Good news, Sparklers! If you find it hard to concentrate at school, especially on gray, overcast days or in those windowless, dungeon-esque classrooms, you're not out of your mind. Turns out our brains are plant-like—that is, they work better with sunshine!
A new study has found that not only can the weather affect your mood (duh) but a bright, sunshiny day can also make it easier to perform cognitive tasks—like say, parsing the symbolic meaning of the green light in The Great Gatsby or solving for x when you don't know y.
So what does this groundbreaking discovery mean for you? We've come up with some school-board-ready proposals in response to this photosynthetic breakthrough:
Rainy days off: Why bother going to school if your brain isn't going to soak up any of the information? On overcast/cloudy/precipitation days, students should stay home and commit to their own "personalized learning schedules," which could include re-visiting the Harry Potter series, watching educational television like the Planet Earth series, or engaging in arts and crafts projects, like making a latch hook rug. For those of you who live in Seattle and London, you're welcome.
Class-on-the-quad days: To maximize your learning potential, all teachers would be required to have class outside on sunny days. Take that, grumpy old chemistry teacher who keeps the classroom blinds closed to prevent "mindless daydreaming."
Sun-soaked field trips: For concentrated solar power, we recommend regular outings to the beach. And if you don't live near a beach, it looks like your day trip just became a week-long excursion. For those of you who live in Wisconsin and Kansas, you're welcome.
New lighting fixtures: Get rid of those icky fluorescent bulbs. Aside from their mind-dulling powers, they make everyone look green and sickly. All classrooms would be outfitted with sun-spectrum lamps and lightboxes.
Winter vacation: School systems could switch schedules so that students go to class in the summer and have an extended winter break. Your brain would get to take advantage of longer, sunnier days, and you'd get in more skiing and sledding. But instead of a tan, you'd sport a fancy, goggle-shaped windburn. (Okay, maybe we'll leave this suggestion off when we send our recommendations to the DOE.)
Do you find it hard to think on bleak, bad weather days? Or does the sunshine make it harder to sit still? Would you prefer to go to school in the summer?
Topics: School
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