MIT-credentialed scientist Andrew, the founder and curator of Weird History, is larger than life. Originally from Ottawa in Canada, he’s an author, game designer, podcast host, and SpaceX Mission Manager, living in Los Angeles in California. It’s amazing that so much awesomeness fits inside a single person.
Frankly, he’s an inspiration and walking, talking proof that you really can achieve your dreams if you’re dedicated, persistent, and focused. The fact that he has enough time in his day to curate the Weird History Twitter page, picking out the very best facts to share online, is just the icing on the cake.
Child independence expert and author Lenore explained to Bored Panda that it is vital that parents take a step back and don’t overwhelm their kids with pressure the moment they start developing new interests. Patience and room to grow are incredibly important at moments like this.
“When a child develops a new interest, it can be tempting to say, ‘You like playing with clay? Great! I’ll enroll you in a ceramics class, and I’ll take you to the museum so you can study the sculptures, and we’ll arrange for you to go to Clay Camp this summer and…” she said how some parents start thinking and behaving when their kids start to develop a new interest. Whether it’s history or science, art or football.
“Stop. Breathe. Take a step back,” Lenore said that parents need to learn to slow down for their children’s sake. Similarly, if your kids take a sudden interest in history, the last thing that parents should do is immediately bombard them with books upon books, and sign them up to an after-school history club. Be patient, take a step back, don't overwhelm your kids.
According to Lenore, there’s a need for parents to find the difference between encouragement and control. “It’s great to encourage a child’s interests, but that doesn’t mean taking over. In other words, if a child likes playing with clay—lovely. Try to keep some clay around. If it turns into a deeper interest and they want to take a class or whatever, you can look into these.”
However, the expert noted that when parents and teachers start controlling every aspect of the kids’ interests, well, there’s hardly any interest left after that. “By putting an adult in charge of the activity—‘Today in ceramics class, children, we will be making a dog’—a child might actually end up a little LESS interested because now it’s not their thing anymore,” she warned.
Lenore, the founder of Let Grow and the Free-Range Kids movement, shared with Bored Panda that there are different kinds of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. “Intrinsic motivation is when you want to do something. Extrinsic motivation is when someone ELSE wants you to do something.” It’s vital to allow children to develop their own intrinsic motivation without others constantly crowding in around them, throughout the day. When kids are left to their own devices, they can determine who they are through what they’re actually interested in.
“Kids have plenty of extrinsic motivation all day at school. Even in classes they like, someone else is telling them what to do and how to do it. So some free time when they’re allowed to do something just for the pleasure of it— not a grade, not a trophy— allows them to discover what they really enjoy and, in a way, who they truly are,” Lenore said.
“Our free Let Grow Independence Kit helps kids figure out some new things to try on their own, and helps adults let them!” she added.
A while back, I spoke about learning to separate facts from fiction with Joseph M. Pierre, a professor of psychiatry from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He told Bored Panda that most conspiracy theories in recent history ”have been fairly inconsequential without any largescale behavioral ramifications.” Theories about what happened to JFK and Princess Diana, 9/11 and Flat Earth conspiracies haven’t affected the real world. With one exception—climate change conspiracies.
