Oppoinion: do you think this video is unsuitable to show to 16-18 year old high school juniors and seniors?

"WRXforScience" (WRXforScience) 02/24/2020 at 17:52 • Filed to: None

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After 6 years of showing this video to my Physics and Astronomy classes when we learn about light, someone has complained that the video is inappropriate and too unrelated to Physics to be shown in class.

Of course, the compl aint was registered anonymously to the district tip line (meant for reporting bullies and whatnot). They also complained that their daughter was penalized for turning in late work which is unfair since I only posted the due dates on the board and announced them each class but didn’t put the due dates on the internet.

Also, they claimed the video uses the “f word” multiple times. I didn’t catch any, but maybe they are recorded in a frequency that’s too high for me to hear with my old ears. I also apologize to all the people who watch the video and are offended (they must be clowns).

Sovande > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 18:01

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I just showed it to my 9 year old. 

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 18:02

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Mantis shrimp are cool. Helicopter parents are not.

CB > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 18:05

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I only caught a “bastard”.

Back in grade 7 science, I didn’t complain when we watched Stargate, we only complained when the teacher threw a  book at my sister.

razorbeamteam > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 18:08

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Remember the Merit from GTA SA? > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 18:09

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In theory, yes, but watch out for anyone’s parents that will sue the school for the use of “bastard” (what are the little ones  thinking?). But shouldn’t be a problem (like I said, in theory...)

WRXforScience > SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media 02/24/2020 at 18:17

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Agreed.

WRXforScience > Sovande 02/24/2020 at 18:17

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I feel that that is perfectly appropriate.

Chariotoflove > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 18:18

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So, I caught a couple of lower level bad words. Is that what’s inappropriate? Also, I see where it’s tangentially related to the physics of light. I can see most juniors and seniors learning something and getting a little change up in the lecture as a bonus. I do the same in my graduate level lectures.

Snowflakes gonna snowflake, I guess.  To insulate yourself in the future, you could easily redub a version where you bleep out the few questionable words. Because the reality is that we as educators have to protect ourselves from this garbage.

Noodles > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 18:20

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If you want to shut up the parents... Show this video afterwards.

Science mother fucker! 

Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 18:22

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FFS, some people will bitch about anything. I love this video; it’s the best of the series from this guy. If a kid that age can’t deal with the word bastard, their home situation is probably screwed up, which you can’t help. 

gin-san - shitpost specialist > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 18:25

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1. The parent can fuck off.

2. If my boss told me every day that something is due on a particular date/time, he has every right to tell me to fuck off if I tell him that it’s his fault because he didn’t put it in an email to me despite telling me everyday.

3. No one used the fucking f word during that video.

4. I think the only relevant part about physics was the part about what wavelengths of light the mantis shrimp can see, plus it can get into the fact that their eyes are meant for use underwater which probably means it’s just tuned for the frequencies that are down there (my knowledge falls apart here, but hopefully you know what I’m getting at).

5. I used the f word so much in this post that I can’t even tell you how many times more I used it in this post because it was used zero times in the video.

6. Having taken physics, a four minute break to have a laugh and as a segway into another lesson is a very nice thing to have.

7. That parent can still fuck off. If I handed in an assignment late, my parents would have given me shit, not the teacher.

8. Are you sure the student didn’t just phone this in and not the parent? If so, they can fuck off as well.

9. This video is suitable for most ages, and if your children spend any amount of unsupervised time on the internet they’ll have seen and heard things much worse than “bastard” or “crap”.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 18:33

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Why is the word ‘bastards’ okay but not the word ‘shit’?

And I think it’s fine for a 9 year old or older.

WRXforScience > gin-san - shitpost specialist 02/24/2020 at 18:39

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What I use it for is as a segue into discussing all the different frequencies/wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum that are kinds of light other than visible light. I started using the video years ago, when I would tell the kids about light that people can’t see but some animals can. The mantis shrimp is famous for its eyes so I told them about it (I don’t think I’d seen the video or knew of the channel back then, but I knew of the shrimp).

The video was funny and popular with the kids and I’ve included it in all my classes (both Physics and Astronomy) ever since. One student/parent complained over the weekend and I got called down to the Principal to talk about the complaint. I’m a bit salty about the situation, because this type of bullshit really grinds my gears.

