School detention has long been a method of managing—or at least attempting to manage—student behavior, the idea being that forcing kids who clearly don't love being in school to spend even more hours being bored out of their gourd in a classroom might make them change their ways. The efficacy of detention has long been debated among educators and administrators, but one high school in Maine has started providing an alternative to traditional detention that has people buzzing.Morse High School in Bath, Maine, gives students who have broken a detention-worthy rule a choice: Spend 3 hours sitting around doing nothing in a classroom or join the school counselor for a 3.5-mile hike. For some, that might sound more like a reward than a punishment, but there's an intention behind the hike option that makes some sense from a behavioral perspective. - YouTube www.youtube.com School counselor Leslie Trundy started the program in 2024 after attending an outdoor education conference. She includes some reading of nature poetry during the hike and routinely invites students to join the outdoor club she started at the school. Trundy told Maine Public Radio that she wondered whether spending time in nature might get kids to open up about problems they're dealing with in their lives. "My hope was that time in the woods like I could sort of take the skills that I have on the road with them or on the trail, and be a listener for them, and pay back the time to the school and sort of serve their consequence. But also receive more care and attention," said Trundy."It's been so incredible for me personally, making connections with students I wouldn't normally get to talk with," she told CBS 13. "Being a listener to them, finding out what's important to them, kind of what's going on in their lives." Is hiking an appropriate alternative to detention? Photo credit: Canva Some have criticized the approach as not being an appropriate punishment and some parents have refused to allow their kids to choose the hiking option. But according to some of the students who have participated, the hike isn't exactly a walk in the park compared to just sitting around. “Sometimes the hike feels really like a punishment for them, even though they've chosen it,” Trundy told NPR. “Like, they might've chosen it 'cause it was a lessening sentence, but it did feel like they were having to expend effort.”Nicholas Tanguay, a student who was assigned detention for yelling at a teacher, concurred. But he also said the hiking offers an opportunity to reflect in a way that detention in a classroom doesn't. "It makes me have to, like, walk. It makes it makes you breathe heavily, obviously, and it feels like an accomplishment, almost," the student said. "I think that maybe it's also good for people's mental health. I mean, in general, nature and hikes are just really good for people's mentality. So...maybe you've had a bad day, the option to do this after knowing you have a detention means you have to dread it less." Time in nature is good for everyone.Photo credit: CanvaDreading detention less may not seem like the desired outcome—dreading detention is kind of the whole point of detention—but the question we need to ask is whether hiking is a more effective way of altering student behavior than traditional punishment. Kids misbehave for many reasons, some of which may better be addressed with time outdoors, physical exercise, mentoring by a caring adult, and a sense of community than by sitting for three hours doing nothing. In fact, some of the students who have done the hiking detention have since joined Trundy's outdoor club, going on hikes that aren't required and gaining the benefits of them of their own accord. Time will tell how effective the program is as Trundy gathers data, but in the meantime, people have opinions. Some feel that alternative programs like this weaken the consequences for bad behavior, making students less likely to comply with rules. Others see a lot of value in the approach, giving kids who act out a healthy place to process, which may lead to better behavior over time. But what most people seem to agree on, based on comments about this program, is that young people need more time outdoors in general:"I think the real answer is that kids of all ages need recess/outdoor time. A lot of my middle schoolers aren’t awful; they just have energy to burn and would benefit from running around for fifteen minutes every day.""Maybe nature hikes and outdoor brain breaks could be offered as part of the school day for all students. I bet we’d see fewer kids in detention. The microbiome of trees and plants works with our own biology to reduce anxiety, depression. Time outdoors has shown to help reduce ADHD symptoms and improve focus. When we take recess away or don’t offer outdoor time, we exacerbate problems.""Being out in nature improves executive function, improves mood, enhances memory and self control.I think improving connection with self, nature and others is what's going to improve so much for kids who are struggling in school environments.""Maybe add dogs to walk from a local shelter for even more positive results." (Now there's an idea.)Considering how many students get detention multiple times, trying an alternative to help them regulate themselves and make better choices probably isn't a bad idea. Here's to educators trying innovative approaches to help students reach their fullest potential.

