August 15, 2025 • 27 mins
Why is there a bull on the Elmer's glue bottle? What did kids use to carry their books around before they had backpacks? And why does a giant cone tree get everyone excited about starting school in Germany? Will and Mango dig deep into their Trapper Keepers to bring you some stories you definitely didn't learn in school.
This episode originally aired on October 16, 2019.
Got a question you’d like us to answer? A rabbit hole you think we should explore? Email higeniuses@gmail.com or leave us a message at (302) 405-5925.
Follow us on Instagram @parttimegenius and Bluesky @parttimegenius.bsky.social!
Art by Henri-Jules-Jean Geoffroy via Wikimedia Commons.
Learn more about your ad choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Guess what, Mango? What's that?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Will?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
All right?
Speaker 3 (00:13):
I know I brought these glue bottles into the studio
here and that we have put what do you think
Maybe we're on our fifth round of spreading it on
our hands and peeling it off.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Just because it's so much fun.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Oh my god, it's so fun. But there's actually a
reason that I do this. I do this in classrooms
now because I'm here to prove a point. I actually
need you to know that the glue that kids use
in schools, it's not really.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Glue at all. What do you mean by that?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
It's a misnomer. And when I say misnomer to the kids,
they looked at me puzzled. But they need to know
what the word misnomer means as well. But true glue
is derived from natural materials like animal byproducts, plant resins,
and since school glue like Elmer's, is actually made from
synthetic materials, that technically makes it an adhesive. This is
a very very important point.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Man. I loved the idea of you just like stomping
around the second grade classrooms yelling stop putting that adheseve
in your mouth.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, you know how much I
travel these days, and so I try to make it
a point by stopping by at least two or three
classrooms to make this point. But sure, I mean nearly
every example prior to twentieth century was all natural, like
tree sap, beeswax, egg whites.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Animal blood.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Then in fact, the very first commercial glue company in
the UK made their glue from fish by products from
sturgeons to be specific.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Can you imagine what this felt like?
Speaker 1 (01:35):
So I actually remember Salvador Dali made this homemade cologne
for his wife and it was out of like glue
and fish parts. But you know, if you'd use that
UK glue instead, like he could have saved himself. It's
kind of like a glue life hack.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah, it totally is, and would have felt so good
to like peel it off your neck.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
And I think I'm gonna go another round here.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
But it wasn't just in the UK, like fish glue
was the norm in the US too, and at least
until Elmer's Glue all hit the market in the late
nineteen forties. Now, at that time, the Elmer's brand also
used natural ingredients in the glue, but the kind of
use were far less smelly than the sturgeon so Elmer's
glue all was originally produced by the Borden Company, which
(02:15):
you know is in the dairy business, and one of
the main ingredients in the early form of the glue
was casein, which you probably know is this protein found
in dairy milk and something the Bordon Company obviously had
a lot of.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
That's pretty interesting. So are there any advantages to using
casin over something like fish parts?
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Well, definitely the improved smell, not surprisingly, but case and
glue also spread more easily at dried clear much easier
to wash out. So if you think about, you know,
kids using it, that was really important. But despite all
of these improvements, for some reason, they're packaging left much
to be desired. Like the glue was originally sold in
(02:53):
this glass bottle, which you know was getting broken all
the time with kids handling, and it came with this
separate wooden applic that was attached to the side of
the bottle with just a rubber band, and so it
was frequently going missing.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
And so when school.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Kids across the country started investing in this stuff, that's
when Borden decided to wise up and they now adopted
this This what we think of is this very classic
white plastic bottle and has the orange dispenser tip on
the top.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
So you know me and you know I love glue knowledge.
But what is it that means you want to talk
about glue today?
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yeah, you really are some kind of an expert on this.
But I wanted to talk about school back in September.
But as everybody knows, we've all been a bit busy
around here. But since our kids are firmly back in school,
no vacation in sight, I thought it'd be fun to
explore some of the weird origin stories behind school supplies
and a few other things you might find in the classroom.
(03:49):
So it's time to bust out your protractor. Lock in
that retainer because class is back in session. Right Hey,
(04:17):
the podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will
Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend
mangesh Hot ticketter on the other side of that soundproof glass,
jotting down some notes in his Lisa Frank notebook.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
I'm so jealous of this.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Our friend and producer Loel Burlante check it out mega,
Like it's just this smiling panda writing on top of
a smiling dolphin, and they're both eating these rainbow colored
ice cream cones, which also seems to somehow be smiling.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
The moll finds the best stuff. It's incredible, and now
I'm smiling.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I am glad that you kicked this off talking about glue,
because it makes it less weird that now I want
to talk about backpacks. So these days, the first backpack
that most people own is a school backpack, but that
hasn't always been the case. So prior to the mid
twentieth century, most American students either carried their books to
class by hand, or else they wrapped a leather belt
or cloth strap around the books and then kind of
(05:11):
slung that over their shoulder. And a few students did
use small briefcase style satchels to carry their stuff to class,
but for the most part, students really went backless and
stuck with these trusty book straps instead.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
It's so weird to think about a world without backpacks, like,
especially since you're saying it wasn't all that long ago.
I mean, no one really thought about wearing a bag
on your back before the twentieth century.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I don't really understand that.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
So, I mean, rocksacks were I guess a thing before that,
and there were basically the drawstring bags that you slung
over your shoulder, but these zippered bags with dual straps
like that didn't come along until nineteen thirty eight. And
that was the year when a mountaineer named Jerry Cunningham
invented the first ever zippered backpack out of canvas cloth
and mostly you did this because he didn't like the
way traditional rocksacks slid around on his back when he
(05:56):
was climbing. So Jerry's design was a big hit with
hikers and campers and people like that, real outdoorsman. But
actually it would take another thirty years before his invention
would finally make its way off the trail and into
the classroom.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Again.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
I mean, it's hard to believe it would take this
long to realize that there was a market for these
beyond just mountaineers. So was it Jerry's idea to bring
it into the classroom as well?
Speaker 1 (06:17):
No, not exactly. I mean, he did keep playing with
his backpack. He made the first nylon backpack in nineteen
sixty seven, and his designs were mostly for outdoor living.
