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Ask Adam Savage: Public Education, Doctor Who and Scissors
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ม.ค. 2021
- What changes would Adam make to public education if he could? Why doesn't he love Doctor Who? What scissors would Adam recommend to cut stretchy fabrics or hard rubbers? In this excerpt from our Jan. 11 live stream, Adam answers (very varied!) questions from Tested members Seth DuBois, David Marden and Brian Lane, whom we thank for their support. Join this channel to support Tested and get access to perks, like asking Adam a question:
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In 2017, the US spent $12,800 per student on public education, which is the *second-highest* amount spent per student of *any country in the world.*
And the US spent over *$700* billion on public education in 2017.
www.insider.com/how-much-countries-around-the-world-spend-on-education-2019-8
Adam, I have to say it: Myth Busted.
@@FLPhotoCatcher Actually, the article does not contradict Adam. what the article fails to address is distribution. $ per student as an average misses that the distribution is not equal. Schools in America are largely funded by local property tax, meaning affluent areas have more $ per child to spend and poor areas, the areas that need it most, have the least.
@@ltlbuddha Yes, it's an average. But I read elsewhere that the difference is not that large, considering the differing cost of living in different areas. Yes, some areas could use more, but I think the biggest problem is waste, and also not ideal teaching strategies in some places.
@@FLPhotoCatcher I know students and teachers from affluent and less so areas, so I am not guessing here. Money affects education. Poor areas do not have enough to waste. One cannot waste what one never gets in the first place.
A simple illustration of the difference is that funding in a wealthy area allows for a new science lab, whilst poor areas struggle to get a new microscope.
Poorer areas have larger class sizes, which affects the quality of education even where all other things are equal.
Education in America is like medicine there. There more money one has, the better the quality available.
If you want to argue that the American educational systems* have more problems than money, I would agree.
However, money is definitely a large part of the problem.
Even in the UK, where the educational system is more homogeneous, there is inequity across class and economic disparity.
*Yes, plural, and that is part of the problem
@@ltlbuddha Inequity is not the problem. Studies have shown that there is not much of a correlation between education spending and a better education. The US spends *more* than the UK (and almost every other nation) on education. Clearly we are doing something worse than other countries. What exactly, I don't know.
*As a college student you don't understand how much I appreciate you speaking out against these spyware extensions used for testing. It's hard enough to take a test without feeling like your every move is being examined.*
*Exactly, my college has a bad habit of hiring people with real world experience who don't know the first thing about teaching. It's like learning a foreign language in a foreign language.*
Wow... I didn't realise this was a thing in the US...
That's ridiculous. I get what you're saying about being watched. Taking tests is stressful enough already without worrying that your hesitant glance towards a scribbling friend will be taken as cheating.
I have a hard time believing this could happen in France. I hope schools get rid of it in short order.
I went to college for 3 different degrees over 8 years (as recently as 3 years ago) and spyware was never a concern for me. Learn the material, and exams won't be such a stressful experience, and spyware won't be necessary.
*We aren't all fresh out of highschool sitting in dorms all day without a care in the world. Some of us have grown up problems like kids, jobs, bills, people in the house with alzheimers, etc. Learning the material inside out is a luxury that we can't all afford.*
@@bendadestroyer Vs. hiring "academics" who've never been in the Real World(tm)? Personally, having had many of both types, it takes _both_ to be a great educator. You have to know how to teach, and what you are teaching. And knowing requires doing. (eg. I'd be a bad tennis coach, because I don't play tennis.)
I don’t say this lightly, you’ve imparted so much wisdom that’s it’s truly astonishing.
I grew up with you as the funny smart man that blows things up.
Now you’re the funny wise man that blows my mind.
One of my high school teachers would tell a story EVERY friday. Even with tests and quizzes that day. He was a good teacher and a good person.
Telling/listening to stories is how we (humans) learn best, I think. We're still hardwired that way from before writing was invented.
Adam, don't sell yourself short. All of these videos are super valuable, educational information about the technique and philosophy behind making. You're an amazing teacher and an incredible inspiration.
My wife is a high school science teacher, thank you for your thoughts! You’re correct , new colored pencils for her anatomy class would be much more effective that monitoring their eye movements! Besides, most teachers that I had were pretty good at reading their students figuring out who was cheating!
Coloring books are your idea of a good teaching aid.
@@resmarted no, not coloring books, color pencils. When she has enough pencils the students will use them to identify various parts of the circulatory, respiratory, skeletal, nervous, and muscular systems. Unfortunately the school budget doesn’t always have the money for these pencils, or lots of other items that can help teachers engage students.
@@resmarted Gee, it's almost like teachers need supplies to engage students...
Smaller class sizes makes it easier to proctor tests too
Adams videos have become my lockdown crack.
They're LITERALLY contributing towards my mental health
"contributing towards my mental health" yep, that's crack...
Me too. Just watching or listening to him talk passionately about something makes me smile. Heck, just listening to him talk makes me smile. It is my dream to meet him some day. I hope he will come to Grand Rapids ComicCon someday
When I worked designing pressure garments for burn victims we used a hot wire rig to cut the spandex. It was a single, thin heating element wire strung between a set of arms, one above a flat surface and one below. The wire passed through a hole in the table. It was powered by a rheostat so you could adjust the temperature based on what fabric you were cutting.
Imagine when Adam does get into doctor who and discovers the sonic screwdriver...
Imagine? It is one of my fantasies! :D xD
*and builds his own fully functional one*
And then, that every Doctor has a different one?
