Show Me the Evidence: Everything Your Mother Taught You is Questionable

Do your homework. Floss your teeth. Wash your hands in warm water.

What was mom thinking?

Apparently, she got it all wrong. Or some things wrong, even if her advice was well-intentioned. Mom’s statements above are not necessarily bad advice, but they may not be good advice either. There is little evidence that her suggested activities are as useful as so many moms and dads thought they were.

Some of the advice we have taken as gospel is turning out not to be supported by strong evidence. Does that mean we should stop teaching kids to floss their teeth? No, it does not. But perhaps flossing is not worth the emphasis it has received.

And perhaps it is healthy not only to question such statements, but also to invite children to question the things we take for granted. In an era where pseudoscience reigns on the Internet and bald-faced lies are accepted as political truths, it is healthy to raise children to expect proof of all claims, whether these are conspiracy theories or pieces of advice from parents.

Show me the evidence.

Photo: Pixabay, Public Domain

Wash Your Hands in Warm Water

Wash your hands? Absolutely. With soap and water for at least 25 seconds? Definitely. But does the water need to be warm? Must we waste time, water, and energy waiting for warm water to flow from the tap?

Sorry, mom. This idea doesn’t hold water.

It turns out that both cold water and warm water are just as good for washing your hands. Why? First, because warm water will not get hot enough to kill bacteria anyway; your hands couldn’t handle boiling water. Second, there was a longstanding theory that warm water was better for washing away the oily film that can hold bacteria on your skin. But if you’re using soap anyway (which you should, because rinsing alone is not very effective), then either warm or cold water will do.

In a 2005 letter to the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, scientists reported on their evaluation of two studies of hand-washing at different temperatures, concluding that whether the water is warm or cold has “no effect” on transient or resident bacterial reduction.
Source: http://journals.lww.com/joem/Citation/2005/04000/Hot_Water_for_Handwashing_Where_is_the_Proof_.13.aspx

The only remaining reason to wash your hands in warm water is that warm water feels good to most people. So this warm-water hygiene may encourage people to keep their hands in the water long enough to get them clean. But in warm seasons and climates, cold water might be more refreshing.

The lesson is this: it doesn’t matter whether the water is cold, hot, or warm. If it was hot enough to make a difference, the water would scorch your hands. So just let people do what they like best. Mom, bark at Junior about something else.

They didn't tell us to floss with grass. Photo: Creative Commons on Flickr.com (photo by foxypar4)

Floss Your Teeth

An apple a day keeps the dentist away? We don’t know, since no government agencies or big pharmaceutical companies have invested in large-scale studies of the effect of daily apple consumption on dental health.

But we do know that the “apple a day” advice (whether it’s meant to keep doctors or dentists away) is no less accurate than the “floss your teeth once a day to prevent cavities” advice.

Dentists still preach it. Consumer goods companies make up to $2 billion per year worldwide by selling dental floss, flossers, power flossers, picks, scrapers, water irrigators, and other interdental paraphernalia. But the American Dental Association (ADA) has admitted there is no proof that flossing or other interdental cleaning actually works.
Source: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/f7e66079d9ba4b4985d7af350619a9e3/medical-benefits-dental-floss-unproven

To be fair, if you floss and pick your teeth really, really well, that might provide some small benefit. One study found that when children had their teeth professionally cleaned by dental hygienists five times per week, there was a 40% reduction in cavities. But how many of us have professional dental cleanings five times per week?

For people conducting their own routine flossing, three systematic reviews of the hundreds of flossing studies have showed that flossing has no tangible benefits. For those that found benefits, these were miniscule. Moreover, some showed negative side effects of flossing, though these were inconsistent also. As researchers at Inholland University of Applied Sciences in Amsterdam concluded, “routine instruction to use floss is not supported by scientific evidence.”
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/rosspomeroy/2013/10/17/dentists-say-you-need-to-floss-science-says-you-dont/#6d078c0e77d5

And so, the benefits of flossing are as elusive as washing hands with warm water.

They can say what they want, but they don’t have evidence to back this one up. So mom can be safe and still force Junior to floss. Or she can drop this recommendation and let him play another minute or two of computer games. What if he did another minute or two of homework per day? How much smarter would Junior be?

