Almost all my coworkers feel the need to comment that I’m still wearing shorts past-Halloween. Yeah, even if it’s cold outside it gets stuffy and hot in this damn warehouse! I can tolerate the cold between my car and the front door better than I can tolerate getting sweaty in here!
I’ve always ran a little hot and have tended to be more comfortable in cooler weather, but I will often get random strangers coming up to me and being like “OH MY GOD SIR ARE YOU NOT FREEZING RIGHT NOW! YOU ARE WEARING BUT A T-SHIRT AND GYM SHORTS AND IT’S BELLOW 60!” No, I’m fine, I just don’t mind the cold much.
So I work in an elementary school and experience the opposite with prepubescent boys trying to prove their manliness. It’s not uncommon for my area to get below freezing with windchill much below that. So I get a lot of “IM NOT COLD AT ALL. WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CANT GO OUTSIDE FOR RECESS? I DONT WANT TO WEAR PANTS FROM THE LOST AND FOUND!” from these lil’ guys in gym shorts and crocs.
What’s the worst that could happen if you let them outside anyway? I imagine they would choose to come back inside and give some excuse like “I didn’t want to play anyway” long before suffering any medical consequence like frostbite. Seems like a harmless way to teach them a lesson.
There’s a lot of moving pieces in an elementary school that can be disrupted by one child insisting they don’t need pants or a jacket. Too many to type, not the least of which is cutting into teacher planning time or administration time to supervise a child who would have otherwise been supervised by designated recess monitors outside.
this is a way bigger conversation than recess but i always hated how i couldn’t be left alone for ten fucking minutes as a kid. like i’m 9 years old you don’t need to watch me play on the computer or whatever. anyway i ran across a study claiming the lack of unsupervised playtime is partially responsible for the mental health crisis and i feel vindicated someone else is saying it
Lol yeah it’s a much bigger conversation. Studies like the one you mentioned have been around for a long time. The education field has different definitions for supervision, from hand-over-hand instruction to broader proximity based supervision. I’m not familiar with any studies that claim unsupervised play (meaning adults are not responsible for the child at all) is partially responsible for the mental health crisis. I’ve read articles about the decline in unsupervised activities (walking to school/park/library, going to friends’ houses, playing around the neighborhood) leading to children feeling alienated (thanks capitalism). But I think that’s slightly different from what you mean. I am familiar with a large body of research about the benefits of ‘unstructured’ play, which is further expounded upon in many educational philosophies.
There’s also a legal requirements for schools to maintain clear lines of supervision of children at all times. And coming from someone who’s worked in childhood sexual abuse prevention, I’d rather make 100% sure all children’s and staff’s whereabouts are accounted for in school.
i guess i was probably referring to the second one, the idea being kids walk themselves to the store or play with the neighbor kids or whatever. i understand there are special pressures and circumstances in schools that i haven’t considered but idk. it’s been a long time since i was inside a school so all i can speak to is some faded memories
Parents sue the school district and try to get you fired for not protecting their child. Heaven forbid Johnny come home with a stuffy nose! It could be bronchitis! Or covid! Or cancer!
I knew a teacher who was threatened with that because she looked at a child who had lied to her while talking about a short story they were about to read where a character lies. Parents said the teacher was purposefully and publically shaming their kid – but no one knew about the lie and the story was on the course plan far in advance, but everyone had to get lawyers and fight it.
That’s whack.
My impression (from anecdotes) is that schools are infecting kids with covid all the time and the administrators will laugh at you or look at you funny if you ask them to provide adequate ventilation or air filtration
True
Those boy are FUCKING CHADS! You should celebrate their macho ass cold tolerance!
Everybody’s a Chad until “OOOO OOWIE I SKINNED MY WIDDLE KNEE ON THE BLACKTOP AND THE COLD MADE IT WORSE!”
What genuinely amazes me up here is seeing Samoans in fucking t-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops in sub-zero weather. Always the happiest least bothered people I meet.
Don’t know about samoans but I’ve seen people in shorts in snow storms. Some people just don’t have functioning thermoreceptors, and good for them I guess.
I broke my thermoreceptors for the heat down in the deserts around Phoenix during one of their hottest summers.
Honestly made life easier for me whenever I venture beyond Alaska’s frigid shores.
Yeah unless it’s cold enough to snow, I usually don’t wear a jacket. Even when it’s like 50°F/10°C and I’m out in public in just jeans and a t-shirt, I get so many borderline paternalistic comments from strangers: “You need to put on a jacket.” “Where’s your coat?” “You’ll catch a cold wearing that shirt in this weather.”
(Also why the fuck do people, even younger people, still believe that myth? Colds are caused by bacteria/viruses, not from the lack of a jacket.)
Well, I can’t speak to the first part (I’m on the other side of the spectrum), but colds are helped by the lack of a jacket. There is a temperature range in which certain bacteria replicate more actively, and it’s around 30°C. If you wear a jacket, it’s easier for the body to maintain a higher temperature in your mouth/nose and thus slow down the process.
- Cold temperatures = dry air = dry mucous membranes = higher susceptibility to respiratory infections
- Cold temperatures = people congregating inside with less ventilation = much more exposure
- There is something to be said for needing to expend a lot of extra energy maintaining body temperature causing some immune impairment, but it’s more from like falling in a frozen lake than being exposed to brisk weather for twenty minutes.
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