How many songs can you sing along to, even if you haven't heard them in years? Music and memory are connected in our brains in powerful ways that science is still getting to the bottom of, with implications for cognitive and emotional health, dementia research, as well as education and information retention.One assistant professor at Western University in Ontario, Canada, has a better grasp on the power of music than most non-music teachers, and he apparently wields that power with delightful abandon. Dr. Derek McLachlin teaches biochemistry and molecular biology, which are not exactly subjects you'd expect to be musical. But his pop song parodies covering scientific concepts that his students need to learn are delighting people everywhere. A fan's (@hoon0330) video of McLachlin singing "I Love Ketone Bodies" to the tune of Ed Sheeran's "I'm in Love With Your Body" has nearly 4 million views and a slew of comments from both average people and his former students praising his innovative approach to teaching. @hoon0330 "OH I LOVE KETONE BODIES" ?? #westernuniversity #uwo #edsheeran #college #ontario "Mclachlin is the reason I went into Biochem 15 years ago! He used to come to class dressed as Gandalf on Halloween. So glad he’s still killing it," wrote one former student."I had him for biochem 4 years ago and when I tell you his material was the one that stuck the most of the 3 different profs for the course," another wrote."Omgggg my old biochem prof getting the recognition he deserves ? he was the best," wrote another."Hated biochem but loved him as my prof ?," shared another.Other people weighed in with how much they love seeing McLachlin's joyful and creative approach to teaching: "Honestly i would pass because if something is done in song I’ll remember it. We learned a song about mitosis in grade 9 and i still remember it.""I feel like I need a partial refund on my biochem degree because I did NOT get this experience lol.""Awww this made me cry, he prepared for this at home, he put his entire soul into it please be kind to him!!!! ?""Yall better have gotten As, he poured his soul into this ???."McLachlin has the full song up on his YouTube channel (which frankly should have a lot more subscribers): - YouTube www.youtube.com I mean, singing lyrics like "My brain's singin' like, 'Liver, you know I want ketones, ketones were handmade for brain cells like me, turn them to acetyl groups into Krebs cycle for ATP" along to a familiar tune? Brilliant. Speaking of ATP, he also did a parody of Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me" to explain what ATP does and why it's needed in the body. - YouTube www.youtube.com What's most excellent about McLachlin's song parodies is that he's clearly been teaching for quite some time, since former students are referencing being in his class at least 15 years ago, and yet he's still coming up with new ways to help students learn the material. When a teacher is that invested in their work, their enthusiasm gets passed onto students. The parodied hits just keep on coming. This "What Makes You Albumin" version of One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful" explains what albumin is and how it works. It was published just few days before this article was written. - YouTube www.youtube.com We love to see a teacher doing the most and clearly enjoying it. Putting biochemistry concepts into lyrics that fit the music and still make sense cannot be easy, but McLachlin seems to be up to the task. Keep up the excellent work, sir. You can follow McLachlin for more biochemistry lessons on YouTube.

