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