrooms yelling stop putting that adheseve
Speaker 1: in your mouth.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, you know how much I
Speaker 3: travel these days, and so I try to make it
Speaker 3: a point by stopping by at least two or three
Speaker 3: classrooms to make this point. But sure, I mean nearly
Speaker 3: every example prior to twentieth century was all natural, like
Speaker 3: tree sap, beeswax, egg whites.
Speaker 2: Animal blood.
Speaker 3: Then in fact, the very first commercial glue company in
Speaker 3: the UK made their glue from fish by products from
Speaker 3: sturgeons to be specific.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine what this felt like?
Speaker 1: So I actually remember Salvador Dali made this homemade cologne
Speaker 1: for his wife and it was out of like glue
Speaker 1: and fish parts. But you know, if you'd use that
Speaker 1: UK glue instead, like he could have saved himself. It's
Speaker 1: kind of like a glue life hack.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it totally is, and would have felt so good
Speaker 3: to like peel it off your neck.
Speaker 2: And I think I'm gonna go another round here.
Speaker 3: But it wasn't just in the UK, like fish glue
Speaker 3: was the norm in the US too, and at least
Speaker 3: until Elmer's Glue all hit the market in the late
Speaker 3: nineteen forties. Now, at that time, the Elmer's brand also
Speaker 3: used natural ingredients in the glue, but the kind of
Speaker 3: use were far less smelly than the sturgeon so Elmer's
Speaker 3: glue all was originally produced by the Borden Company, which
Speaker 3: you know is in the dairy business, and one of
Speaker 3: the main ingredients in the early form of the glue
Speaker 3: was casein, which you probably know is this protein found
Speaker 3: in dairy milk and something the Bordon Company obviously had
Speaker 3: a lot of.
Speaker 1: That's pretty interesting. So are there any advantages to using
Speaker 1: casin over something like fish parts?
Speaker 3: Well, definitely the improved smell, not surprisingly, but case and
Speaker 3: glue also spread more easily at dried clear much easier
Speaker 3: to wash out. So if you think about, you know,
Speaker 3: kids using it, that was really important. But despite all
Speaker 3: of these improvements, for some reason, they're packaging left much
Speaker 3: to be desired. Like the glue was originally sold in
Speaker 3: this glass bottle, which you know was getting broken all
Speaker 3: the time with kids handling, and it came with this
Speaker 3: separate wooden applic that was attached to the side of
Speaker 3: the bottle with just a rubber band, and so it
Speaker 3: was frequently going missing.
Speaker 2: And so when school.
Speaker 3: Kids across the country started investing in this stuff, that's
Speaker 3: when Borden decided to wise up and they now adopted
Speaker 3: this This what we think of is this very classic
Speaker 3: white plastic bottle and has the orange dispenser tip on
Speaker 3: the top.
Speaker 1: So you know me and you know I love glue knowledge.
Speaker 1: But what is it that means you want to talk
Speaker 1: about glue today?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you really are some kind of an expert on this.
Speaker 3: But I wanted to talk about school back in September.
Speaker 3: But as everybody knows, we've all been a bit busy
Speaker 3: around here. But since our kids are firmly back in school,
Speaker 3: no vacation in sight, I thought it'd be fun to
Speaker 3: explore some of the weird origin stories behind school supplies
Speaker 3: and a few other things you might find in the classroom.
Speaker 3: So it's time to bust out your protractor. Lock in
Speaker 3: that retainer because class is back in session. Right Hey,
Speaker 3: the podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will
Speaker 3: Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend
Speaker 3: mangesh Hot ticketter on the other side of that soundproof glass,
Speaker 3: jotting down some notes in his Lisa Frank notebook.
Speaker 2: I'm so jealous of this.
Speaker 3: Our friend and producer Loel Burlante check it out mega,
Speaker 3: Like it's just this smiling panda writing on top of
Speaker 3: a smiling dolphin, and they're both eating these rainbow colored
Speaker 3: ice cream cones, which also seems to somehow be smiling.