Imagine being shot into space on a mission with two other people, and for the next week or so, you’ll be in close quarters where it's impossible to escape one another. Most emotionally healthy people could handle that. But when Ronald Reagan announced in the ‘80s that he wanted to build a space station where astronauts would live together for six months to a year, selecting astronauts who could get along became an essential part of the mission.Officials at NASA decided that astronauts on long-term missions needed high emotional intelligence to work together without getting on each other’s last nerves for months at a time. They would have to be good at reading others’ emotions, clear communicators, and generally comfortable to be around. For two years, NASA officials couldn’t find a way to determine whether a person had the emotional intelligence to withstand such an unusual social and professional situation. How NASA chooses astronauts for long-term missionsAuthor Charles Duhigg recounts the story in his 2024 book, Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection. @audible Did you know when #NASA interviews #astronauts they pay attention to how they laugh? ?‍?? In #CharlesDuhigg's new audiobook, #Supercommunicators, he blends deep research and his trademark storytelling skills to show how we can all learn to identify + leverage the hidden layers that lurk beneath every conversation. Listen now on Audible.? While listening to recordings of astronaut interviews, the psychologist found that the candidates may have similar answers to questions, but they laughed differently. They realized that people whose laughter mirrored the interviewer's showed a higher level of emotional intelligence.How you laugh is a significant indicator of emotional intelligence“If I tell a joke and I laugh really loudly, does the candidate laugh back at the same basic energy in the same basic volume? Or do they just politely chuckle? When I tell a sad story, do they try to empathize with me or do they give me some distance?” Duhigg asks.The psychologist experimented on candidates by wearing a goofy tie, spilling papers during the interview, and laughing really loudly. They noted whether the candidates matched their energy when they laughed to see whether they showed they were interested in building a connection. Astronauts on a mission above Earth. via Caroline Davis 2010/Flickr“What NASA wants is they want people who they're sending in space who have a high emotional intelligence. And the way that we figure that out, the way that we show that we wanna connect with other people is by matching them, laughing when they laugh, and consoling someone when they're sad,” Duhigg said. Those who did not match the psychologist's emotional energy were seen as having a lower emotional intelligence because they didn't want to engage with the psychologist. Over time, this aloof attitude could create some real tension in the depths of space. The American Psychological Association studied astronauts' emotional intelligence in a 2018 paper on teamwork in space missions. “Humor, which stems from personality and may be influenced by cultural factors, is often cited as a benefit by spaceflight and analog teams, although sometimes it can cause friction. Crews in HERA [Human Exploration Research Analog] and astronauts aboard the ISS report that appropriate affiliative humor is a key factor in crew compatibility, conflict resolution, and coping,” researchers from the American Psychological Association wrote.The NASA experiment shows that even in the highly competitive world of the space program, simple, everyday people skills are what can separate those who work on the ground from those who make it into space.

Although it is difficult to tell if there is a trend of Americans moving out of the country, rough estimates show that around 8 million currently live in other countries—double the 4.1 million living abroad in 1999.The most popular countries for Americans to move to are Mexico, Canada, and the United Kingdom, in that order.A big reason why some are leaving the U.S. is that an increasing number of employers allow people to work abroad. Others are choosing to leave because of cost of living increases and “golden visa” programs. Golden visas offer the chance to get a foreign residency permit by purchasing a house or making a significant investment or donation. Luggage at the airportCanvaA couple is going viral on TikTok because they’ve decided to leave America and move to Spain. Luna Ashley Santel had wanted to move for a long time, but her husband wasn’t on board with the change until he had a lightbulb moment while visiting a Spanish café. The couple are parents of a 4-year-old daughter, and a big reason for their decision to leave is her safety. @lunanearandfar Here’s what shifted for him. I’m sure this’ll piss the right people off. No pun intended. #movingabroad #spaindigitalnomadvisa #movingabroadwithpets #movingtospainwithkids ♬ 7AM - Slowed + Reverb - Adrian While spending time in Spain, the couple went to a crowded café, which would have made them uncomfortable back home in St. Louis, Missouri.“There's a ton of people walking around. Being from St. Louis, that's not a very comfortable place for me to be in,” the husband said. “And you turn to me and say, ‘Have you seen all these people?’” he recounted his wife saying.“And you're like, ‘None of them have guns,’” he continued.At this moment, he realized that living in America caused him to be on alert whenever he was out in public. A feeling he never got in Spain. “And I realized this weight that I had been carrying around my whole life wasn't necessary. Like what we think is normal is not normal,” he said.When it comes to firearm policy, Spain and Missouri couldn’t be more different. In Spain, owning a handgun for self-defense is allowed when you are in verifiable danger. In Missouri, there is no permit requirement to carry a firearm, whether it’s concealed or carried openly.In Spain, the gun death rate per 100,000 people in 2019 was 0.64. Whereas, in Missouri, the chance of being killed by a gun is more than 36 times greater, with 23.2 people per every 100,000 dying by gun in 2021.The video resonated with many Americans who feel uncomfortable living in a country that has become accustomed to mass shootings."There’s so much mental energy we dedicate to simply existing in the U.S.," Mintmage wrote."As a father of two young boys, your husband’s explanation has me shook because I cannot disagree," Astrolo-G added."That is literally my main motivator for leaving the country. I am terrified for my son," Doula Faye wrote.Luna’s husband isn’t the only one in the family concerned about school safety in the U.S. Luna, a former teacher of 7 years, believes that sending her daughter to a school where they have “terrifying” intruder drills is unacceptable.“It's nothing that I want my 5-year-old child to have to accept or learn as normal,” she says in another TikTok post. @lunanearandfar Replying to @CholeraMeBadd a huge reason we are getting out. #gettingoutoftheusa #movingabroad #alicedrill #alicedrills #iquitteaching #ididntsignupforthishit #movingtospainwithkids Mass shootings aren't the only reason why many Americans want to leave the country. Other common reasons for becoming an expat include the cost of living, politics, and overall quality of life.This article originally appeared two years ago.