Photo: Creative Commons on Wikimedia.com (photo by woodleywonderworks)

Do Your Homework

If homework has its benefits for young children, no study has demonstrated this clearly yet. We know that practice makes perfect, that repetition is the mother of learning, and that the more someone is exposed to something, the better it should sink in. But where elementary and middle aged children are concerned, homework has few benefits (though it does have benefits for high school or secondary school kids). In fact, too much homework can have an adverse effect on learning at younger ages.
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-24/study-finds-homework-has-limited-value/4330514

As education expert Alfie Kohn wrote in an article published on the George Lucas Educational Foundation’s Edutopia website, “no study has ever demonstrated any academic benefit to homework at any age before high school…We’re all familiar with the downsides of homework: the frustration and exhaustion, the family conflict, time lost for other activities, and possible diminution of children’s interest in learning. But the stubborn belief that this all must be worth it, that the gain outweighs the pain, relies on faith rather than evidence.”
Source: http://www.edutopia.org/no-proven-benefits

Perhaps that time could be spent better doing other things that could truly encourage and support learning.

This reality has led some schools and teachers to look for better ways to use homework. One of these is the flipped learning model, in which teachers use class time to help with the homework-type problems while students learn the main content lessons at home. Flipped learning and other alternatives have shown some promise. But as always, there may be no one-size-fits-all approach. Success in education involves many factors and variables, so what works for one teacher, subject, grade level, and student may not be a replicable model for everyone, everywhere, at every age and in every location.
Source: http://flippedclass.com/homework-the-flipped-class/

All we can say for sure is that most schools, teachers, and parents are pushing the homework thing. And they continue to do so despite a lack of evidence showing that it works for elementary and middle school students. If Junior questions mom on this one, it may be hard to defend the homework practice, just like if Mom questions the teacher and school, they may be hard-pressed to come up with solid evidence that homework really works.

“A Massive Alien Invasion Fleet Just Flew Past the Sun”

The danger in debunking warm water hand washing, flossing, homework advice, and other “myths” is that people may be tempted to overreact. The lack of evidential support for flossing teeth, for example, does not mean that flossing becomes an evil practice. The “good versus evil” pendulum effect is dangerous; it creates extreme views that also are not supported by evidence. And there are far too many niche communities on the Internet that are ready to provide comfort and validation for nearly any sort of extremist or conspiracy theory.

Don’t buy it without the evidence. And question that evidence also.

Throughout this article, I have never written that mom’s advice was harmful, only that its emphasis may have been misplaced. Flossing your teeth won’t kill you. Washing your hands in warm water is fine, but it isn’t the only way to wash off bacteria. And the homework picture is quite complex; innovation and shorter homework times may yield a better at-home learning model, though no benefits have been shown yet for primary school children.

According to the website Inquisitr, an alien invasion is underway. The evidence consists of someone on Youtube having watched satellite footage of the sun and snapping a still picture of it. The picture purportedly shows alien craft flying by in “tactical formation”.
Source: http://www.inquisitr.com/3192133/a-massive-alien-ufo-military-invasion-fleet-just-flew-in-tactical-formation-past-earth-conspiracy-theorists-raise-alarm-video/

These lights are alien ships, according to UFO hunters. Photo: NASA

This “alarming” evidence suggests that “something big is about to happen,” according to a UFO blogger. Except that the footage of the sun is several months old already. Surely, the attack of the solar grill marks should have produced barbecue by now (?)

Ask for the evidence. Do your own due diligence. Demand reason, not just conjecture. I happen to be a major government skeptic, but also don’t swallow any baloney. In this day and age, everyone from kids to adults needs a functional bulls*** detector.

Photo: Apple App Store.

So whether the source is mom or some conspiracy website, demand evidence. Evaluate claims. Proceed forward methodically, not purely with emotion. Take yourself and what you want to believe out of the way until you have reasoned your way to an informed opinion based upon the evidence. Soon, you may be able to market your own bulls*** detector.

Sorry, mom. You can wash out my mouth with soap for that swearword. But the evidence shows it won’t help.

Peace, Richard, @steemship

Top photo: Creative Commons on Flickr.com (photo by Bill Selak)