🐴 Mythbusting 'one size fits all'

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💡 DEEP DIVE

THE MYTH THE BUSTER COULDN’T BUST

Adam Savage built a career on explosions, experiments, and exposing what's fake. For 14 seasons of MythBusters, he showed millions that our default assumptions are often wrong.

But when it came to his own ADHD son, even the professional skeptic fell for the oldest myth in education: that one size fits all.

"I spent too much time trying to help him fit into the mold of our current education system; because it's easier that way," Savage admits in a video that's racked up over 200,000 views and 386 comments since we posted it. "And the education system is an inertial mass that wants everyone to roll along with it."

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Adam Savage's biggest parenting regret: trying to force his ADHD son into the school mold instead of letting him find his own path. The st... See more

Why did the video strike such a nerve? Perhaps it’s because it names what so many parents feel but can't articulate: becoming an accomplice in your children's suffering.

"When you work really hard to fit your kid into the mold of the school, it's stressful for everyone and your kid feels that stress," Savage continues. "They feel it first of all in themselves from the school work and the difficulties of fitting the mold, but secondarily they feel your stress."

This is the trap. We see our child struggling. We want to help. So we double down on the very system that's causing the struggle. More tutoring. More structure. More pressure.

Savage's revelation cuts deeper: "My kid saw our family’s stress at dealing with him in school and internalized some of that as like … he was the problem."

The comments tell the same story hundreds of times over:

"We destroyed our daughter's self esteem trying to follow the advice of schools and autism 'experts' to cram her into a mold she was never built for," one parent confessed.

"I am that kid. Except I am the mom," wrote another.

"Going through this right now with my 8-year-old."

And last, but not least:

"Thank you for sharing your regret so we don't have to have the same one."

"That's the thing about the neuro-spicy," Savage says, using his affectionate term for neurodivergent kids, "is that so often in attempting to get them to fit a mold, they take on the disappointment of not fitting that mold as a personal failure, and it's not."

We saw this same pattern throughout the week. On the podcast, Tony Mickelsen asked why we force 60-minute tutoring sessions on kids who learn better in 25-minute bursts? A homeschool mom discovered her daughter thrived when given space to create.

What makes Savage's confession so powerful is that he had every advantage. Fame. Resources. A platform built on questioning assumptions. And still, he fell for it.

"If I could go back to tell myself, to tell my 20-year-older self how to best support my kid through grade school, middle school, and high school," he reflects, "it would be to allow more space, whatever that means, for him to find his own journey through it."

Not solutions. Not fixes. Just space.

If you have a friend who’s struggling to fit their kid into a certain mold, forward this email to let them know that their options are more open than they might think; or, reply with your own stories (including the regrets!).

🔨 THIS WEEK'S 10 MOST-CLICKED TOOLS

George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" - The 1946 essay that demolishes bad writing habits. Six simple rules including: "If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out."

Free Savvy Reading Assessment - Know your child's exact reading level in 15 minutes. Science of Reading principles, actionable insights, clear next steps.

How Writing Should Be Taught in School - Ellen Fishbein tells Hannah Frankman we've been teaching backwards. Let kids write messily first, clean up later. Outlines are great, but aren’t always the best first step.

Rebind’s AI-Enhanced Classics - $30 gets you Roxane Gay explaining Wharton or Margaret Atwood unpacking Dickens.

NatureEye - Powers OpenEd's virtual field trips. Recent adventures: CERN's particle accelerator, Antarctic researchers, SpaceX satellite launches.

Synthesis - The problem-solving curriculum from Elon Musk's secret SpaceX school. Weekly team challenges for ages 8-14. No grades, no right answers, just critical thinking.

Mark Twain for Kids: His Life & Times - Hands-on journey through Twain's world with 21 activities. From paddlewheel boats to writing maxims, perfect for sparking curiosity in young learners.

Stone Soup Magazine - Written and illustrated entirely by kids. No standardized filters, just authentic young voices. Submit today!

Epic Digital Library - 40,000+ books for ages 3-12. Features read-to-me options, progress tracking, and offline reading. Helps kids find books they actually want to read.

📊 THIS WEEK'S TOP 5 TRENDS

Paper Beats Pixels for Memory - A meta-analysis of 54 studies covering 170,000+ participants found physical books lead to better comprehension than screens. The advantage holds across all age groups and has actually grown stronger over time.

The Micro-Tutoring Revolution - Following research on high-dosage tutoring, more programs like Savvy Learning embrace 25-minute sessions over hour-long marathons. It's 20X more effective because it matches children's actual attention spans.

Homeschooling Goes Mainstream - 50% of OpenEd families now come from public schools. "Every time I tell someone we homeschool, they say 'We've been thinking about that too,'" notes Jared Fuller. The old stereotypes are dying.

Schools Ban Deepfakes - Bedford, NH joins districts prohibiting AI-generated images with punishments up to suspension. While addressing real concerns, the zero-tolerance approach raises questions about proportional responses.

Movement Beats Stillness - Laura Grace Weldon reminds us kids learn better when moving. New research shows 20-minute walks create dramatic cognitive gains. Movement isn't a break from learning—it's the accelerator.

Reading Scores Hit New Lows - 69% of 4th graders now read below proficiency. The crisis predates COVID, suggesting systemic issues with how we teach reading fundamentals.

That’s all for this week!

– Charlie (the OpenEd newsletter guy)

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