But it's actually that company, JanSport. Did you have a
Janzport growing up?
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Oh totally, yeah, that's multiple danceports despite the like lifetime guarantee.
I think I probably had three different jans Pots.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
I know we had between JanSport and LB, and I
had so many backpacks and they all had like life
lifetime guarantees, and I went through all of them. So
he designed this teardrop design and JanSport tweaked it a
little and they used it to win over students. But
that even makes it sound like a little more intentional
than it was. So the University of Washington had this
small sports shop inside their campus bookstore because so many
(06:59):
kids in their we're into climbing and hiking and whatever,
and so in nineteen sixty nine the shop began stalking
jan Sports new lightweight nylon backpack mainly is used as
like a day pack for these hikes, and when students
realized the bags were perfect for keeping books and supplies,
and it really took off.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
It's funny because a pretty similar thing happened with lunch boxes,
which was another surprisingly recent addition to the school supply.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Cannon, which is I guess people didn't want their sandwiches
wet for lunch.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
No, I don't.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
I don't know if you want your sandwiches wet, that's
so nasty. Kids were mostly just improvising, you know, through
the mid twentieth century or so, they'd use an old
cookie tin or a tobacco tin they had lying around somewhere,
And so it wasn't until the late nineteenth century that
dedicated lunch pails finally arrived on the scene.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
I always think that word lunch pails is so funny,
like the idea of carrying around a bucket full of food.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
I mean, they kind of were.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I mean, the original lunch pails for these small metal buckets,
except they did come with lids, and later versions took
on more of a like a toolbox or bread basket shape,
and they featured these clasps so you could keep the
lid shut when you carry them around, which is the
kind of lunchbox men took to work in the early
twentieth century. You can kind of visualize those images we've seen,
(08:13):
and pretty soon their children followed suit at school.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
So when did these bright colors and the cartoon characters, Like,
when did all that stuff get onto the lunchboxes.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
That actually happened pretty early, Like the first one, aim
specifically at kids, came in nineteen thirty five when the
Aladdin Company put a picture of Mickey Mouse on the front,
but with the depression, it didn't quite take off at
that time.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Yeah, I'm guessing funds for that sort of thing were
a little limited, and you know, foods at a premium,
not you know, not the things you're carrying it around in.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yeah, no, that's true.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
But you know, the Aladdin Company kept their idea for
this novelty lunch box in their back pocket, and when
TV started to take off, this was in the early
nineteen fifties, the company got another turn at this, and
so they released the metal lunch Box and Thermis that
featured a cruelly drawn picture of hop Along Cassidy. Well
that might sound pretty dull today, the hop lunch Box
(09:05):
was actually a massive hit. They sold six hundred thousand
of these things in a single year, and that success
was enough for another screen cowboy to take notice. This was,
of course, Roy Rogers, so he approached the Latin about
making a lunch box of his own, but the company
actually turned him away because they didn't think a second.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Cowboy lunchbox would sell.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
It's just too much cowboy. You don't want two Cowboys.
I'm guessing they were wrong about that, though, right.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
They were very wrong about this, because remember westerns were
a big deal in fifties entertainment, on the same scale
as like the superhero movies today, and there was absolutely
room on the shelf for two Cowboy lunchboxes.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
And Roy Rogers knew this.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
So to that end, Rogers partnered with a different company,
it was American Thermos, and then together they released a
lunchbox that was so popular and wound up selling two
and a half million units in nineteen fifty three.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Whoa.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Not only did Roy Rogers you know, this lunch box
sell through the roof, it also set a new benchmark
for lunchbox design. It had this full color illustration that
covered the entire box, and Thermos and so from their
lunchboxes really took off. Companies started churning out countless designs
with TV movie, comic book characters. The biggest hit was
(10:23):
this Disney lunch box painted to resemble a school bus
that was carrying Mickey and the other Disney characters along
Like Pinocchio and Dumbo, and so over nine million of
those school lunchboxes were sold, making it the most popular
lunch box ever made.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
That's pretty incredible. So where lunchbox is still mostly metal
at that point or had they already switched over to plastic.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
No, these were all still metal, and when all was
said and done, roughly one hundred and twenty million metal
lunch boxes were sold between nineteen fifty and nineteen seventy.
The party kind of ended in nineteen seventy two, though,
when the state of Florida banned metal lunch box is
from schools. They were you worried that kids were using
these heavy boxes as weapons, which led to the plastic
(11:07):
boxes that we've seen in more recent years and the
eventual declining sales of lunch boxes in general.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
So we've covered two of the most quintessential school supplies
I feel, like backpacks and lunchboxes. But here's another thing
I hadn't thought about in a while, and that's the
humble plastic recorder, which is still used in music classes today.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
You know, I have always wondered, like, how has decided
that every kid in America should learn how to play
the recorder? Like I've always just assumed someone on the
school board was in cahoots with the manufacturer, and that's
how it somehow took off.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Yeah, so I was actually curious about that too, And
it turns out that it's largely thanks to the influence
of this famous German composer whose music theory became the
basis for a lot of the school music programs we
see today. His name was Carl Orff, and while his
name might not ring a bell, you've definitely heard his
most famous work, and at least one movie trailer. It's
(12:02):
called Carmina Burana and it sounds like this.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Yeah, that definitely rings a bell. I mean, it's kind
of the go to hook for every epic movie since
the nineteen nineties exactly.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
But anyway, so Orf's approach to teaching music stress the
importance of rhythm and creative thinking rather than just memorizing
musical notations. And he thought the best way for a
kid to learn music was by teaching him to play
a simple, accessible instrument that kind of mimic their own
vocal range. And the soprano recorder perfectly fit that bill,
because you know, at its core, the recorder is practically
(12:44):
just a whistle, and unlike more complicated instruments, there are
no strings to strum. You don't have to purse your
lips in any strange way. You just kind of blow
and out comes this screechy, high pitched tone. At least
that's what I hear from my kids. But if you
cover this hole or that hole with your fingers, you
can actually change the notes you play. But the recorder's