@@chazzyb8660 *think that like the TARDIS the sonic somewhat conforms to the personality of the Time lord who is using it ...but that's personal head canon and may not conform to official Whovian canon...at least the historic versions and not the revisionist super woke Doctor Karen variants*
@@scottmantooth8785 Not just head cannon, They confirmed it with "The eleventh hour" the Tardis interior and sonic where personalized to matt smith. so your head cannon is correct!
The biggest work table is a sail makers loft, a sewing machine recessed in the midle of the floor of a 40+foot square room with room for the operator.
Updating my wish list for what I want in a home now. :)
I'm currently studying to become a teacher in - among other subjects - physics and chemistry (which takes 4 years in Denmark). MythBusters had a HUGE impact on my love for science and my current drive to give the next generation the same curiosity for science that I had. Thank you to MythBusters and the entire MythBusters team for where I am today.
As a Scandinavian, seeing (among other topics) how public education is handled/treated in the US truly boggles the mind.
As a teacher: YES.
I think the adversarial relationship between students and the school is a big problem that doesn't get focused on enough so it was refreshing to hear it here
Part of that relationship is because we force students to take classes they don’t want or need, or that they simply aren’t ready for to be able to claim high standards and make all education fair. In California, we have eliminated basic everyday math classes (emphasizing fractions, measurements, and monetary math skills) in favor of putting every student through three years of a more abstract algebra & geometry blended course called Integrated Mathematics. We haven’t trained our teachers at the elementary and middle school levels properly, much less at the high school level, for these courses and our students are suffering. Multiply that suffering by 12 years, and you get a math literacy rate of less than 40% at graduation. But as long as we aren’t allowing the top performing students to excel, then everything is fair, right?
Thank you, Adam, for helping the world see the problems teachers like me deal with every day.
And Supervising Librarians.
Sadly, I do not remember any of my teachers, no inspirational interactions to remember. A good teacher is a jewel to be treasured.
I am a high school science teacher at an online school and I currently have 218 students. It is so hard to keep track of all of my students and make sure they are maintaining engagement in the content, especially in a completely online setting.
Imagine the college professors who have _thousands_ of students.
I can't imagine. One thing I will say though is that typically high school students require more support than college students.
@@soccer0414 Given that many of these uber-size classes are usually a first/second semester base ("101") course, they often need a lot more direction than one might think.
I was a FORTRAN lab instructor for years, which is usually a 2nd or 3rd semester class. Those were 100-200 student classes, and ~20 per lab, but I had a few ~60 student labs -- filling 3 rooms. Us TA's were doing much of the actual teaching and all of the hand-holding.
For the big "1000" classes like biology or chemistry, if you had questions, you never bothered the professor. You'd go see one the professors "minions" -- grad student teaching assistants.
When I was in high school our art teacher literally had to buy his own pencils for the class. Yet the school was spending crazy amounts of money on the basketball and football teams. From my experience schools care more about sports then learning.
*don't forget how much of that money finds its way to the teachers unions and by default to...*
*oops, don't want to make this comment political and be tagged by the yt censoring algorithms not do i?*
Future One Day Build -- Adam Savage builds a functioning TARDIS.
I just want to see him building the Sonics, you just know he's going to want to flick elevens.
He's not making TV money anymore... He'll never be able to afford the stabilized black hole for the time drive.
If anyone could, it's Adam.
He could probably do a better K-9 than the one the show had to work with back in the day.
@@HariSeldon913 OMG YESSS
Can you IMAGINE what it would be like having Adam Savage as your teacher?!
Why do you think I watch? I'm a maker, and I learn something every time I watch him build something.
So many tangents, it might be hard to finish a lesson plan.
He is. Mythbusters and Tested.
Right on!!!!! Yea wow!!!
Re: Doctor Who, not only have I also not seen a lot of Classics due to it not being in my wheelhouse or not having an opportunity and now having outgrown it, I also am overwhelmed by how much TV there is now. Nobody can watch it all, you have to pick and choose, and that also means taking into account opportunity, family, which service you have access to, what country you're in, etc. It's too much, so nobody should judge if you haven't seen it, or disliked the early episodes enough to not stick with it, or whatever the case. I grew up with Doctor Who, so it holds a special place in my heart. I did not grow up with gritty crime dramas, so The Wire or Oz or Breaking Bad hold no interest for me. I feel no guilt.
I really appreciate the humility at the beginning! Those are beautiful points.
You see a lot of this in the workplace now too in relation to teacher/class size. Each side craves the connection - businesses are slimming down and having one person manage too many projects or accounts at one time and the mutual connection disappears and when the connection is gone everything else follows. And we wonder where the disconnect starts. We are depriving our kids at a young age of that ever so important relationship of teacher student and it carries on into life as they grow and they never know that feeling
(04:23) Thank you Adam for talking about this!
You, Jamie and I had this very conversation, at Mythbusters unleashed stage show in Hamilton Ontario Canada, back a few years ago!
I thanked you then, and I will thank you now, for instilling an interest in Science, Engineering, and Making, in my Son, and rekindling it in me, after many years! You are 100% correct, the school system is so busy trying to show people how well they are teaching the children, as to completely miss the point, of teaching them in the first place! My son learned more from watching Mythbusters and Tested.com than he ever learned in school!
He and I have you to thank for that because the school system had failed him miserably. I also agree that standardised testing doesn't enable you to learn anything, it only shows how well you can take a test, and remember the information that you were told to remember because it will be on the test!
There are lots of people that can do well on testing, that have not a clue how to methodically troubleshoot a problem, nor have any practical skills! This is what is missing in the school systems today!