Speaker 1: The moll finds the best stuff. It's incredible, and now
Speaker 1: I'm smiling.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: I am glad that you kicked this off talking about glue,
Speaker 1: because it makes it less weird that now I want
Speaker 1: to talk about backpacks. So these days, the first backpack
Speaker 1: that most people own is a school backpack, but that
Speaker 1: hasn't always been the case. So prior to the mid
Speaker 1: twentieth century, most American students either carried their books to
Speaker 1: class by hand, or else they wrapped a leather belt
Speaker 1: or cloth strap around the books and then kind of
Speaker 1: slung that over their shoulder. And a few students did
Speaker 1: use small briefcase style satchels to carry their stuff to class,
Speaker 1: but for the most part, students really went backless and
Speaker 1: stuck with these trusty book straps instead.
Speaker 3: It's so weird to think about a world without backpacks, like,
Speaker 3: especially since you're saying it wasn't all that long ago.
Speaker 3: I mean, no one really thought about wearing a bag
Speaker 3: on your back before the twentieth century.
Speaker 2: I don't really understand that.
Speaker 1: So, I mean, rocksacks were I guess a thing before that,
Speaker 1: and there were basically the drawstring bags that you slung
Speaker 1: over your shoulder, but these zippered bags with dual straps
Speaker 1: like that didn't come along until nineteen thirty eight. And
Speaker 1: that was the year when a mountaineer named Jerry Cunningham
Speaker 1: invented the first ever zippered backpack out of canvas cloth
Speaker 1: and mostly you did this because he didn't like the
Speaker 1: way traditional rocksacks slid around on his back when he
Speaker 1: was climbing. So Jerry's design was a big hit with
Speaker 1: hikers and campers and people like that, real outdoorsman. But
Speaker 1: actually it would take another thirty years before his invention
Speaker 1: would finally make its way off the trail and into
Speaker 1: the classroom.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's hard to believe it would take this
Speaker 3: long to realize that there was a market for these
Speaker 3: beyond just mountaineers. So was it Jerry's idea to bring
Speaker 3: it into the classroom as well?
Speaker 1: No, not exactly. I mean, he did keep playing with
Speaker 1: his backpack. He made the first nylon backpack in nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty seven, and his designs were mostly for outdoor living.
Speaker 1: But it's actually that company, JanSport. Did you have a
Speaker 1: Janzport growing up?
Speaker 3: Oh totally, yeah, that's multiple danceports despite the like lifetime guarantee.
Speaker 3: I think I probably had three different jans Pots.
Speaker 1: I know we had between JanSport and LB, and I
Speaker 1: had so many backpacks and they all had like life
Speaker 1: lifetime guarantees, and I went through all of them. So
Speaker 1: he designed this teardrop design and JanSport tweaked it a
Speaker 1: little and they used it to win over students. But
Speaker 1: that even makes it sound like a little more intentional
Speaker 1: than it was. So the University of Washington had this
Speaker 1: small sports shop inside their campus bookstore because so many
Speaker 1: kids in their we're into climbing and hiking and whatever,
Speaker 1: and so in nineteen sixty nine the shop began stalking
Speaker 1: jan Sports new lightweight nylon backpack mainly is used as
Speaker 1: like a day pack for these hikes, and when students
Speaker 1: realized the bags were perfect for keeping books and supplies,
Speaker 1: and it really took off.
Speaker 3: It's funny because a pretty similar thing happened with lunch boxes,
Speaker 3: which was another surprisingly recent addition to the school supply.
Speaker 1: Cannon, which is I guess people didn't want their sandwiches
Speaker 1: wet for lunch.
Speaker 2: No, I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you want your sandwiches wet, that's
Speaker 3: so nasty. Kids were mostly just improvising, you know, through
Speaker 3: the mid twentieth century or so, they'd use an old
Speaker 3: cookie tin or a tobacco tin they had lying around somewhere,
Speaker 3: And so it wasn't until the late nineteenth century that
Speaker 3: dedicated lunch pails finally arrived on the scene.