classroom dominance wasn't cemented until the nineteen sixties, and that's
(13:07):
when advances in manufacturing finally allowed the instruments to be
mass produced in plastic. The plastic recorders were especially attractive
to educators because they were cheap enough that you could
buy them in bulk, but still durable enough that you
know they'd last, and they had a pretty good sound.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
I do have to say, I mean, you're being pretty
cavalier about potentially alienating all those professional recorder players that
might be in our audience. I think you should be
a little bit more careful.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
I think you're right, actually, And Gabe, who did this research,
warned me that recorders used to be considered a pretty
serious instrument. According to experts, the recorders heyday was probably
during the Baroque era when composers like Bach and Vivaldi
would actually crank out pieces that showcased recorders in all
different sizes, and the recorder kind of got offstaged when
the flute came into Europe and Asia and gradually stole
(13:51):
the show. But adult musicians do still compose for and
play the recorder today, according to Susan Burns, who's the
administrative director of the American Recorder Society, quote, the recorder
is a professional instrument in its own right. Everyone says, oh,
it's so easy to play, but it takes a lifetime
to master, you.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Know, Tony, I don't know if you've ever seen this
clip that went viral of you hear the song turned
down for what being played, and then right after they
say that, it pans to this group of elementary school
students and they start playing the like chorus or whatever
on their recorders.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
It was pretty great.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I know, we've got so much more. So let's take
a quick break.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
They're listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking about
the strange stories behind school supplies. All right, Mango, So
as you know, there's a question every parent has to
ask sooner or later, and that is, how can I
keep my kid from freaking out about their first day
of school? Like, it's a scary amount of change for
(15:02):
a child to deal with, and there's no universal answer
for how to combat that fear. But the Germans and
Austrians have what's probably the closest thing I think, and
what is that Well, basically you distract them with a
giant cone full of presents. I mean, it seems so
obvious in hindsight, but this is a real thing in
Germany and Austria. So each year since the early eighteen hundreds,
(15:24):
the latest crop of first graders are gifted with what's
called a shultata, which is to help celebrate their very
first day of school. The name translates as school bag,
but it's more like this giant cone shaped Christmas stocking.
So parents will fashion it out of paper and it's
sometimes as big as two or three feet tall, and
(15:45):
then they fill it with like candy and toys and
all these other treats to help make the first day
of school more special.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Actually, just look this up. It's crazy. These cones are
like as big as the kids. It's insane.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, there is.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
So all the first year students just lugged these giant
cones around like all day.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Well not anymore, no.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
I mean nowadays most kids get their shulta does at
home and leave it there. But back in the early
days of the tradition, kids actually had to rush to
the school yard and pick their own from this tree
that was said to grow them only when it was
time for the school year to start.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
That's amazing. I can imagine kids just like waiting at
the gates and then running in and getting these plucking
these cones from truths. It is kind of funny that
you brought up cones, because I actually have the goods
on a different sort of cone that was supposed to
I guess bring up the opposite reaction, and that's the
dance cap. So during the Victorian era, this goofy cone
shaped hat became a symbolic form of discipline in European
(16:44):
and American schools alike, and if a student acted up
in class or didn't know the answer to a question,
they'd have to go sit in the corner. And I'm
sure you've seen cartoons of like Dennis the Menace or
whatever where he's wearing a dance cap sitting in the corner.
But the hope was all this embarrassment would curtail future
misbehaved Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I mean, there's nothing like a little public shaming to
keep the kids in line.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
You know.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Well, it must have been pretty traumatizing for the kids.
But the practice actually continued in the US and Europe
well into the twentieth century, and Dunce caps were pretty
common all the way up until the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Oh, I do think of it as like a much
older image. I didn't realize they lasted that long.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
So here's the wildest part and something I hadn't heard
before this week. But we think about the Dunce cap
as something that signifies like a lack of intelligence, and
it actually began as a symbol of a really accomplished scholar.
Born sometime in the thirteenth century. His name was John
Dunn Scotis, and he was a Franciscan priest and a linguist.
He studied theology and philosophy at Oxford and taught classes
(17:42):
at the University of Paris. And he even had a
group of students and others that kind of followed his
teachings and lived near him, and they called themselves Duntsmen.
So Atlas Obscura has an article about it, and it says, quote,
Scotis was a renaissance man centuries before the Renaissance even
took place. But all of that said, it should be
known that Scotus liked to wear a big, pointy wizard
(18:04):
hat whenever he went out in public. So while he
was this incredibly smart guy, his sense of fashion might
be a little lacking or a little too forward, you know,
depending on how you how you look at it. But
the cool thing is, and no one is really sure
whether Scotis was inspired by depictions of wizards that he'd seen,
or whether it was his own cap that inspired the
wizard's look that we think of now.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
I think in either case, it sounds like the takeaway
here is that wise people wear very pointy hats. I
think that's the only thing I could take from it always.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
But you know, Scotis even went a step further. He
actually believed that the conical shape of his hat kind
of functioned as this metaphysical reverse funnel, with knowledge collecting
at the pointy end and then flowing down around his brain.
And so, as silly as it sounds, the idea caught
on with academics of the day, and the cone shaped
cap became the symbol of both duntsman and of high
(18:55):
intelligence in general.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
It's sort of bizarre, So like what happened? Like what
changed the hats from a mark of pride to this
symbol of shame.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I guess, funnily enough, it's actually the Renaissance that changed it.
So by the mid sixteenth century, popular theology and philosophy
had moved away from Scotus and his teachings, and that
lack of popular favor made the remaining Duntsman look silly
and kind of outdated. Plus their pointy hats didn't help,
so over time, the Duntsman and the dunce cap kind
of became the symbol of foolishness and stupidity.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
It's such a strange legacy.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
On the bright side, though, historians have kind of vindicated
Scotis over the years, and he's not held up as
one of the finest thinkers of the Middle Ages, and
Pope John Paul the Second even beatified him back in
nineteen ninety three for his work as a religious scholar.
So who knows, maybe we can turn things around for
this famous cap too. Anyway, we've got more to come,
but first a quick break. Welcome back to part time genius.