"Cop shit" hahaha thats so well put, honestly.
We throw money at the problem, and most of the money never sees inside of a classroom.
who is we
You do realize how much we spend on the military, right? there is no excuse for not providing education in such a wealthy country. Just look at other countries. We literally depend on immigrants for educated workers.
@@MP4_mafia who is we
@@MP4_mafia This government does not provide education, it provides indoctrination. If it's attempting to provide education it has failed miserably as test scores have been trailing downwards for years while inflation adjusted funding is at an all time high. It has succeeded at indoctrination because you seem to think you and I are a we, as if I want anything to do with you or that you have some kind of claim over me. At some point you have to think a little harder than "just take more of people's money!" But yes, the mililtary should be cut entirely. Along with public education ;)
@@resmarted first of all I wasn't replying to you. Second I was obviously referring to we as in America. But to think you're offended by the word "we" tells me you've been indoctrinated in individualism. The bias in the education system is mostly the result of private business interests, not government control. Obviously funding education is more nuanced than blanket funding, there may be bureaucracy but you clearly don't know the plight of teachers. Finally regardless of whether you think federal funding of education is perfectly efficient you have to be an absolute bobo to think the free market has an incentive to educate everyone honestly.
You've got me thinking about the two teachers I had as a kid who still mean the world to me, a 65-year-old. The first is my kindergarten and first grade teacher, Laura Williams. She took the time to see a skinny little girl who was being molested at home, but threatened enough to not be able to consciously know it, and try to connect with her. She was the first adult who I felt really cared about me. The second is Dorothy Sawyer, a writing teacher I had for many classes in high school. When I was in the middle of teenage angst, without close friends and having no idea who I was, she spent many hours after class just talking with me and letting me hang out when the only place I had to go was an empty house and wait for my mom to get home. She nurtured my imagination and helped me to see the creativity that has gotten me through many decades. Teachers do matter to the kids sitting in their classrooms, from pre-school to university. They don't get thanked nearly enough for being part of every child's life, but they do make a difference in that life.
I like how CGP Grey puts it. Schools in America currently measure your ability to successful take tests. They don’t actually help you learn and retain knowledge in your STEAM classes or teach you the knowledge about finances and logistics of adult life that kids need when they graduate.
I worked in a couple of school districts, right next to each other, during the "No child left behind era." One district was at the top of the cost per child and the bottom of the performance metrics. The other district was at the LOWEST cost per student. The one that spent less was not only at the top of performance metrics, it was also a great district to work in. So I do not feel that throwing money at the problem is the answer. More money only works if used well. One of the biggest problems I saw was all the testing. The better the student the more testing they got. One of my best students was unable to do extracurricular activities much of the year because of the AP testing. I could go on for pages about what needs to change. We ended up pulling our child and home schooling. By taking all the artificial standards and deadlines away he could learn for real. We had time to go back and fill in the stuff missed. He is now learning faster than ever.
I just dropped out after absolute hell for years during school to pursue my dreams, and a big portion came from your inspirational myth busters episodes and a large part from Grant Thompson with The King Of Random channel, miss him a lot. Anyways, thank you for your opinion and I hope to one day get to where you’re at in life, I make knives and melt down scrap metal.
As an educator, this year has been less than optimal and I whole heartedly agree with your statements about education. I have openly voiced these concerns on multiple occasions to no avail. Thank you for speaking up for teachers!
aw poor public school teachers, they have nobody to speak for them except one of the largest public unions in the country and advocacy groups that donate money to politicians for them to the tune of nearly 50 million dollars.
As someone who started watching Doctor Who in 2012 with my best friend, I felt overwhelmed at that point as well. So, here's the deal. Don't worry about the whole 50+ years of the Whoniverse. If you're gonna start watching, pick it up where the reboot started with the 9th Doctor. It might be kind of clunky to start with, but it gets really, really good. Also, it's also okay if you try to watch and end up not liking it. Not everyone falls in love with the TARDIS.
There is so much ground to cover with Dr. Who, but one thing that the series does well is offering many introductions to the series. It will take quite a while to get through enough material to get to the point where a person feels like they understand the world that it takes place in, but getting started is easy. The Eleventh Hour, Blink and The Christmas Invasion are all excellent starting points.
Got a little teary eyed at the thought experiment part. It's so true. I had so much trouble in school. As so many of my mental health disorders were ineffectively treated by the umbrella of Ritalin. The saving grace were those teachers that made the connection. They could see past the mental health symptoms, help me see who I was, who I wanted to be. I dropped out in tenth grade but I can still tell you of those teachers, individually, that meant so much to me, and how they impact me to this day. I owe a lot to the fact that I'm still alive today, in a much better place, owning my own home, aspiring to be a wood worker, because of those teachers.
I agree with the smaller class sizes, better teacher salaries, and better budgets, but also change the stuff they are teaching to the skills we need to function in the world as an adult, so when they graduate from high school, they know how to survive on their own. How to plan and cook a decently nutritional menu, how to file taxes and stick to a budget, how to schedule their day so it's not just work work work, how to write a resume and do an interview, along with the shop skills of working on your car(bring back actual drivers ed as well and put them behind the wheel of a car too), how to do basic maintenance around whatever building you live in, whether it's an apartment, house, trailer, etc. Schools should be creating the good habits so many people spent lots of time and money trying to develop as an adult, i.e. eating relatively healthy, exercising regularly to the degree that they can move and be active(not everybody should be a gym nut body builder, but exercising more young would help with a lot of problems later in life), understanding their finances and keeping a budget, etc.