Speaker 1: I always think that word lunch pails is so funny,
Speaker 1: like the idea of carrying around a bucket full of food.
Speaker 2: I mean, they kind of were.
Speaker 3: I mean, the original lunch pails for these small metal buckets,
Speaker 3: except they did come with lids, and later versions took
Speaker 3: on more of a like a toolbox or bread basket shape,
Speaker 3: and they featured these clasps so you could keep the
Speaker 3: lid shut when you carry them around, which is the
Speaker 3: kind of lunchbox men took to work in the early
Speaker 3: twentieth century. You can kind of visualize those images we've seen,
Speaker 3: and pretty soon their children followed suit at school.
Speaker 1: So when did these bright colors and the cartoon characters, Like,
Speaker 1: when did all that stuff get onto the lunchboxes.
Speaker 3: That actually happened pretty early, Like the first one, aim
Speaker 3: specifically at kids, came in nineteen thirty five when the
Speaker 3: Aladdin Company put a picture of Mickey Mouse on the front,
Speaker 3: but with the depression, it didn't quite take off at
Speaker 3: that time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm guessing funds for that sort of thing were
Speaker 1: a little limited, and you know, foods at a premium,
Speaker 1: not you know, not the things you're carrying it around in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, that's true.
Speaker 3: But you know, the Aladdin Company kept their idea for
Speaker 3: this novelty lunch box in their back pocket, and when
Speaker 3: TV started to take off, this was in the early
Speaker 3: nineteen fifties, the company got another turn at this, and
Speaker 3: so they released the metal lunch Box and Thermis that
Speaker 3: featured a cruelly drawn picture of hop Along Cassidy. Well
Speaker 3: that might sound pretty dull today, the hop lunch Box
Speaker 3: was actually a massive hit. They sold six hundred thousand
Speaker 3: of these things in a single year, and that success
Speaker 3: was enough for another screen cowboy to take notice. This was,
Speaker 3: of course, Roy Rogers, so he approached the Latin about
Speaker 3: making a lunch box of his own, but the company
Speaker 3: actually turned him away because they didn't think a second.
Speaker 2: Cowboy lunchbox would sell.
Speaker 1: It's just too much cowboy. You don't want two Cowboys.
Speaker 1: I'm guessing they were wrong about that, though, right.
Speaker 3: They were very wrong about this, because remember westerns were
Speaker 3: a big deal in fifties entertainment, on the same scale
Speaker 3: as like the superhero movies today, and there was absolutely
Speaker 3: room on the shelf for two Cowboy lunchboxes.
Speaker 2: And Roy Rogers knew this.
Speaker 3: So to that end, Rogers partnered with a different company,
Speaker 3: it was American Thermos, and then together they released a
Speaker 3: lunchbox that was so popular and wound up selling two
Speaker 3: and a half million units in nineteen fifty three.
Speaker 2: Whoa.
Speaker 3: Not only did Roy Rogers you know, this lunch box
Speaker 3: sell through the roof, it also set a new benchmark
Speaker 3: for lunchbox design. It had this full color illustration that
Speaker 3: covered the entire box, and Thermos and so from their
Speaker 3: lunchboxes really took off. Companies started churning out countless designs
Speaker 3: with TV movie, comic book characters. The biggest hit was
Speaker 3: this Disney lunch box painted to resemble a school bus
Speaker 3: that was carrying Mickey and the other Disney characters along
Speaker 3: Like Pinocchio and Dumbo, and so over nine million of
Speaker 3: those school lunchboxes were sold, making it the most popular
Speaker 3: lunch box ever made.
Speaker 1: That's pretty incredible. So where lunchbox is still mostly metal
Speaker 1: at that point or had they already switched over to plastic.
Speaker 3: No, these were all still metal, and when all was
Speaker 3: said and done, roughly one hundred and twenty million metal
Speaker 3: lunch boxes were sold between nineteen fifty and nineteen seventy.