(20:02):
So will you've probably heard by now that sitting is
the new smoking when it comes to health concerns, and
that's why so many offices these days are switching the
standing desk for their workers. But you know, despite all
the studies touting the health benefits of standing over sitting,
it's unusual to find standing desk in elementary.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Schools, which I mean, that's a good point because it
is kind of weird when you think about it. I mean,
you assume all the benefits of standing desk apply just
as well as students as they would to adult office workers.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Yeah, I mean, you're exactly right. So there was this
study that came out last year and it found that
third graders who used a standing desk at school were
more focused in the classroom and more active overall compared
to kids of the same age who use traditional sit
down desk. And another study came up with the same
results for second through fourth graders, setting a twelve percent
increase in engagement from students who had the option of
(20:51):
standing in class.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
I mean, it does sound like things might change in
the not two distant future, and maybe we'll see standing
desk become more of the norm in these classrooms.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
So, a handful of elementary schools across the country have
already started adding standing desk to their classrooms, and I'm
guessing more and more schools will jump on the trend
as they become more affordable. But in the meantime, one
elementary school teacher in California, Lynn Akers, has already made
the switch to standing desks, and she explained the benefits
this way. Quote, children naturally learn through movement. If you
(21:22):
restrict them to sitting, they interrupt you more and maybe
asked to go to the bathroom a lot. They need
to get their energy out, which makes sense.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
But you know, on the other hand, restricting kids this
standing all day long could also lead to just as
many problems.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
I mean, what if they get tired.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yeah. So, schools are actually using a mix of standing
and sitting desks, which lets the kids choose the option
what works best for them. And even at schools where
there are only standing desks, they tend to provide kids
with these tall chairs or stools so that just in
case they're tired, they can rest their legs.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
It's definitely a smart move And you know, since you
mentioned how kids need an outlet for their energy, I
do want to touch on something that's kind of become
really a controversial topic. Are you talking about recess? I
am definitely talking about recess. You know, we have to
talk about recess. But instead of talking about how some
schools have tried to abolish recess, which maybe was where
you were thinking, I actually wanted to look at how
(22:13):
we can make recess an even more effective form of
exercise than it already is. So, according to researchers in Denmark,
the perfect place to start is with our school's playgrounds.
In twenty fifteen, Danis researchers conducted a study where they
had hundreds of elementary students where accelerometers and these GPS
trackers during their school year so that their activity levels
(22:36):
at recess could actually be monitored. But here's the thing.
The kids didn't all attend the same school or have
recess on the same playground, and this variance allowed the
researchers to see which types of schoolyard are more or
less conducive to exercise, and so, based on the data
from these accelerometers, the children in the study were significantly
(22:56):
more active when playing on grassy areas and its sites
featuring playground equipment, and on the other end of the spectrum,
concrete lots were the worst of the bunch, so they
elicited the least energy expenditure of all the environments studied.
So the hope is that with this kind of insight
on what works best, developers can make better decisions and
(23:16):
create playgrounds and school yards where you know, it's easier
and more fun for kids to choose to be active
on their own.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Which is interesting. So what kinds of stuff are we
talking about though, Like, because I'm guessing it's something beyond
your typical slides and monkey bars.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
So the researchers behind this study helped a few different
schools renovate their playgrounds and the main focus was to
widen the variety of activities on offer. So in addition
to the standard playground fair like swing sets, they added
these areas specifically designed for dancing and climbing and skating,
and they even dedicated this trampoline area.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
And I mean, really, who wouldn't.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Want to spend at least an hour a day in
a place like that all those options?
Speaker 1 (23:57):
I know it does sound pretty fun. And in the end,
isn't that the only school supply that a kid really needs?
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Fun?
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Pens, pencils, notebooks for lers, there's probably a few other things.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Yeah, it spoken like a true grown up, So why
don't we keep the fun going with a fact off?
So here's a quick one on crayons. According to a
Yale University study, Crayola crayons are one of the most
(24:26):
recognizable sense for adults, ranking at number eighteen of all
the sense they tried, and it beat out Believe this
or not, cheese and bleach. Ah.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
That's impressive.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
All right. Well, speaking of names for crayons, did you
know that Crayola uses multiple names to refer to the
same colors. So the practice started early, with the company
using fifty four names to refer to just thirty eight
separate colors by the end of nineteen oh three, and
things only balloon from there. So you fast forward to
twenty fifteen and Traila had to signed seven hundred and
(25:02):
fifty nine names to just three hundred and thirty one colors. Now,
to be clear, though, this doesn't mean the company is
stuffing duplicate crayons and the same box under a different name,
but if you were to open different boxes, you might
actually find that the same blue crayon is simultaneously labeled
as Liberty blue, iron Man blue, or Birdy blue, depending
(25:23):
on the box that you get.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
So pencils may seem a little old fashioned as more
kids learn to type and use pens, but don't count
them out just yet. According to the Chicago Tribune, they
keep coming back into fashion every so often, and when
Sudoku first became a craze, pencils actually had a seven
hundred percent increase in sales in London.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Holy cow.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
All right, Well, here's a quick one.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
I didn't realize until our friend Aaron McCarthy did this
story on trapper keepers. So apparently the unique folders were
called trappers because they kept papers in them so well,
and then the binder was called a trapper keeper because
it held all the trappers to get You know.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I had always wondered why it had that name. It
is such a strange name for a product that I
absolutely love. So you gave us the skinny on Elmer's
glue at the top of the show. So now I'm
actually going to clue you in on Elmer himself because
believe it or not, Elmer wasn't created just for the
glue bottle. He was actually based on a real bull
that the Bordon Company used to advertise its products at
(26:21):
the nineteen thirty nine World's Fair. So the original plan
was to have the dairy company's famous spokescow, Elsie, appear
at the event, but she was actually busy shooting the
film version of Little Women or the sequel. I guess
Little Man. It's so bizarre, but she was on set,
so Bordon knew they couldn't show up to the World's
Fair empty handed, so at the last minute, the company
(26:41):
found a bull to use instead, and at the fair,
the company dubbed him Elmer and announced that he was
the unmentioned husband of Elsie, which I'm sure Elsie wasn't
too happy about it, but the public loved the idea
and Elmer was quickly made the mascot for the Bordon
Chemical division, you know, the other side of the company,
And that's how we wound up on the glue that
would eventually bear his name.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
That was a much more involved origin story than I
expected for the fact off, especially, but I do like
the way you brought the episode full circle. So just
for that, I think I'm gonna give you the trophy
and I will take it all right. Well, that's going
to do it for today's Part Time Genius for myself, Mango, Gabe,
and Lowell. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back
soon with another episode. Part Time Genius is a production
(27:38):
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite show.
Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Guess what, Mango? What's that?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Will?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
All right?
Speaker 3 (00:13):
I know I brought these glue bottles into the studio
here and that we have put what do you think
Maybe we're on our fifth round of spreading it on
our hands and peeling it off.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Just because it's so much fun.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Oh my god, it's so fun. But there's actually a
reason that I do this. I do this in classrooms
now because I'm here to prove a point. I actually
need you to know that the glue that kids use
in schools, it's not really.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Glue at all. What do you mean by that?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
It's a misnomer. And when I say misnomer to the kids,
they looked at me puzzled. But they need to know
what the word misnomer means as well. But true glue
is derived from natural materials like animal byproducts, plant resins,
and since school glue like Elmer's, is actually made from
synthetic materials, that technically makes it an adhesive. This is
a very very important point.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Man. I loved the idea of you just like stomping
around the second grade classrooms yelling stop putting that adheseve
in your mouth.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, you know how much I
travel these days, and so I try to make it
a point by stopping by at least two or three
classrooms to make this point. But sure, I mean nearly
every example prior to twentieth century was all natural, like
tree sap, beeswax, egg whites.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Animal blood.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Then in fact, the very first commercial glue company in
the UK made their glue from fish by products from
sturgeons to be specific.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Can you imagine what this felt like?
Speaker 1 (01:35):
So I actually remember Salvador Dali made this homemade cologne
for his wife and it was out of like glue
and fish parts. But you know, if you'd use that
UK glue instead, like he could have saved himself. It's
kind of like a glue life hack.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah, it totally is, and would have felt so good
to like peel it off your neck.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
And I think I'm gonna go another round here.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
But it wasn't just in the UK, like fish glue
was the norm in the US too, and at least
until Elmer's Glue all hit the market in the late
nineteen forties. Now, at that time, the Elmer's brand also
used natural ingredients in the glue, but the kind of
use were far less smelly than the sturgeon so Elmer's
glue all was originally produced by the Borden Company, which
(02:15):
you know is in the dairy business, and one of
the main ingredients in the early form of the glue
was casein, which you probably know is this protein found
in dairy milk and something the Bordon Company obviously had
a lot of.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
That's pretty interesting. So are there any advantages to using
casin over something like fish parts?
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Well, definitely the improved smell, not surprisingly, but case and
glue also spread more easily at dried clear much easier
to wash out. So if you think about, you know,
kids using it, that was really important. But despite all
of these improvements, for some reason, they're packaging left much
to be desired. Like the glue was originally sold in
(02:53):
this glass bottle, which you know was getting broken all
the time with kids handling, and it came with this
separate wooden applic that was attached to the side of
the bottle with just a rubber band, and so it
was frequently going missing.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
And so when school.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Kids across the country started investing in this stuff, that's
when Borden decided to wise up and they now adopted
this This what we think of is this very classic
white plastic bottle and has the orange dispenser tip on
the top.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
So you know me and you know I love glue knowledge.
But what is it that means you want to talk
about glue today?
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yeah, you really are some kind of an expert on this.
But I wanted to talk about school back in September.
But as everybody knows, we've all been a bit busy
around here. But since our kids are firmly back in school,
no vacation in sight, I thought it'd be fun to
explore some of the weird origin stories behind school supplies
and a few other things you might find in the classroom.
(03:49):
So it's time to bust out your protractor. Lock in
that retainer because class is back in session. Right Hey,
(04:17):
the podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will
Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend
mangesh Hot ticketter on the other side of that soundproof glass,
jotting down some notes in his Lisa Frank notebook.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
I'm so jealous of this.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Our friend and producer Loel Burlante check it out mega,
Like it's just this smiling panda writing on top of
a smiling dolphin, and they're both eating these rainbow colored
ice cream cones, which also seems to somehow be smiling.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
The moll finds the best stuff. It's incredible, and now
I'm smiling.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I am glad that you kicked this off talking about glue,
because it makes it less weird that now I want
to talk about backpacks. So these days, the first backpack
that most people own is a school backpack, but that
hasn't always been the case. So prior to the mid
twentieth century, most American students either carried their books to
class by hand, or else they wrapped a leather belt
or cloth strap around the books and then kind of
(05:11):
slung that over their shoulder. And a few students did
use small briefcase style satchels to carry their stuff to class,
but for the most part, students really went backless and
stuck with these trusty book straps instead.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
It's so weird to think about a world without backpacks, like,
especially since you're saying it wasn't all that long ago.
I mean, no one really thought about wearing a bag
on your back before the twentieth century.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I don't really understand that.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
So, I mean, rocksacks were I guess a thing before that,
and there were basically the drawstring bags that you slung
over your shoulder, but these zippered bags with dual straps
like that didn't come along until nineteen thirty eight. And
that was the year when a mountaineer named Jerry Cunningham
invented the first ever zippered backpack out of canvas cloth
and mostly you did this because he didn't like the
way traditional rocksacks slid around on his back when he
(05:56):
was climbing. So Jerry's design was a big hit with
hikers and campers and people like that, real outdoorsman. But
actually it would take another thirty years before his invention
would finally make its way off the trail and into
the classroom.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Again.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
I mean, it's hard to believe it would take this
long to realize that there was a market for these
beyond just mountaineers. So was it Jerry's idea to bring
it into the classroom as well?
Speaker 1 (06:17):
No, not exactly. I mean, he did keep playing with
his backpack. He made the first nylon backpack in nineteen
sixty seven, and his designs were mostly for outdoor living.
But it's actually that company, JanSport. Did you have a
Janzport growing up?
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Oh totally, yeah, that's multiple danceports despite the like lifetime guarantee.