A local reporter at Hometown Life shared a unique and heartfelt story on March 16 about a mother struggling to find shoes that fit her 14-year-old son. The story resonated with parents everywhere; now, her son is getting the help he desperately needs. It's a wonderful example of people helping a family that thought they had nowhere to turn.When Eric Kilburn Jr. was born, his mother, Rebecca’s OBGYN, told her that he had the “biggest feet I’ve ever seen in my life. Do not go out and buy baby shoes because they’re not gonna fit,’” Rebecca told Today.com. Fourteen years later, it’s almost impossible to find shoes that fit the 6’10” freshman—he needs a size 23.Thank you to all who shared the original story and reached out with good wishes and tips! We have an update that shows the power of community! @UnderArmour @PUMA coming through with shoes! https://t.co/y4aLO5WwVP— Susan Bromley (@SusanBromley10) March 20, 2023 The teen's height doesn't stem from a gland issue; he comes from a family of tall people. Both his parents are over 6 feet tall.Why finding size-23 shoes is so hardEric plays football for Goodrich High School in Goodrich, Michigan, but doesn’t wear cleats, which led to a sprained ankle. He also suffers from ingrown toenails that are so severe he’s had two nails on his biggest toes permanently removed.Last year, the family was lucky enough to stumble upon five pairs of size 21 shoes at a Nike outlet store. It was discovered they were made especially for Tacko Fall, the NBA player with some of the most enormous feet in the game. To put things in perspective, Shaquille O’Neal wears a size 22.?| NEW: Michigan mom is struggling to find shoes that fit her 6 foot 10, 14-year-old son who has SIZE 23 FEET‼️? pic.twitter.com/x8Mu4JDcWR— Pubity (@pubity) March 18, 2023 However, Eric soon grew out of those as well. The family was left with one more option: have orthopedic shoes made for Eric at the cost of $1,500 with no guarantee he won’t quickly grow out of those as well.Brands step in to help a growing teenAfter his mother’s heartfelt plea to Hometown Life, the family got much-needed help from multiple companies, including Under Armour and PUMA, who are sending representatives to Michigan to measure his feet for custom shoes.CAT has reached out to make him a custom pair of boots. Eric hasn't had any boots to wear for the past five Michigan winters.A fundraiser that eased a family’s burdenKara Pattison started a GoFundMe campaign on behalf of the family to help them purchase custom shoes for “the rest of the time Eric has these feet.” It has raised nearly $20,000 for the family in just over a week. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Eric Kilburn (@erickilburnjr)“The success of this fundraiser is well beyond what was ever expected,” Pattison wrote on the site on March 18. “The Kilburns plan to open a bank account dedicated to Eric's future footwear and some specialized sports equipment. He can use this to get a helmet that fits for football along with pads. They will also look into a football and track jersey for him.”The sense of relief felt by Rebecca, Eric and the rest of the Kilburn family must be incredible. It has to be frustrating to be unable to provide your child with something as basic as footwear.“It’s been overwhelming,” Rebecca told Hometown Life. “I have been this puddle of emotions, all of them good…It’s the coolest thing to be able to say we did it! He has shoes! I am not usually a crier, but I have been in a constant state of happy tears…We are so grateful.”In the years since...In the months after his story went viral in March 2023, multiple brands followed through. Under Armour flew a product lead to Michigan to size Eric and began making him custom footwear so he could safely play sports again; other companies, including Reebok with an assist from Shaquille O’Neal, also stepped in to provide size-23 shoes.In 2024, Eric’s journey took an even bigger step: Guinness World Records recognized him for having the largest feet and hands of any living teenager (13.5-inch feet—about a men’s size 23—and 9.13-inch hands). With the spotlight, his family launched the Big Shoe Network to help others facing similar challenges finding gear that fits.This article originally appeared last year.