Speaker 3: The party kind of ended in nineteen seventy two, though,
Speaker 3: when the state of Florida banned metal lunch box is
Speaker 3: from schools. They were you worried that kids were using
Speaker 3: these heavy boxes as weapons, which led to the plastic
Speaker 3: boxes that we've seen in more recent years and the
Speaker 3: eventual declining sales of lunch boxes in general.
Speaker 1: So we've covered two of the most quintessential school supplies
Speaker 1: I feel, like backpacks and lunchboxes. But here's another thing
Speaker 1: I hadn't thought about in a while, and that's the
Speaker 1: humble plastic recorder, which is still used in music classes today.
Speaker 3: You know, I have always wondered, like, how has decided
Speaker 3: that every kid in America should learn how to play
Speaker 3: the recorder? Like I've always just assumed someone on the
Speaker 3: school board was in cahoots with the manufacturer, and that's
Speaker 3: how it somehow took off.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I was actually curious about that too, And
Speaker 1: it turns out that it's largely thanks to the influence
Speaker 1: of this famous German composer whose music theory became the
Speaker 1: basis for a lot of the school music programs we
Speaker 1: see today. His name was Carl Orff, and while his
Speaker 1: name might not ring a bell, you've definitely heard his
Speaker 1: most famous work, and at least one movie trailer. It's
Speaker 1: called Carmina Burana and it sounds like this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that definitely rings a bell. I mean, it's kind
Speaker 3: of the go to hook for every epic movie since
Speaker 3: the nineteen nineties exactly.
Speaker 1: But anyway, so Orf's approach to teaching music stress the
Speaker 1: importance of rhythm and creative thinking rather than just memorizing
Speaker 1: musical notations. And he thought the best way for a
Speaker 1: kid to learn music was by teaching him to play
Speaker 1: a simple, accessible instrument that kind of mimic their own
Speaker 1: vocal range. And the soprano recorder perfectly fit that bill,
Speaker 1: because you know, at its core, the recorder is practically
Speaker 1: just a whistle, and unlike more complicated instruments, there are
Speaker 1: no strings to strum. You don't have to purse your
Speaker 1: lips in any strange way. You just kind of blow
Speaker 1: and out comes this screechy, high pitched tone. At least
Speaker 1: that's what I hear from my kids. But if you
Speaker 1: cover this hole or that hole with your fingers, you
Speaker 1: can actually change the notes you play. But the recorder's
Speaker 1: classroom dominance wasn't cemented until the nineteen sixties, and that's
Speaker 1: when advances in manufacturing finally allowed the instruments to be
Speaker 1: mass produced in plastic. The plastic recorders were especially attractive
Speaker 1: to educators because they were cheap enough that you could
Speaker 1: buy them in bulk, but still durable enough that you
Speaker 1: know they'd last, and they had a pretty good sound.
Speaker 3: I do have to say, I mean, you're being pretty
Speaker 3: cavalier about potentially alienating all those professional recorder players that
Speaker 3: might be in our audience. I think you should be
Speaker 3: a little bit more careful.
Speaker 1: I think you're right, actually, And Gabe, who did this research,
Speaker 1: warned me that recorders used to be considered a pretty
Speaker 1: serious instrument. According to experts, the recorders heyday was probably
Speaker 1: during the Baroque era when composers like Bach and Vivaldi
Speaker 1: would actually crank out pieces that showcased recorders in all
Speaker 1: different sizes, and the recorder kind of got offstaged when
Speaker 1: the flute came into Europe and Asia and gradually stole
Speaker 1: the show. But adult musicians do still compose for and
Speaker 1: play the recorder today, according to Susan Burns, who's the
Speaker 1: administrative director of the American Recorder Society, quote, the recorder
Speaker 1: is a professional instrument in its own right. Everyone says, oh,
Speaker 1: it's so easy to play, but it takes a lifetime
Speaker 1: to master, you.