I think I probably had three different jans Pots.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
I know we had between JanSport and LB, and I
had so many backpacks and they all had like life
lifetime guarantees, and I went through all of them. So
he designed this teardrop design and JanSport tweaked it a
little and they used it to win over students. But
that even makes it sound like a little more intentional
than it was. So the University of Washington had this
small sports shop inside their campus bookstore because so many
(06:59):
kids in their we're into climbing and hiking and whatever,
and so in nineteen sixty nine the shop began stalking
jan Sports new lightweight nylon backpack mainly is used as
like a day pack for these hikes, and when students
realized the bags were perfect for keeping books and supplies,
and it really took off.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
It's funny because a pretty similar thing happened with lunch boxes,
which was another surprisingly recent addition to the school supply.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Cannon, which is I guess people didn't want their sandwiches
wet for lunch.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
No, I don't.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
I don't know if you want your sandwiches wet, that's
so nasty. Kids were mostly just improvising, you know, through
the mid twentieth century or so, they'd use an old
cookie tin or a tobacco tin they had lying around somewhere,
And so it wasn't until the late nineteenth century that
dedicated lunch pails finally arrived on the scene.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
I always think that word lunch pails is so funny,
like the idea of carrying around a bucket full of food.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
I mean, they kind of were.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I mean, the original lunch pails for these small metal buckets,
except they did come with lids, and later versions took
on more of a like a toolbox or bread basket shape,
and they featured these clasps so you could keep the
lid shut when you carry them around, which is the
kind of lunchbox men took to work in the early
twentieth century. You can kind of visualize those images we've seen,
(08:13):
and pretty soon their children followed suit at school.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
So when did these bright colors and the cartoon characters, Like,
when did all that stuff get onto the lunchboxes.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
That actually happened pretty early, Like the first one, aim
specifically at kids, came in nineteen thirty five when the
Aladdin Company put a picture of Mickey Mouse on the front,
but with the depression, it didn't quite take off at
that time.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Yeah, I'm guessing funds for that sort of thing were
a little limited, and you know, foods at a premium,
not you know, not the things you're carrying it around in.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yeah, no, that's true.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
But you know, the Aladdin Company kept their idea for
this novelty lunch box in their back pocket, and when
TV started to take off, this was in the early
nineteen fifties, the company got another turn at this, and
so they released the metal lunch Box and Thermis that
featured a cruelly drawn picture of hop Along Cassidy. Well
that might sound pretty dull today, the hop lunch Box
(09:05):
was actually a massive hit. They sold six hundred thousand
of these things in a single year, and that success
was enough for another screen cowboy to take notice. This was,
of course, Roy Rogers, so he approached the Latin about
making a lunch box of his own, but the company
actually turned him away because they didn't think a second.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Cowboy lunchbox would sell.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
It's just too much cowboy. You don't want two Cowboys.
I'm guessing they were wrong about that, though, right.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
They were very wrong about this, because remember westerns were
a big deal in fifties entertainment, on the same scale
as like the superhero movies today, and there was absolutely
room on the shelf for two Cowboy lunchboxes.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
And Roy Rogers knew this.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
So to that end, Rogers partnered with a different company,
it was American Thermos, and then together they released a
lunchbox that was so popular and wound up selling two
and a half million units in nineteen fifty three.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Whoa.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Not only did Roy Rogers you know, this lunch box
sell through the roof, it also set a new benchmark
for lunchbox design. It had this full color illustration that
covered the entire box, and Thermos and so from their
lunchboxes really took off. Companies started churning out countless designs
with TV movie, comic book characters. The biggest hit was
(10:23):
this Disney lunch box painted to resemble a school bus
that was carrying Mickey and the other Disney characters along
Like Pinocchio and Dumbo, and so over nine million of
those school lunchboxes were sold, making it the most popular
lunch box ever made.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
That's pretty incredible. So where lunchbox is still mostly metal
at that point or had they already switched over to plastic.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
No, these were all still metal, and when all was
said and done, roughly one hundred and twenty million metal
lunch boxes were sold between nineteen fifty and nineteen seventy.
The party kind of ended in nineteen seventy two, though,
when the state of Florida banned metal lunch box is
from schools. They were you worried that kids were using
these heavy boxes as weapons, which led to the plastic
(11:07):
boxes that we've seen in more recent years and the
eventual declining sales of lunch boxes in general.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
So we've covered two of the most quintessential school supplies
I feel, like backpacks and lunchboxes. But here's another thing
I hadn't thought about in a while, and that's the
humble plastic recorder, which is still used in music classes today.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
You know, I have always wondered, like, how has decided
that every kid in America should learn how to play
the recorder? Like I've always just assumed someone on the
school board was in cahoots with the manufacturer, and that's
how it somehow took off.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Yeah, so I was actually curious about that too, And
it turns out that it's largely thanks to the influence
of this famous German composer whose music theory became the
basis for a lot of the school music programs we
see today. His name was Carl Orff, and while his
name might not ring a bell, you've definitely heard his
most famous work, and at least one movie trailer. It's
(12:02):
called Carmina Burana and it sounds like this.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Yeah, that definitely rings a bell. I mean, it's kind
of the go to hook for every epic movie since
the nineteen nineties exactly.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
But anyway, so Orf's approach to teaching music stress the
importance of rhythm and creative thinking rather than just memorizing
musical notations. And he thought the best way for a
kid to learn music was by teaching him to play
a simple, accessible instrument that kind of mimic their own
vocal range. And the soprano recorder perfectly fit that bill,
because you know, at its core, the recorder is practically
(12:44):
just a whistle, and unlike more complicated instruments, there are
no strings to strum. You don't have to purse your
lips in any strange way. You just kind of blow
and out comes this screechy, high pitched tone. At least
that's what I hear from my kids. But if you
cover this hole or that hole with your fingers, you
can actually change the notes you play. But the recorder's
classroom dominance wasn't cemented until the nineteen sixties, and that's
(13:07):
when advances in manufacturing finally allowed the instruments to be
mass produced in plastic. The plastic recorders were especially attractive
to educators because they were cheap enough that you could
buy them in bulk, but still durable enough that you
know they'd last, and they had a pretty good sound.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
I do have to say, I mean, you're being pretty
cavalier about potentially alienating all those professional recorder players that
might be in our audience. I think you should be
a little bit more careful.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
I think you're right, actually, And Gabe, who did this research,
warned me that recorders used to be considered a pretty
serious instrument. According to experts, the recorders heyday was probably
during the Baroque era when composers like Bach and Vivaldi
would actually crank out pieces that showcased recorders in all
different sizes, and the recorder kind of got offstaged when
the flute came into Europe and Asia and gradually stole
(13:51):
the show. But adult musicians do still compose for and
play the recorder today, according to Susan Burns, who's the
administrative director of the American Recorder Society, quote, the recorder
is a professional instrument in its own right. Everyone says, oh,
it's so easy to play, but it takes a lifetime
to master, you.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Know, Tony, I don't know if you've ever seen this
clip that went viral of you hear the song turned
down for what being played, and then right after they
say that, it pans to this group of elementary school
students and they start playing the like chorus or whatever
on their recorders.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
It was pretty great.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I know, we've got so much more. So let's take
a quick break.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
They're listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking about
the strange stories behind school supplies. All right, Mango, So
as you know, there's a question every parent has to
ask sooner or later, and that is, how can I
keep my kid from freaking out about their first day
of school? Like, it's a scary amount of change for
(15:02):
a child to deal with, and there's no universal answer
for how to combat that fear. But the Germans and
Austrians have what's probably the closest thing I think, and
what is that Well, basically you distract them with a
giant cone full of presents. I mean, it seems so
obvious in hindsight, but this is a real thing in
Germany and Austria. So each year since the early eighteen hundreds,
(15:24):
the latest crop of first graders are gifted with what's
called a shultata, which is to help celebrate their very
first day of school. The name translates as school bag,
but it's more like this giant cone shaped Christmas stocking.