The stuff they do teach, they need to worry less about students knowing the exact dates of history, and more about understanding the causes so that we don't repeat those same mistakes and how the subject matter relates to their every day lives. It's less important to know the dates of each battle in World War 2, and more important to know how the conflict started so that it can be avoided again. Math should be 95% hands on for many of the subjects(have them work with the shop class, and cooking class, and physics classes). When P.E. does include things like dancing, it should be focused on dances that are reasonable to do at a formal event that everybody might go to, such as a wedding, instead of something like the rain dance.
There are so many ways we need to overhaul the education system in this country, and that's not even touching on the specifics of what is taught and how much of it is whitewashed. But I digress, I'm going to get off my soapbox now while I still am somewhat coherent.
For cutting stretchy fabrics and rubber (especially latex), rotary cutters are a better tool than scissors. Particularly if the fabric in question is held down to the cutting surface so that it doesn't move, you will end up with cut pieces that are not stretched as they are being cut, so they are closer to the desired size/shape, which is important if you are cutting those materials for garment making.
Speaking as a college professor, the cheating during exams is a problem. On more than one occasion I have had to pull an exam from a student when I caught them cheating. If a teacher prepares accordingly it's not a huge problem--I never give the exact same test every time, so in order to pass they still have to know the material regardless of whether they saw an old exam. My school's policy is to re-administer a different exam under tightly observed conditions before a failing grade is given. As far as eliminating standardized tests, memorizing and understanding content is key to learning, so there's no avoiding exams.
I had a former teacher tell me a few years ago that the current trend is to teach kids to pass the standardized tests. She was a fantastic teacher who has grown to hate her profession.
Had a few teachers like that before, they’re almost always the best. Honestly in my experience the best teachers are the ones that push, bend, and break the rules and go against the standardized testing and such
In NC, that is *literally* the teacher's job. That's right, the student's end-of-year scores directly effects teacher salary, bonuses, etc., even if they still have a job. (or it was years ago when my sister stopped teaching.)
I’m a performer and have taught tap dancing on occasion. (Mostly for people over 20 years old) And I LOVED it.There is something about helping a student acquire skills and knowledge, that is extremely satisfying. But sadly I’ve stopped doing it, because why? It didn’t pay enough... So higher salaries for teachers? ABSOLUTELY!! I wouldn’t be a successful performer if it wasn’t for all the amazing teachers I’ve had. 💕
Adam, I swear you're my brother from another mother... Love all you do and the passion and raw curiosity you bring to everything.
This video resonated for me. Yesterday my daughter asked me to help her install some locked-down browser required by her community college for virtual test taking. She couldn't install it in a way that let her run it without admin rights. I'm a reasonable power user and figured I could bend it to my will. No, not only could I not get it to run without the admin account, it was actively fighting back at every turn. This thing was a friggin' virus, or a close cousin of one.
At one point, it locked task manager so I couldn't kill the software process. At another, it blocked my ability to switch users.
I understand that the school wants to give a proctored exam and want it to be a closed book exam. But this was crazy.
My daughter was so frustrated by this and other issues with the class that she just dropped the class. Good for her.
Thanks for all you do. Trained or not, you ARE a real educator.
Sadly, if the professor simply took the time to chat with each student on the topic for a few minutes, they could easily tell who knows the material and who doesn't.
Before STEM/STEAM were a thing, I went to a MAST (Math And Science Team) Middle School, we were the first grade offered at that school. A lot of the Math & Science teachers of that team and elective classes that fell into that category were given extra resources, which made those classes so much more educational. It's been 15 years and I still have and use a Paper Towel Rack and Metal Toolbox I made in Tech Ed. That class was amazing with the woodwork, sheet metal work, and 4+ each of CNC Lathes and Mills, so all students in our smaller class could work with them.
We were in U-bicals (U shaped cubicals), and I think we had 2 PCs each connected to 1 lathe and 1 mill. I don't remember much about what I was taught in that class by the teacher, but do remember the lessons I learned by doing in that class. It helped in High School and College too, as I acted AND helped on sets, basically just needing introductions to the materials names and what they may be more specific for.
This was one of the largest (in student count) at the time, with 2/3 gyms (2 were connected but on different levels with a movable divider), a swimming pool, and they got an observatory while I was there. Students came from 4 different suburbs. They must have gotten a LOT of outside support financially. I only can remember one company that visited.
Yes, you can laser cut rubber. The shop where my local Makerspace meets does make rubber stamps on their laser. It smells, its messy, but it works.
The best system i even attended in public schools was a system where you had large group, small group, and labs (for those that required labs). The large group had all students taking that class that semester in a large lecture room, and the material was presented by one lecturer, and you took notes. Question not allowed. Small group was around 12-15 students sitting at one table with an instructor and that was where the question and answer and discussion happened. Worked great. Only one teacher had to do the mass lecture, saving effort, and then the small groups were very intimate and allowed for a lot of discussion and one on one when required.
The only downside to a system like this, is setting up the class schedules was very difficult. But it was being done, and in my mind, worked quite well.
My mom taught 1st grade for 22 yrs and observed the downward spiral in the quality of the educational system from the top down. Can't even imagine what teachers must be going through now. America, we need to revamp our education system or we're going to be in dire circumstances!!
I don’t think it’s a downward spiral as much as it hasn’t changed with the times, the same stuff is being taught in an ever evolving world and fewer and fewer children are able to break free from the mold and do something great nowadays from lack of inspiration of the things that actually matter in life, my teachers always said “you won’t have a calculator every day” as I had a cell phone in my back pocket as powerful as the largest computers from decades ago. Schools need to adapt to their surroundings and never seem to get close enough.