Speaker 3: Know, Tony, I don't know if you've ever seen this
Speaker 3: clip that went viral of you hear the song turned
Speaker 3: down for what being played, and then right after they
Speaker 3: say that, it pans to this group of elementary school
Speaker 3: students and they start playing the like chorus or whatever
Speaker 3: on their recorders.
Speaker 2: It was pretty great.
Speaker 1: I know, we've got so much more. So let's take
Speaker 1: a quick break.
Speaker 3: They're listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking about
Speaker 3: the strange stories behind school supplies. All right, Mango, So
Speaker 3: as you know, there's a question every parent has to
Speaker 3: ask sooner or later, and that is, how can I
Speaker 3: keep my kid from freaking out about their first day
Speaker 3: of school? Like, it's a scary amount of change for
Speaker 3: a child to deal with, and there's no universal answer
Speaker 3: for how to combat that fear. But the Germans and
Speaker 3: Austrians have what's probably the closest thing I think, and
Speaker 3: what is that Well, basically you distract them with a
Speaker 3: giant cone full of presents. I mean, it seems so
Speaker 3: obvious in hindsight, but this is a real thing in
Speaker 3: Germany and Austria. So each year since the early eighteen hundreds,
Speaker 3: the latest crop of first graders are gifted with what's
Speaker 3: called a shultata, which is to help celebrate their very
Speaker 3: first day of school. The name translates as school bag,
Speaker 3: but it's more like this giant cone shaped Christmas stocking.
Speaker 3: So parents will fashion it out of paper and it's
Speaker 3: sometimes as big as two or three feet tall, and
Speaker 3: then they fill it with like candy and toys and
Speaker 3: all these other treats to help make the first day
Speaker 3: of school more special.
Speaker 1: Actually, just look this up. It's crazy. These cones are
Speaker 1: like as big as the kids. It's insane.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there is.
Speaker 1: So all the first year students just lugged these giant
Speaker 1: cones around like all day.
Speaker 2: Well not anymore, no.
Speaker 3: I mean nowadays most kids get their shulta does at
Speaker 3: home and leave it there. But back in the early
Speaker 3: days of the tradition, kids actually had to rush to
Speaker 3: the school yard and pick their own from this tree
Speaker 3: that was said to grow them only when it was
Speaker 3: time for the school year to start.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. I can imagine kids just like waiting at
Speaker 1: the gates and then running in and getting these plucking
Speaker 1: these cones from truths. It is kind of funny that
Speaker 1: you brought up cones, because I actually have the goods
Speaker 1: on a different sort of cone that was supposed to
Speaker 1: I guess bring up the opposite reaction, and that's the
Speaker 1: dance cap. So during the Victorian era, this goofy cone
Speaker 1: shaped hat became a symbolic form of discipline in European
Speaker 1: and American schools alike, and if a student acted up
Speaker 1: in class or didn't know the answer to a question,
Speaker 1: they'd have to go sit in the corner. And I'm
Speaker 1: sure you've seen cartoons of like Dennis the Menace or
Speaker 1: whatever where he's wearing a dance cap sitting in the corner.
Speaker 1: But the hope was all this embarrassment would curtail future
Speaker 1: misbehaved Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's nothing like a little public shaming to
Speaker 3: keep the kids in line.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Well, it must have been pretty traumatizing for the kids.
Speaker 1: But the practice actually continued in the US and Europe
Speaker 1: well into the twentieth century, and Dunce caps were pretty
Speaker 1: common all the way up until the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 3: Oh, I do think of it as like a much
Speaker 3: older image. I didn't realize they lasted that long.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So here's the wildest part and something I hadn't heard
Speaker 1: before this week. But we think about the Dunce cap
Speaker 1: as something that signifies like a lack of intelligence, and
Speaker 1: it actually began as a symbol of a really accomplished scholar.
Speaker 1: Born sometime in the thirteenth century. His name was John
Speaker 1: Dunn Scotis, and he was a Franciscan priest and a linguist.