So parents will fashion it out of paper and it's
sometimes as big as two or three feet tall, and
(15:45):
then they fill it with like candy and toys and
all these other treats to help make the first day
of school more special.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Actually, just look this up. It's crazy. These cones are
like as big as the kids. It's insane.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, there is.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
So all the first year students just lugged these giant
cones around like all day.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Well not anymore, no.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
I mean nowadays most kids get their shulta does at
home and leave it there. But back in the early
days of the tradition, kids actually had to rush to
the school yard and pick their own from this tree
that was said to grow them only when it was
time for the school year to start.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
That's amazing. I can imagine kids just like waiting at
the gates and then running in and getting these plucking
these cones from truths. It is kind of funny that
you brought up cones, because I actually have the goods
on a different sort of cone that was supposed to
I guess bring up the opposite reaction, and that's the
dance cap. So during the Victorian era, this goofy cone
shaped hat became a symbolic form of discipline in European
(16:44):
and American schools alike, and if a student acted up
in class or didn't know the answer to a question,
they'd have to go sit in the corner. And I'm
sure you've seen cartoons of like Dennis the Menace or
whatever where he's wearing a dance cap sitting in the corner.
But the hope was all this embarrassment would curtail future
misbehaved Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I mean, there's nothing like a little public shaming to
keep the kids in line.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
You know.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Well, it must have been pretty traumatizing for the kids.
But the practice actually continued in the US and Europe
well into the twentieth century, and Dunce caps were pretty
common all the way up until the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Oh, I do think of it as like a much
older image. I didn't realize they lasted that long.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
So here's the wildest part and something I hadn't heard
before this week. But we think about the Dunce cap
as something that signifies like a lack of intelligence, and
it actually began as a symbol of a really accomplished scholar.
Born sometime in the thirteenth century. His name was John
Dunn Scotis, and he was a Franciscan priest and a linguist.
He studied theology and philosophy at Oxford and taught classes
(17:42):
at the University of Paris. And he even had a
group of students and others that kind of followed his
teachings and lived near him, and they called themselves Duntsmen.
So Atlas Obscura has an article about it, and it says, quote,
Scotis was a renaissance man centuries before the Renaissance even
took place. But all of that said, it should be
known that Scotus liked to wear a big, pointy wizard
(18:04):
hat whenever he went out in public. So while he
was this incredibly smart guy, his sense of fashion might
be a little lacking or a little too forward, you know,
depending on how you how you look at it. But
the cool thing is, and no one is really sure
whether Scotis was inspired by depictions of wizards that he'd seen,
or whether it was his own cap that inspired the
wizard's look that we think of now.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
I think in either case, it sounds like the takeaway
here is that wise people wear very pointy hats. I
think that's the only thing I could take from it always.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
But you know, Scotis even went a step further. He
actually believed that the conical shape of his hat kind
of functioned as this metaphysical reverse funnel, with knowledge collecting
at the pointy end and then flowing down around his brain.
And so, as silly as it sounds, the idea caught
on with academics of the day, and the cone shaped
cap became the symbol of both duntsman and of high
(18:55):
intelligence in general.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
It's sort of bizarre, So like what happened? Like what
changed the hats from a mark of pride to this
symbol of shame.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I guess, funnily enough, it's actually the Renaissance that changed it.
So by the mid sixteenth century, popular theology and philosophy
had moved away from Scotus and his teachings, and that
lack of popular favor made the remaining Duntsman look silly
and kind of outdated. Plus their pointy hats didn't help,
so over time, the Duntsman and the dunce cap kind
of became the symbol of foolishness and stupidity.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
It's such a strange legacy.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
On the bright side, though, historians have kind of vindicated
Scotis over the years, and he's not held up as
one of the finest thinkers of the Middle Ages, and
Pope John Paul the Second even beatified him back in
nineteen ninety three for his work as a religious scholar.
So who knows, maybe we can turn things around for
this famous cap too. Anyway, we've got more to come,
but first a quick break. Welcome back to part time genius.