@@bo6716 perhaps teachers were not articulating well enough? The point of education is not to teach anyone anything but to teach one how to think. Not what to think but how. You have to ask yourself how did the person that made a calculator do it? You don't think they used a calculator in math class, do you? That's the trouble with computers. You really have to understand the question before you can hope to get an answer from one of them.
It's not in the government's best interests to have a well-educated population because that opens the door for all sorts of problematic thought.
Disagree. Knowledge is. power an empowered populis will expect and hold leadership accountable for performance of office.
@@michaeloneil2379 Leadership doesn't want to be held accountable. They avoid it at all costs and have the unique ability to do so, all while calling themselves our "servants." My servants dont cut their own checks and make rules for me that they exempt themselves from.
It was pretty scary when Trump started mentioning "patriotic education". It's already biased against critical thinking and understanding of social problems. Although some of that has to do with the grading system rather than the specifics.
@@MP4_mafia It's pretty scary that you think this is something unique to trump and not the story of American public education from it's inception to this day. In the words of Horace Mann, it's architect, it is "the best way to turn unruly American children into disciplined, judicious republican citizens". Not "educated", but submissive and obedient. It was modeled after the Prussian system.
@@MP4_mafia yeah, I’m really glad Biden won!!
Tears immediately spring to my eyes hearing Adam say "cop sh**" with that tone of voice that makes you REALLY FEEL that he MEANS IT. When he says it a second later, it's descriptive, just another set of words to explain like a dictionary entry, but that first time?? That's like when your quiet parents swear for the first time when you're like 10 and your eyes get real big and you realize that THIS STUFF IS A BIG DEAL. Adam's absolutely right, of course, it's so hurtful to treat kids like you don't trust them. That teaches them that people in positions of power in their lives will default to suspicion of them, and they feel very alone in the world.
Also a maths and physics teacher here (not in the US though) and: yes, I also buy a lot of stuff for experiments, models and stuff myself from my personal money, because we don't even get paper or pencils from the school/state - my printing costs alone are throught the roof with 7 separat classes, I buy additional books and everytime there is anything like a party or event I buy food, drink, decorations, prizes for the kids,... - not even speaking about materials I need for my own work (like folders, markers, the right calculator for every school, laminating foil, ...).
A bit more funding to use for everyday school materials would go a long way. Right now with everyone in lockdown it's even worse, as computers, internet, webcam, headsets, phone bills for talks with parents etc. add all on top of that.
I truely love my job (and I am lucky to have employment, especially now) but often times, the given parameters are just not sufficient... - at least give us a decent work environment at the schools with a desk and a chair and access to a computer with internet and let us have some office supplies...
"I don't think cop shit belongs in a classroom" - 100% agreed! (I'm a public High School Social Studies teacher). Loved your entire explanation. And $20/student/year would be truly life changing.
One of the most meaningful changes we could make to primary education is moving the start time back to later in the day. Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise, but not so with adolescents. They are simply on a different circadian rhythm than adults.
"Asking your teenage son or daughter to go to bed and fall asleep at 10PM is the circadian equivalent of asking you, their parent, to go to bed at 7 or 8PM. No matter how loud you enunciate the order, no matter how much that teenager truly wishes to obey your instruction, and no matter what amount of willed effort is applied by either of the two parties, the circadian rhythm of a teenager will not be miraculously coaxed into a change. Furthermore, asking that same teenager to wake up at 7 the next morning, and function with intellect, grace, and good mood, is the equivalent of asking you, their parent, to do the same at 4 or 5 am. Sadly, neither society nor our parental attitudes are well designed to appreciate or accept that teenagers need more sleep than adults, and that they are biologically wired to obtain that sleep at a different time than their parents." - Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, PhD.
as a 25 year old man, with a father who is a math teacher in the united states public school system, this 9/10 minute monologe just made me shift my perspective onto how you as a child would perceive things and look to your self as a whole, and what impact teachers genuinely have on kids, almost as much as their parents
If you've never hidden behind the couch during a 1970's episode of Dr. Who, when you were a JUVENILE, then you are missing a huge facet of the nostalgia, we fifty-year-olds hold for the franchise.
I cannot expect anyone to make up for missing that life experience, poor American Boomers
THANK YOU for the rant about treating students like criminals. As a college instructor, I have been having this fight with my peers for nearly a year now. Preach Adam Preach!
I think whiteboard tables would be great in maths classes. Maybe it's just me, but I don't like taking up space on paper, I feel like I'm wasting it, and if you make a mistake you either have to cross it out or get a rubber out. With a whiteboard, you don't have these issues. It is a surprisingly freeing feeling to just write all over the table, no restrictions on space. If you want to just test out some working then you can just scribble something down on the side, and it's really easy to rub things out, you don't have to worry about having a record of all your failed attempts. I don't feel limited when using a whiteboard, you have ultimate freedom to explore ideas as you want
I'm a second year teacher (my degree is actual in Electronic Engineering) teaching math. I have to agree with Adam. Class sizes are huge. If we really want to change and reform education, paying teachers what they are actually worth and them some, along with giving them the resources they need will make the world of difference. We are just teaching kids how to take tests and a very linear way of teaching. I have tried to venture out and get my students to think differently, outside the box, but it is difficult for them because of how they were taught their whole lives. Its frustrating having to deal with all the arbitrary BS testing and state requirements, rather than providing them with a proper education.