Speaker 1: He studied theology and philosophy at Oxford and taught classes
Speaker 1: at the University of Paris. And he even had a
Speaker 1: group of students and others that kind of followed his
Speaker 1: teachings and lived near him, and they called themselves Duntsmen.
Speaker 1: So Atlas Obscura has an article about it, and it says, quote,
Speaker 1: Scotis was a renaissance man centuries before the Renaissance even
Speaker 1: took place. But all of that said, it should be
Speaker 1: known that Scotus liked to wear a big, pointy wizard
Speaker 1: hat whenever he went out in public. So while he
Speaker 1: was this incredibly smart guy, his sense of fashion might
Speaker 1: be a little lacking or a little too forward, you know,
Speaker 1: depending on how you how you look at it. But
Speaker 1: the cool thing is, and no one is really sure
Speaker 1: whether Scotis was inspired by depictions of wizards that he'd seen,
Speaker 1: or whether it was his own cap that inspired the
Speaker 1: wizard's look that we think of now.
Speaker 3: I think in either case, it sounds like the takeaway
Speaker 3: here is that wise people wear very pointy hats. I
Speaker 3: think that's the only thing I could take from it always.
Speaker 1: But you know, Scotis even went a step further. He
Speaker 1: actually believed that the conical shape of his hat kind
Speaker 1: of functioned as this metaphysical reverse funnel, with knowledge collecting
Speaker 1: at the pointy end and then flowing down around his brain.
Speaker 1: And so, as silly as it sounds, the idea caught
Speaker 1: on with academics of the day, and the cone shaped
Speaker 1: cap became the symbol of both duntsman and of high
Speaker 1: intelligence in general.
Speaker 3: It's sort of bizarre, So like what happened? Like what
Speaker 3: changed the hats from a mark of pride to this
Speaker 3: symbol of shame.
Speaker 1: I guess, funnily enough, it's actually the Renaissance that changed it.
Speaker 1: So by the mid sixteenth century, popular theology and philosophy
Speaker 1: had moved away from Scotus and his teachings, and that
Speaker 1: lack of popular favor made the remaining Duntsman look silly
Speaker 1: and kind of outdated. Plus their pointy hats didn't help,
Speaker 1: so over time, the Duntsman and the dunce cap kind
Speaker 1: of became the symbol of foolishness and stupidity.
Speaker 2: It's such a strange legacy.
Speaker 1: On the bright side, though, historians have kind of vindicated
Speaker 1: Scotis over the years, and he's not held up as
Speaker 1: one of the finest thinkers of the Middle Ages, and
Speaker 1: Pope John Paul the Second even beatified him back in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three for his work as a religious scholar.
Speaker 1: So who knows, maybe we can turn things around for
Speaker 1: this famous cap too. Anyway, we've got more to come,
Speaker 1: but first a quick break. Welcome back to part time genius.
Speaker 1: So will you've probably heard by now that sitting is
Speaker 1: the new smoking when it comes to health concerns, and
Speaker 1: that's why so many offices these days are switching the
Speaker 1: standing desk for their workers. But you know, despite all
Speaker 1: the studies touting the health benefits of standing over sitting,
Speaker 1: it's unusual to find standing desk in elementary.
Speaker 3: Schools, which I mean, that's a good point because it
Speaker 3: is kind of weird when you think about it. I mean,
Speaker 3: you assume all the benefits of standing desk apply just
Speaker 3: as well as students as they would to adult office workers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you're exactly right. So there was this
Speaker 1: study that came out last year and it found that
Speaker 1: third graders who used a standing desk at school were
Speaker 1: more focused in the classroom and more active overall compared
Speaker 1: to kids of the same age who use traditional sit
Speaker 1: down desk. And another study came up with the same
Speaker 1: results for second through fourth graders, setting a twelve percent
Speaker 1: increase in engagement from students who had the option of
Speaker 1: standing in class.