Getting older is weird. You're trucking along, enjoying your middle-aged life, finally feeling like a real adult, when you look in the mirror one day and gasp. "Where did those wrinkles come from?" "Is that skin on my arm…crepey?!?" "Why am I aching like that?"Somewhere in your mid-40s, you start noticing obvious signs of aging that seem to arrive overnight. You assumed it was a gradual process that you just hadn't noticed, but it sure as heck felt like it happened really fast.New research indicates that may very well be the case. A 2024 study from researchers at Stanford tracked thousands of different molecules in people age 25 to 75 and found that people tend to make two big leaps in aging—one around age 44 and another around age 60. These findings indicate that aging can actually happen in bursts. Simpsons Gif y.yarn.co “We’re not just changing gradually over time. There are some really dramatic changes,” said senior study author Michael Snyder, Ph.D., a geneticist and director of the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine at Stanford University. “It turns out the mid-40s is a time of dramatic change, as is the early 60s. And that’s true no matter what class of molecules you look at.” The researchers assumed the mid-40s changes would be attributed to menopausal or perimenopausal changes in women influencing the overall numbers, but when they separated the results by sex they saw similar changes in men in their 40s. @suddenly_susan_ The accuracy ? #40s #genxtiktok #womenover40 #relatable "“This suggests that while menopause or perimenopause may contribute to the changes observed in women in their mid-40s, there are likely other, more significant factors influencing these changes in both men and women. Identifying and studying these factors should be a priority for future research,” said study author Xiaotao Shen, PhD, a former Stanford Medicine postdoctoral scholar who now teaches at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Aging happens in bursts, scientists find.Canva PhotosThe study included 108 participants who submitted blood and other samples every few months for several years. The scientists tracked age-related changes in 135,000 different molecules—nearly 250 billion distinct data points—to see how aging occurs.The study may shed light on the reasons for jumps in certain diseases and maladies at certain ages. For the 40-somethings, scientists found significant changes in molecules related to alcohol, caffeine, and lipid metabolism, cardiovascular disease, and skin and muscle. For those in their 60s, changes related to carbohydrate and caffeine metabolism, immune regulation, kidney function, cardiovascular disease, and skin and muscle were found. Research shows the body goes through specific changes in our 40s and 60s.Canva PhotosThe study authors did note that lifestyle might play a role in some of these changes. For instance, alcohol metabolism may be influenced by people drinking more heavily in their 40s, which tends to be a period of higher stress for many people. However, the researchers added that these bursts of aging in the mid-40s and early 60s indicate that people may want to pay closer attention to their health around those ages and make lifestyle changes that support greater overall health, such as increasing exercise or limiting alcohol.The research team plans to study the drivers of these aging bursts to find out why they happen at these ages, but whatever the reasons, it's nice to know that the seemingly sudden onset of age-related woes isn't just in our imaginations.It's understandable that we worry about aging, as physical signs of aging remind us of our own mortality. We also have all kinds of social messaging that tells us youth is ideal and beautiful and old is bad and ugly, so of course we give aging the side-eye. But none of us can avoid aging altogether, so the more positive and healthy we are in our approach to aging, the better off we'll be, no matter when and to what degree aging hits us.This story originally appeared last year. It has been updated.

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More than 50 years later,

A quote widely shared on social media and independent sites over the years states that Rudolf Steiner “predicted” more than 100 years ago that a vaccine would be given to children as […] The post Rudolf Steiner: “The soul will be made non-existent with the aid of a vaccine” first appeared on The Expose.