The most important thing about cutting fabric is to never use your fabric shears for anything but fabric. Paper and a lot of other materials will dull and put little nicks in your shears that will make cutting fabric a nightmare. I personally keep a couple fabric shears, a variety of scissors for paper and whatever, and one for leather. I could probably use my fabric shears for leather without issue, but I really don't need to and since the closest blade sharpener closed their doors in 2020, I don't want to take the chance.
I teach Design&Technology and the hardest part of all this is having planned cool practical projects in the workshop for kids. Now having them all at home has meant lack of workshop time and having to mostly design things digitally to keep them up to track on the whole design for making process. While they enjoy it would very much prefer getting them off screens and in front of a work which sadly isn't something that can be done. Can't wait to have them all back in the workshop, learning to use new tools, 3D printing, laser cutting and just making things.
For saying you aren't an educator, you could not be more correct with what you have said about education. As a teacher, I would love to reach all 100+ of my students each year, but it just isn't realistic. Throwing money at education by SIMPLY giving teachers smaller class sizes would SIMPLY be money well spent. It is as SIMPLE as that!
Being a student for tha vast majority of my life so far, I've been fortunate enough that I had many great teachers. The way you talked about the relationship between a teacher and a student made me remember some of them. I'll be sure to thank them when I have the chance.
The amount of Doctor Who, not to mention the lore, is quite a lot to take in - even though the show doesn't really have a strict canon. It's almost 40 seasons, and countless audio dramas and books. It took years for me to get into it, depression finally "gave me time" to escape to this.
It's common to start in the Revival Era, the 2005 and on. But you need to always remember the situation _when_ it's made, and just endure the campness.
I’m in Canada we have the highest paid teachers in the world a high school teacher can make $120,000k per year and we have some of the worst educated kids in any of the G7 countries. Paying teachers more will do nothing but foster more rot in the system. In my whole time in the school system I had 2 good teachers.
Education, like socialised healthcare, is something which is a fiscal multiplier. That is to say, for every dollar a country spends on education, GDP benefits by more than a dollar.
For every dollar spent on healthcare, the country gets richer by about 2.40, and for education it's over 6 dollars back for every dollar spent.
It's an absolute no brainer.
Spend more on socialised healthcare and socialised education, and everyone is better off.
i still haven't touched the original series so cant comment on them, but just start at the beginning of 2005 Doctor Who. The episodes tend to be self contained enough to where watching 1 is totally doable, but so is binging.
Just want to say that i appreciate you posting your livestreams for free on TH-cam. I know the patrons are a massive help to you, but from those of us that are living dollar to dollar as a result of Covid, thank you. It really is almost like talking to a down to earth friend.
You're just one of my favorite people Adam. Thank you for existing
Agreed. Ex teacher here. I sadly resigned in 2019. I couldn’t do it anymore! I hope we can get on track soon.
I remember being a kid in the late 90's paranoid that if I looked around too much, the teacher would think I'm cheating. After a while I knew I was overreacting, but it would really show up on my score. I can't imagine how kids these days can function already knowing companies and now schools are tracking their every little movement while trying to learn. Were really doing these kids a disservice.
I believe a part of the problem I had in school was the class sizes were too big. A typical class size when I was in school was around 30-35. It was rare to have a class less than 30 people. When there's a large group to teach, it is more difficult to keep everyone on the same pace. Those who get behind are generally left behind until the next chapter.
New Adam video, I drop everything to watch.
Not what you're watching it on though hopefully
Teaching is a skill. Not all teachers have that, even some that really want to teach. Also, teaching has more than its share of people who couldn't do anything else with their own education. This is not to denigrate teaching, teachers who want to teach are great and those who are skilled at imparting education and engaging students are treasures.
A side note: If it takes you months to clear a pool table, might I suggest lessons?
(insert rimshot here)
Cutting rubber is done well if you can chill it down with dry ice or liquid nitrogen - then you can sand/saw/machine/dremel it very easily.
The adversarial nature was more complex than just “student vs school” you had the administration, or some hellish bureaucracy, that would come up with a list of edicts that the teachers were forced to teach.
You ended up with either apathetic students and teachers going through the motions, or really good teachers that knew what they were doing and had to play this game with the students of “if admin asks yes we’re following their ridiculous guidelines, in the meantime let’s cover the important stuff”
In one class I had there was an entire nonverbal code established for when the admins did their “observations” where they were looking for students to 1 answer questions 2 not ask questions 3 eyes forward and hands still unless writing and nothing outside those bounds. It was funny in an odd way, we worked quite hard on being clever enough to keep genuinely good teachers from getting hosed by the system.
Even now in Uni it’s the same exact game, the professors and department are playing games fighting for funding and being “compliant” with ever more outlandish rules that further detract from all attempts at learning.
Couldn't agree more. In college I had the privilege of working on a project with a university in Finland and have to say their system is a total 180 from ours, but it is the most successful on the planet! There is no standardized testing and things are often taught in a project-based manner. Learning is far more effective when applied in a real-life scenario. Project-based learning will also allow students that don't fit the mold to find their own path to the end-goal. As an individual with ADD, paper testing proves absolutely nothing about an individual. All it gauges is a teachers ability to force-feed crap down the throats of students in an effort to appease their bosses.
Recitation of facts over ability to find the information a student needs are very different things and I would argue that the second is more important. The concept of cheating is wrong, because what s classified as cheating could also be viewed as a student using their research skills to find the right answer.
Except for tests where one is expected to know the material. Reaching for a book, your notes, or Google... that's cheating. In the Real World(tm), 9 times out of 10, you'll be in a position to consult notes, and Google, but you still need to _know_ your s***. If I have to keep looking things up, then it's going to take me 10x longer than someone who knows what they're doing (i.e. doesn't stop ever 2mins to Google things.)