It’d be one thing if the parent had emailed me (or even the p rincipal) but to put in an anonymous complaint but to call me out specifically is a total Karen move.

ranwhenparked > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 18:56

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No, 16-18 year olds are either adults or very nearly adults and they definitely hear and use far worse than “crap” and “ bastard” on a regular basis.

I suspect you are either dealing with an overzealous helicopter parent, or a kid who has grossly exaggerated what went on in class in order to deflect their own blame  from a missed assignment, and the parents bought it completely. 

WRXforScience > Chariotoflove 02/24/2020 at 19:01

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The big one was apparently the very end where the guy gets his finger smashed and says, “god dammit.”

As an agnostic/atheist I’m equally offended by “God bless you” as “god damn it”, but no one cares about that. The principal was legitimately confused when I told him I thought “ god damn it” was on par with “ shit”  as a swear word (we’re in Texas and he’s very “Christian”).

My only real beef with the principal is that he’s never shown the courage to stand up for the teachers (it’s a rich district and there are lots of doctors, lawyers, executives, and “ professional” types as parents who aren’t above threatening lawsuits and other forms of intimidation) . He does always give the teachers the benefit of the doubt, but he’s afraid of the parents and they know he’ll cave.

WRXforScience > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly 02/24/2020 at 19:06

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I don’t know how it works, I guess that’s the problem. Urban dictionary says bastard is a way to insult someone without swearing. Shit is defined as an expletive and is regarded as the most common vulgarity.  

Chariotoflove > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 19:07

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Super easy to cut that part out.  Everyone should be happy then.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 19:14

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“My only real beef with the principal... ”

Well now you’ve done it and offended the vegetarians and vegans...

/jk

TheRealBicycleBuck > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 19:21

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I decided to leave academia when my department head and the disciplinary committee caved to a student whom I caught cheating in my class. One threat of a lawsuit and suddenly I was the bad guy for catching the kid.

WRXforScience > ranwhenparked 02/24/2020 at 19:21

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It’s the later with a touch of the former. In fact, since the complaint was anonymous, the girl (they let slip a couple of pronouns) could have posted it herself.

Out of my 140 students, I can narrow down the suspects to 3 or 4 students (there’s a group of girls who regularly complain that are in the same class and are all in a clique, really they are interchangeable and the most likely cand idates). I don’t really care who it was, since I know the complaints are unfounded and they only real consequence is now I have to post assignment due dates on the LMS (learning management system, or shitty webpage app that the district adopted over the objections of the science department) calendar, which is ‘district policy’ that is ignored by about half the teachers.

I t’s a terrible system that was so broken that our IT person ( who was the intermediary between our science department, who were the ‘beta testers, ’ and the company) got hired by the company because of all the ‘good ideas’ she sent them that were really major complaints we had about the system . We found out that the district had already bought the system before they had us ‘test and evaluate it’, their plan was for the science department to teach all the other teachers how to use the system (without compensation or extra school time to do it). We told them that wouldn’t work and that they needed to pay someone to do the training since it was a full time job (they gave one of the science teachers a stipend and replaced a couple of her classes with periods for the training stuff).

I’ll have to spend about an hour getting all the dates put into the calendar, but I’m no longer going to give any grace on the late policy, my good graces have been spurned and those bridges have been burned.

WRXforScience > Chariotoflove 02/24/2020 at 19:23

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Yep, I’ll just end the video when the credits start. 

WRXforScience > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly 02/24/2020 at 19:23

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I’ll suggest that our next district training be on sensitivity.

TheRealBicycleBuck > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 19:28

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It’s clear that the real problem is a crappy kid who isn’t doing well in your class, so he/she complains to Mom who takes this video as an opportunity to bust your balls.

The foulest language I’ve ever heard was not the sailor I knew in college , it was the middle-school kids at the back of the school bus which I had to ride when I wrecked my truck in high school.

WRXforScience > TheRealBicycleBuck 02/24/2020 at 19:30

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I left a district for the same reason. I had a girl erase nearly all of her answers then bubble in the answers for a different version of the test. When I allowed her to retake the test, I caught her using her cellphone during the test (she told me she didn’t have one with her when I gave her the test, and it was a class policy that if you had a phone during the test it would be considered cheating regardless of what you were using the phone for). It turned into my fault for allowing her to cheat and/or accusing her of cheating with only circumstantial evidence (my burden is that if I think you’re cheating, you’re cheating).