(20:02):
So will you've probably heard by now that sitting is
the new smoking when it comes to health concerns, and
that's why so many offices these days are switching the
standing desk for their workers. But you know, despite all
the studies touting the health benefits of standing over sitting,
it's unusual to find standing desk in elementary.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Schools, which I mean, that's a good point because it
is kind of weird when you think about it. I mean,
you assume all the benefits of standing desk apply just
as well as students as they would to adult office workers.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Yeah, I mean, you're exactly right. So there was this
study that came out last year and it found that
third graders who used a standing desk at school were
more focused in the classroom and more active overall compared
to kids of the same age who use traditional sit
down desk. And another study came up with the same
results for second through fourth graders, setting a twelve percent
increase in engagement from students who had the option of
(20:51):
standing in class.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
I mean, it does sound like things might change in
the not two distant future, and maybe we'll see standing
desk become more of the norm in these classrooms.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
So, a handful of elementary schools across the country have
already started adding standing desk to their classrooms, and I'm
guessing more and more schools will jump on the trend
as they become more affordable. But in the meantime, one
elementary school teacher in California, Lynn Akers, has already made
the switch to standing desks, and she explained the benefits
this way. Quote, children naturally learn through movement. If you
(21:22):
restrict them to sitting, they interrupt you more and maybe
asked to go to the bathroom a lot. They need
to get their energy out, which makes sense.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
But you know, on the other hand, restricting kids this
standing all day long could also lead to just as
many problems.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
I mean, what if they get tired.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yeah. So, schools are actually using a mix of standing
and sitting desks, which lets the kids choose the option
what works best for them. And even at schools where
there are only standing desks, they tend to provide kids
with these tall chairs or stools so that just in
case they're tired, they can rest their legs.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
It's definitely a smart move And you know, since you
mentioned how kids need an outlet for their energy, I
do want to touch on something that's kind of become
really a controversial topic. Are you talking about recess? I
am definitely talking about recess. You know, we have to
talk about recess. But instead of talking about how some
schools have tried to abolish recess, which maybe was where
you were thinking, I actually wanted to look at how
(22:13):
we can make recess an even more effective form of
exercise than it already is. So, according to researchers in Denmark,
the perfect place to start is with our school's playgrounds.
In twenty fifteen, Danis researchers conducted a study where they
had hundreds of elementary students where accelerometers and these GPS
trackers during their school year so that their activity levels
(22:36):
at recess could actually be monitored. But here's the thing.
The kids didn't all attend the same school or have
recess on the same playground, and this variance allowed the
researchers to see which types of schoolyard are more or
less conducive to exercise, and so, based on the data
from these accelerometers, the children in the study were significantly
(22:56):
more active when playing on grassy areas and its sites
featuring playground equipment, and on the other end of the spectrum,
concrete lots were the worst of the bunch, so they
elicited the least energy expenditure of all the environments studied.
So the hope is that with this kind of insight
on what works best, developers can make better decisions and
(23:16):
create playgrounds and school yards where you know, it's easier
and more fun for kids to choose to be active
on their own.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Which is interesting. So what kinds of stuff are we
talking about though, Like, because I'm guessing it's something beyond
your typical slides and monkey bars.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
So the researchers behind this study helped a few different
schools renovate their playgrounds and the main focus was to
widen the variety of activities on offer. So in addition
to the standard playground fair like swing sets, they added
these areas specifically designed for dancing and climbing and skating,
and they even dedicated this trampoline area.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
And I mean, really, who wouldn't.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Want to spend at least an hour a day in
a place like that all those options?
Speaker 1 (23:57):
I know it does sound pretty fun. And in the end,
isn't that the only school supply that a kid really needs?
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Fun?
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Pens, pencils, notebooks for lers, there's probably a few other things.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Yeah, it spoken like a true grown up, So why
don't we keep the fun going with a fact off?
So here's a quick one on crayons. According to a
Yale University study, Crayola crayons are one of the most
(24:26):
recognizable sense for adults, ranking at number eighteen of all
the sense they tried, and it beat out Believe this
or not, cheese and bleach. Ah.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
That's impressive.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
All right. Well, speaking of names for crayons, did you
know that Crayola uses multiple names to refer to the
same colors. So the practice started early, with the company
using fifty four names to refer to just thirty eight
separate colors by the end of nineteen oh three, and
things only balloon from there. So you fast forward to
twenty fifteen and Traila had to signed seven hundred and
(25:02):
fifty nine names to just three hundred and thirty one colors. Now,
to be clear, though, this doesn't mean the company is
stuffing duplicate crayons and the same box under a different name,
but if you were to open different boxes, you might
actually find that the same blue crayon is simultaneously labeled
as Liberty blue, iron Man blue, or Birdy blue, depending
(25:23):
on the box that you get.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
So pencils may seem a little old fashioned as more
kids learn to type and use pens, but don't count
them out just yet. According to the Chicago Tribune, they
keep coming back into fashion every so often, and when
Sudoku first became a craze, pencils actually had a seven
hundred percent increase in sales in London.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Holy cow.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
All right, Well, here's a quick one.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
I didn't realize until our friend Aaron McCarthy did this
story on trapper keepers. So apparently the unique folders were
called trappers because they kept papers in them so well,
and then the binder was called a trapper keeper because
it held all the trappers to get You know.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I had always wondered why it had that name. It
is such a strange name for a product that I
absolutely love. So you gave us the skinny on Elmer's
glue at the top of the show. So now I'm
actually going to clue you in on Elmer himself because
believe it or not, Elmer wasn't created just for the
glue bottle. He was actually based on a real bull
that the Bordon Company used to advertise its products at
(26:21):
the nineteen thirty nine World's Fair. So the original plan
was to have the dairy company's famous spokescow, Elsie, appear
at the event, but she was actually busy shooting the
film version of Little Women or the sequel. I guess
Little Man. It's so bizarre, but she was on set,
so Bordon knew they couldn't show up to the World's
Fair empty handed, so at the last minute, the company
(26:41):
found a bull to use instead, and at the fair,
the company dubbed him Elmer and announced that he was
the unmentioned husband of Elsie, which I'm sure Elsie wasn't
too happy about it, but the public loved the idea
and Elmer was quickly made the mascot for the Bordon
Chemical division, you know, the other side of the company,
And that's how we wound up on the glue that
would eventually bear his name.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
That was a much more involved origin story than I
expected for the fact off, especially, but I do like
the way you brought the episode full circle. So just
for that, I think I'm gonna give you the trophy
and I will take it all right. Well, that's going
to do it for today's Part Time Genius for myself, Mango, Gabe,
and Lowell. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back
soon with another episode. Part Time Genius is a production
(27:38):
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite show.
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
Popular Podcasts
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!