You’re so right!!! In the small town I’m from, we all did the “box top” thing, fundraising, donating dry erase markers and other things. I didn’t think anything of it until high school, when I could actually to them as peers in the real world. Educators are literally forming the fate/future of the world and beyond by turning little booger nosed rascals into who will be the next Einstein or president. Someone with a passion like that should be treated as royalty.
As a college staff member, I really appreciate your comments and support of teachers. Smaller class sizes, more funding for supplies & resources, and increased salaries are huge ways to help teachers and their ability to educate students. We should also support our teachers to continue their academic study and research through sabbaticals. This allows them to update their understanding of the subject they teach and develop better curriculum.
As for overhauling education, if you wanted to make significant changes in the quality of education without increasing funding then you have to change the educational materials available to teachers to use in their classes.
Most text books are published by one a handful of publishers. They are expensive and written to meet the needs of a lot of special interests, not based on the educational or academic quality. Creating high quality open source text books based on actual evidence, research, and data tailor to the grade level they are being used in would be a game changer.
In addition to text books, teachers spend decades refining their curriculum and how they teach each class. This is part of the "special sauce" that makes a teacher amazing, but they also carefully guard it as a way to protect their careers. If there was a wiki or other way of sharing best practices and baseline curriculum for each class, it would help new teachers improve and help our educational system.
Cutting rubber with a glow forge, go slow at high power. For stretchy fabric I use a roto-cut. It is a crazy sharp circular blade for fabric, kind of like a deadly pizza cutter, but smaller.
Yea, class size makes a huge difference, when I went from doin music normally to doing my GCSE and then A-Level (UK here) it became really apparent how much more a teacher could do with a small class, in my second year of A-Levels there were six of us and we got a lot of one on one time with our music teacher. It let me get a much deeper understanding of music than I was able to get in my other subjects. We need more teachers, and whats the best way of getting more teachers, make teaching a more lucrative profession.
Math, Physics, Pre-engineering teacher here. You have said it all beautifully. Thank you.
I think the teachers themselves are as important as what the teachers are teaching. I have three examples of this.
1: One of my earliest elementary school teachers probably had a personal mission against me. So many times, something would happen on the playground, and all a student needed to do was say I caused it, because everyone knew the teacher would take their side. Of course, even though I had spent the entire recess AT MY DESK, ONLY A FEW METERS AWAY FROM THE TEACHER, the teacher always agreed I caused whatever happened at the playground. And when I would try to call her out on it, she would say "You don't have a side." Oh? Don't I? Even worse yet, 30 years later, she spotted me at the pizza place, and tried to act like I was her favourite student. No. Not going to happen. She is the reason I am so anti-bully today.
2: One of my early high school teachers was a German Baptist. She was a tiny old lady. I mean I am very short, but even I, EVEN I was literally head and shoulders above this old lady. I think she took full advantage of this completely non-threatening size, because she was just the SWEETEST old lady. She acted like everyone's Grandma, and we all eventually acted like her grandkids. I worked very hard for her, because I wanted her to be proud of me. I think that was my most productive year EVER, all because an absolute sweetheart of a Grandma you WANTED to please.
3: And then, the exact opposite of that experience was a later high school teacher. She was the dictionary definition of TOUGH love, an old-style disciplinarian. Seems like every single day, we were butting heads. At the time, I hated her. I dreaded even seeing her. BUT, 20 years later, I realized everything she did for me. She actually made me grow up. She made me become a man. She taught me respect. She taught me accountability. She was the reason why my employers always said I was the hardest-working guy on the team. Eventually, I went to her, and said thank you, for everything. After that, every time I saw her, I always got a hug. And then, I read her obituary in the newspaper, being at her funeral became a personal mission. She had earned that.
So, the lesson learned is a bully teacher will absolutely ruin the students, not just ruin their experiences, actually ruin the students themselves. BUT, a sweetheart Grandmother student will calm the students, and make everyone listen because they WANT to listen. And a proper tough love disciplinarian will turn boys into proper men. So, yes, we do need to have a long look at the school's policies and practices, BUT, we ALSO need to have a long look at WHO is teaching our children.
You deserve a big fucking gold star and lots of publicity for how you talked about those great teachers who reach out and make connections with the kids. That's EXACTLY what we need more of. There were a several of those teachers in my high school and I owe them big time. I keep hoping to pay it forward somehow, even though it's over 40 years later.
I am a teacher and I am also an education activist. Education reform is my line, my mission in life.
Adam, as a presenter, has such gravity. He has such a weight and influence that he is able to move a lot of people efficiently. I think he should use those powers to aid and help reform education. He says it is the most important job. I agree with him. Let's do something about it everyone.
You don't want to know what I'd do to fix the education system. I'd begin with Roman military punishments for failure. Decimation would give tenure a whole new meaning!
Another high school teacher here. Thank you for the support Adam. Its always nice to have people in our corner. I have only been teaching a few years, but I have quickly realized that k-12 is not for me. Hoping that higher ed will be an avenue I can pursue in the future.
My original plan was to teach higher education (life kinda got in the way of that...and, ya know, money...) because I knew early on that I did not have the patience for children. For me to teach I need the ability to tell someone who's acting a fool to "get out of my classroom." lol
As someone who has only been out of High school what will be 4 years this June I want to say Adam touches on a good point with the adversarial nature of schools and students but even he doesn’t do it justice. Students are treated like criminals and those that succeed and do well are treated as high level offenders. I can’t count how many times I was accused of cheating or having my parents write a paper for me because I scored really well. Or how many times a teacher would say “None of you should get higher than a B on this test.”. We aren’t set up to learn we are treated like criminals and graduation is our release date. The only and I mean the only teachers who actually took time and wanted us to learn and expand our knowledge were the shop teachers and the PE teachers. Every other class you were watched like a hawk, assumed to be cheating or something. It’s disgraceful.