Speaker 3: I mean, it does sound like things might change in
Speaker 3: the not two distant future, and maybe we'll see standing
Speaker 3: desk become more of the norm in these classrooms.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, a handful of elementary schools across the country have
Speaker 1: already started adding standing desk to their classrooms, and I'm
Speaker 1: guessing more and more schools will jump on the trend
Speaker 1: as they become more affordable. But in the meantime, one
Speaker 1: elementary school teacher in California, Lynn Akers, has already made
Speaker 1: the switch to standing desks, and she explained the benefits
Speaker 1: this way. Quote, children naturally learn through movement. If you
Speaker 1: restrict them to sitting, they interrupt you more and maybe
Speaker 1: asked to go to the bathroom a lot. They need
Speaker 1: to get their energy out, which makes sense.
Speaker 3: But you know, on the other hand, restricting kids this
Speaker 3: standing all day long could also lead to just as
Speaker 3: many problems.
Speaker 2: I mean, what if they get tired.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, schools are actually using a mix of standing
Speaker 1: and sitting desks, which lets the kids choose the option
Speaker 1: what works best for them. And even at schools where
Speaker 1: there are only standing desks, they tend to provide kids
Speaker 1: with these tall chairs or stools so that just in
Speaker 1: case they're tired, they can rest their legs.
Speaker 3: It's definitely a smart move And you know, since you
Speaker 3: mentioned how kids need an outlet for their energy, I
Speaker 3: do want to touch on something that's kind of become
Speaker 3: really a controversial topic. Are you talking about recess? I
Speaker 3: am definitely talking about recess. You know, we have to
Speaker 3: talk about recess. But instead of talking about how some
Speaker 3: schools have tried to abolish recess, which maybe was where
Speaker 3: you were thinking, I actually wanted to look at how
Speaker 3: we can make recess an even more effective form of
Speaker 3: exercise than it already is. So, according to researchers in Denmark,
Speaker 3: the perfect place to start is with our school's playgrounds.
Speaker 3: In twenty fifteen, Danis researchers conducted a study where they
Speaker 3: had hundreds of elementary students where accelerometers and these GPS
Speaker 3: trackers during their school year so that their activity levels
Speaker 3: at recess could actually be monitored. But here's the thing.
Speaker 3: The kids didn't all attend the same school or have
Speaker 3: recess on the same playground, and this variance allowed the
Speaker 3: researchers to see which types of schoolyard are more or
Speaker 3: less conducive to exercise, and so, based on the data
Speaker 3: from these accelerometers, the children in the study were significantly
Speaker 3: more active when playing on grassy areas and its sites
Speaker 3: featuring playground equipment, and on the other end of the spectrum,
Speaker 3: concrete lots were the worst of the bunch, so they
Speaker 3: elicited the least energy expenditure of all the environments studied.
Speaker 3: So the hope is that with this kind of insight
Speaker 3: on what works best, developers can make better decisions and
Speaker 3: create playgrounds and school yards where you know, it's easier
Speaker 3: and more fun for kids to choose to be active
Speaker 3: on their own.
Speaker 1: Which is interesting. So what kinds of stuff are we
Speaker 1: talking about though, Like, because I'm guessing it's something beyond
Speaker 1: your typical slides and monkey bars.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3: So the researchers behind this study helped a few different
Speaker 3: schools renovate their playgrounds and the main focus was to
Speaker 3: widen the variety of activities on offer. So in addition
Speaker 3: to the standard playground fair like swing sets, they added
Speaker 3: these areas specifically designed for dancing and climbing and skating,
Speaker 3: and they even dedicated this trampoline area.
Speaker 2: And I mean, really, who wouldn't.
Speaker 3: Want to spend at least an hour a day in
Speaker 3: a place like that all those options?
Speaker 1: I know it does sound pretty fun. And in the end,
Speaker 1: isn't that the only school supply that a kid really needs?
Speaker 2: Fun?
Speaker 3: Pens, pencils, notebooks for lers, there's probably a few other things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it spoken like a true grown up, So why
Speaker 1: don't we keep the fun going with a fact off?