I was in Oklahoma at the time and intended to move back to Texas when it was convenient anyway, they just moved up my timetable. The same teaching position in Texas paid $10k per year more and Texas doesn’t have income tax while Oklahoma does.

ranwhenparked > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 19:33

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I was coming through school when those systems were just starting to get common, as I recall, most teachers would post the syllabus and the first few homework assignments, then give up sometime during  October and do everything the old fashioned way the rest of the year.

The Compromiser > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 19:39

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Nothing is appropriate for teenagers. Ever.

WRXforScience > TheRealBicycleBuck 02/24/2020 at 19:42

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The principal was mostly having the meeting to cover his own ass and check the box that he followed up on the complaint.

We’re really not allowed to fail kids, so the class has been dumbed down and grades inflated so that only the kids who don’t do any of the homework and score just about the same as random guessing on the tests do poorly enough to fail. By all rights this student should be either barely passing or failing the class but instead they have a low “B” that they in no way deserve and are throwing a fit because they lost points for tur ning in an assignment a full week after it was due (and after being given class time to finish it).

I teach at the school I went to, and I have old materials that show the marked decline in the rigor of the material and performance of the students. But our graduation rate has gone up to 99-100% (from the mid 90%) so we’re successful.

WRXforScience > The Compromiser 02/24/2020 at 19:43

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I have to call all the round objects “spheres” because they giggle whenever I say “balls”.

WRXforScience > ranwhenparked 02/24/2020 at 19:47

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The worst part was that we used to have a pretty good online homework system, but the district decided to scrap it for a newer, worse system that only did half what the old one did and we had to rebuild all our materials from scratch.

I’ve spent hundreds of hours making inferior versions of old assignments just to post them on the new system. None of the people who decide which systems we use actually have to use them, and yet they get to decide the best ways to implement them.

There are free systems that would work better.

benn454 > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 20:03

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Buuuut Mr. WRX, that’s sooooooo unfaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiirrrrrruhhhhhh!!!!!!!

ClassicDatsunDebate > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 20:14

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16-18 is the new 6-8.

ranwhenparked > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 21:00

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Sounds like the nonprofit I used to work for. They were constantly changing vendors for web hosting, online training portals, online storefronts, reservation systems, records management, etc. Never all at once, so there were always compatibility issues between the different systems that were supposed to get data from each other, information was always lost whenever a switch happened, and they always paid way too much despite everyone under the age of 70 who wasn’t on the decision making committee insisting it could be done better for cheaper.

Of course, they’ve recently filed for bankruptcy protection, possibly endangering the tiny pension I earned whilst there, but that is completely the fault of legacy problems from decades ago and nothing at all to do with the ongoing  incompetence of management at all levels, no sir, absolutely not. 

WRXforScience > ranwhenparked 02/24/2020 at 21:02

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It seems like this is how nearly all IT decisions are made, I’m amazed that we ever accomplish anything.

AdamB > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 21:10

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Coming from a teenager, almost nothing is inappropriate anymore.

gin-san - shitpost specialist > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 21:14

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I think I would have liked you as a teacher. Luckily, my physics teacher in high school was great, too. I sucked at physics, but I still liked her class even though the tests didn’t always go so well.

gin-san - shitpost specialist > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 21:17

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Christ, I had to bust my ass for a “C” in high school physics. I did well in chemistry, biology, calculus... but physics just killed me for some reason.

wafflesnfalafel > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 22:29

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neat - sounds like you have some a$$hole  parents!

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > WRXforScience 02/24/2020 at 23:54

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... and how to get people to *reduce* thei r  sensitivity.

Klaus Schmoll > WRXforScience 02/25/2020 at 14:43

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The video is perfectly fine. I showed these to my 8th graders and they giggled and that was it.

The problem lies with your grading that’s all students and parents ever care about. The idea that assignments have to be handed in on time seems to appear medieval to some of them.

I’ve seen some downright lazy colleagues over the years. Shitty lectures without any structure, no enforcement of classroom discipline, questionable assignments, the lot. They usually somehow managed to “produce” good grades so nobody gave a shit, not the parents, no one at administrative level, and of course not the students they liked the free grades.

When you actually want to teach the kids something useful and use tests to determine if they actually did some work, that’s when you risk getting into trouble.

The Compromiser > WRXforScience 02/26/2020 at 20:34

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Not going to lie, me too.