Spandex and rubber are the best justification for rotary cutters... cheap, effective, precise ( I used to fabricate custom wet suit components).
Laser cutting rubber? How about a lab I worked in where we had to verify LOI (loss on ignition) of 50g samples of a particular rubber. We weighed it out, and the last person to leave for the day would shove it in the furnace and run for the door. It was in a good fume hood, but what billowed out was not all contained!
Help teachers and students? Give teachers the respect they deserve. Make kids responsible. Kids who cause trouble need to be dealt with appropriately. The teacher is not always wrong. Besides my parents, my early teachers are my heroes. My first grade teacher, Mrs. Smith, bought me Summer Weekly Reader when she found I we couldn't afford it. I waited every week for that magazine. I'm 61 and still think of Mrs. Smith at least once a week.
STEM...STEAM...once you add the 'A' you might as well call it: education...
The biggest gift I got from the educational system was: Learn how to learn (stuff yourself).
I think the old school system is out-of-date as we today have the internet, also each person should have a personalized education. Take me for instance I got an INTJ personality which needs to learn stuff in a certain way. Also instead of schools I wish I could have learnt in a more office/lab setting where my education as a kid, my job is to learn and to grow from it. For instance learn to manage your own business, by that I mean project based (supervised by a mentor). Let the kid decide what is interesting to learn next. Do the kid want to invent/create stuff, let them. Don't learn stuff you might need in the future but rather learn stuff as you need them, this would serve people better I think. Also tests are BS because it doesn't reflect on real-life experience (to complete a job-task).
I am not saying this is the perfect way to do things but are some of my retro-reflected thoughts about the future education system. I often say to my self: I wish I have been born 200 years later because things improves/evolves better over time. In a way we are kind of living in the second dark ages, especially when it comes to state-software-tracking the kids. I don't think most of us want to live in a 1984 world by choice.
As a parent who pays for both public (taxes against my will) and private school, Parents having the charges through taxes entitles them way too much when if they directly had to pay for the education it would help the system.
Cutting slippery fabric - rotary cutter is the easy button, but if you must use scissors, look for a pair with a serrated bottom edge - the fabric can't slip along the axis of the blade. Havel's, Fiskarn and Kai all make them. And water jetting is better for rubber than a laser.
My wife is a teacher. They used to be able to deduct supplies that come out of their own pocket until you know who put his tax plan into affect.
Orange man? REEEE! The solution to the problem is school vouchers. Let the public education system rot!
I bet you could do an episode just on scissors. Different size, styles, point shape, handle arrangement, and everyone's favorite... pinking shears. The importance of keeping them sharp and not using them to cut wire.
When you have an extra hour, watch the DR who episode titled "Blink" you'll be glad you did. It's stand alone, you'll be impressed with the quality of story telling and you'll want to share it with others.
And completely erase “love and monsters” from your memory.
I have a family member who is a teachers in Canada . the biggest thing she speak about is more resources to help the kids and what she says is a class size that has always be too large
I teach middle school math here in New Orleans. Federal mandate limiting the ratio of students to teachers. That's what's needed. There's a lot of talk about all these different programs, resources, self-guided learning services. 1 teacher in front of 12 students, you'll see achievement increase. Guaranteed.
Cutting with scissors has to do with the material being thin enough for a vertical shear force. Most rubber is thicker than any paper that you'd ever think of trying to use scissors on. Balloons, however, cut quite nicely with scissors.
These issues with education are, albeit to a smaller degree, applicable to most schools in first world countries.
More and more focus to organize a paper reality (tests, administrative load, papers, portfolio's etc.) and less focus on individual learning styles, difficulties and stumbling blocks.
There's a system of distrust towards students, teachers, schools, parents, which results in a system that draws the small amount of money there is into 'security measures', like IT infrastructure, gadgets etc.
I'm a part time teacher (I teach future radtechs in the Netherlands) outside of my job as a radtech. I would love to do more teaching and also work at high schools (I was a terrible student, but it was never really recognized by teachers. At least I had the option of setting things straight a couple years later), but the system of distrust in schools is too much of a deterrant right now.
I thought this was such a powerful video. Obviously an excellent question. This is the type of Q&A we need.
The thought exercise was a strong message for me, and teachers I’m sure would love this as self reflection! Who am I making that impact on. I had to share it with people, and I’m not even in the education sector
When you said "think about a teacher that meant something to you", two of them pop into my head immediately. A drafting class, and an industrial arts class. I actually think about them from time to time, almost wishing I had gone to any of my high school reunions not to see my peers but possibly talk to those teachers and tell them what an impression they made on me. Since that was 30 years ago I'm pretty sure they aren't around anymore.
Joe as a retired Industrial Arts teacher (mostly drafting) please let that teacher(s) know how much you appreciated what they did. I taught for 41 years and still hear from kids. It makes me so happy and brings so much joy when I hear a thank you. More than once it has brought tears to my eyes!
I still live in my childhood hometown and I still occasionally bump into my old teachers, which i always find a nice thing. I think it definitely has to go both ways though, there is some responsibility of the student to see the teacher as a person and individual too, but i admit that this would require the proper home education and mindset or they would just fall into the adversarial relationship you were talking about already.