Speaker 1: So here's a quick one on crayons. According to a
Speaker 1: Yale University study, Crayola crayons are one of the most
Speaker 1: recognizable sense for adults, ranking at number eighteen of all
Speaker 1: the sense they tried, and it beat out Believe this
Speaker 1: or not, cheese and bleach. Ah.
Speaker 2: That's impressive.
Speaker 3: All right. Well, speaking of names for crayons, did you
Speaker 3: know that Crayola uses multiple names to refer to the
Speaker 3: same colors. So the practice started early, with the company
Speaker 3: using fifty four names to refer to just thirty eight
Speaker 3: separate colors by the end of nineteen oh three, and
Speaker 3: things only balloon from there. So you fast forward to
Speaker 3: twenty fifteen and Traila had to signed seven hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty nine names to just three hundred and thirty one colors. Now,
Speaker 3: to be clear, though, this doesn't mean the company is
Speaker 3: stuffing duplicate crayons and the same box under a different name,
Speaker 3: but if you were to open different boxes, you might
Speaker 3: actually find that the same blue crayon is simultaneously labeled
Speaker 3: as Liberty blue, iron Man blue, or Birdy blue, depending
Speaker 3: on the box that you get.
Speaker 1: So pencils may seem a little old fashioned as more
Speaker 1: kids learn to type and use pens, but don't count
Speaker 1: them out just yet. According to the Chicago Tribune, they
Speaker 1: keep coming back into fashion every so often, and when
Speaker 1: Sudoku first became a craze, pencils actually had a seven
Speaker 1: hundred percent increase in sales in London.
Speaker 2: Holy cow.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, here's a quick one.
Speaker 3: I didn't realize until our friend Aaron McCarthy did this
Speaker 3: story on trapper keepers. So apparently the unique folders were
Speaker 3: called trappers because they kept papers in them so well,
Speaker 3: and then the binder was called a trapper keeper because
Speaker 3: it held all the trappers to get You know.
Speaker 1: I had always wondered why it had that name. It
Speaker 1: is such a strange name for a product that I
Speaker 1: absolutely love. So you gave us the skinny on Elmer's
Speaker 1: glue at the top of the show. So now I'm
Speaker 1: actually going to clue you in on Elmer himself because
Speaker 1: believe it or not, Elmer wasn't created just for the
Speaker 1: glue bottle. He was actually based on a real bull
Speaker 1: that the Bordon Company used to advertise its products at
Speaker 1: the nineteen thirty nine World's Fair. So the original plan
Speaker 1: was to have the dairy company's famous spokescow, Elsie, appear
Speaker 1: at the event, but she was actually busy shooting the
Speaker 1: film version of Little Women or the sequel. I guess
Speaker 1: Little Man. It's so bizarre, but she was on set,
Speaker 1: so Bordon knew they couldn't show up to the World's
Speaker 1: Fair empty handed, so at the last minute, the company
Speaker 1: found a bull to use instead, and at the fair,
Speaker 1: the company dubbed him Elmer and announced that he was
Speaker 1: the unmentioned husband of Elsie, which I'm sure Elsie wasn't
Speaker 1: too happy about it, but the public loved the idea
Speaker 1: and Elmer was quickly made the mascot for the Bordon
Speaker 1: Chemical division, you know, the other side of the company,
Speaker 1: And that's how we wound up on the glue that
Speaker 1: would eventually bear his name.
Speaker 3: That was a much more involved origin story than I
Speaker 3: expected for the fact off, especially, but I do like
Speaker 3: the way you brought the episode full circle. So just
Speaker 3: for that, I think I'm gonna give you the trophy
Speaker 3: and I will take it all right. Well, that's going
Speaker 3: to do it for today's Part Time Genius for myself, Mango, Gabe,
Speaker 3: and Lowell. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back
Speaker 3: soon with another episode. Part Time Genius is a production
Speaker 3: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite show.