Ideas

This teacher thinks students are bored by easy learning, and he might be right

In one old-school history class, tougher reading, sharper thinking, and zero hand-holding are drawing students in.

How long can you play Tic-Tac-Toe before you start losing the will to live? Two games? Three? It is not that the game is hard. It is that it is not hard enough. Chess lasts because it asks you to think. As Mark Wales reports, one history teacher says that is exactly what education has been getting wrong: in trying to make school easier, we may have made it way less interesting.

His argument is basically this: students are not always bored because school is too demanding. They may be bored because too much of it feels flat, repetitive, and impossible to care about. So while many classrooms chase engagement with apps, shortcuts, and gamified lessons, he is doing the opposite, and students are apparently lining up for it.

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Ideas

An Olympian got seat-scammed at 30,000 feet

A Canadian bobsledder shares a two-word label for that faux-polite move rude travelers have taken to using.

When the couple saw Cynthia Appiah walking down the aisle, they had their best smiles and most ingratiating voices ready. Why? Well, they were settled into two seats, even though only one of them actually belonged there. The other seat was Appiah’s premium economy aisle seat, the one she’d specifically booked and paid extra for.

Maybe, when they heard her Canadian accent, they thought they’d gotten lucky. Surely a polite Canadian wouldn’t make a fuss. Surely she’d just smile, absorb the inconvenience, and take the worse seat so the lovebirds could keep cuddling at cruising altitude.

Tiny problem. Cynthia Appiah is an Olympic monobob racer*. She is extremely familiar with icy stares, pressure situations, and high-speed acts of nerve. So when the couple tried the classic move of sitting first and asking sweetly later, she did what far too few travelers feel allowed to do: she said no.

As Adam Albright-Hanna reports, Appiah later gave the tactic a name that deserves to live forever in the air travel lexicon: “nice bullying.” Which is really just the perfect term for when someone weaponizes your manners and hopes you’ll be too uncomfortable to claim what’s already yours.

*- I already miss the Olympics so much!

And what did we learn?

Yesterday, we shared a delightful little story of a middle-school teacher discovering the charms of the kindergarten set.

Which era of child-rearing did GOOD readers enjoy most? Raising little kids took the big win! Who doesn’t love a precious sticky little cutie? Sorry, teens, you came in last! Maybe grab a shower and try again next time.

• Baby time - Tiny cooing houseplant. Exactly where I left them. (22.1%)

• Little-kid years - Sticky, loud, and the funniest person in my house. (43.0%)

• Teen mode - Too cool, too hungry, too dramatic, and so much fun. (15.1%)

• After they left - Distance makes the heart grow fonder and the house stay cleaner. (19.8%)

GOOD reader Susan Lazareck spelled it out nicely. “I loved the transition from baby to toddler to the 3-5 year olds. It goes so fast and still brings giggles from my memories.”

Life Hacks | From the Vault

The “name your brain” hack sounds ridiculous until it works

It sounds a little unhinged and might change how you deal with negative thoughts.

We are often our own worst critics, but silencing that little voice in your head that berates you for spilling a cup of coffee is tough. You can tell someone else to back off or watch their tone. But your own mind? How would you even do that?

In this story by Mark Wales, Faye Plunkett offers a surprisingly simple answer. Name your brain. She named hers Becky. Whenever a dark or intrusive thought shows up, she talks to Becky directly. Calmly. Kindly. With boundaries. “Becky, not today,” she says. Or, “That’s unfair to say before I’ve even gotten out of bed.”

Plunkett says it works, and neuroscience backs her up. Psychiatrists call it labeling or observing your thoughts. So maybe the question isn’t whether your brain has intrusive thoughts. It’s whether you have to believe everything Becky says. Because sometimes, Becky is just the worst.

On March 17, 1845, British inventor and businessman Stephen Perry patented the rubber band in England. The idea was gloriously practical from the start. Perry worked at Messrs. Perry & Co., a London firm making products from newly viable vulcanized rubber, the tougher, springier material that made simple elastic loops finally worth mass-producing. The patent itself described improvements to elastic bands and their use in belts, girths, and bandages, while early production at Perry’s firm also included bands for bundling papers and letters.

There doesn’t seem to be a surviving diary entry where Perry says, “Eureka, tiny stretchy circle!” But the timing makes the inspiration easy to picture: once vulcanized rubber became durable and flexible, cutting it into loops was a neat way to keep everyday clutter under control. And it caught on for exactly that reason, cheaply, quietly, and everywhere. The rubber band didn’t conquer the world with fanfare; it simply proved too handy not to keep around. 

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