Let's Play: Stardew Valley - new year, new rants [152] 

I hate that in the US school funding is tied to property taxes - it only ensures public schools in rich areas are well funded while schools in poor or rural areas are underfunded. Those schools in poor/rural areas would benefit the most from increased funding to ensure their students get additional resources and access to necessary materials. PLUS, because the well-off areas are well-funded, meaning they can pay higher than average teacher salaries, which is better for both the teachers & students. Of course teacher turnover is higher in underfunded areas since they get lower salaries, less access to materials for students, etc. I desperately want teachers to get higher wages across the board, plus stipends to provide additional necessary materials to their classrooms as they see fit

the chila "the more you know" edit is gold 😂

I’m a first year high school teacher and you hit the mark on your discussion of our education system and your suggestions of changing what students learn!!! Teaching those skills would be wayyyy more useful, and I think we need to focus on those especially with this current generation of students. I (and my fellow colleagues) have noticed that expectations have lowered SIGNIFICANTLY for our students which is why things like literacy have decreased so much lately. It’s so sad how low the bar is for some students (not mine though- I push them to learn and grow!!!and it hurts to see that wasted potential. I think our students would thrive learning those skills knowing they would be more useful in daily life!!

I teach 5th grade reading/social studies. The gap in reading levels and comprehension across the board is quite scary when it comes to my students. I am having to incorporate basic phonics and letter patterns into daily practice because most students don’t read for pleasure and lack the stamina to write creatively. I have even tried to introduce doodling and brain dumping just to get SOMETHING on paper and it’s like pulling teeth. I’m working on my masters but am thinking of abandoning education eventually because it’s quite defeating to promote/pass students on to upper grades when they need so much to assistance. I wish standardized testing would be done away with to leave the freedom to teach students what they NEED.

As a college math professor, I think your elective idea is really good. All the math departments I talk to are struggling to get their pre-med and engineering students the math understanding that they need because students aren't getting good math educations before they get to us. So students taking those paths definitely should get access to the math that will help them succeed in college. And like, that's how it was for me in high school, I elected to take AP Calc and skip AP any kind of history (I hate history class like most people hate math). Also, and I know this isn't true in every class, but I stress critical thinking skills really hard in my class. Any time I get a "when am I going to use this word problem stuff in real life" question, I respond with "learning how to listen to someone describe a problem, understand that description, and then figure out what tools you need to solve the problem is useful in literally every facet of life." Sorry for the huge comment, love the video tho!

I have both worked in the school system and have a child in elementary school… unfortunately the school curriculum is just training kids to memorize and cram information for the sake of passing. I definitely agree there isn’t much preparation for life outside of the school environment and I think more helpful/real life skill electives would absolutely benefit the future population. Taxes. Budgets. Real healthy meal options to be able to properly nourish yourself on a budget. I need those classes lol

Teacher here! Here are my education thoughts... . . . . . First, let me share that I teach English in a public middle school that is diverse (~30% White) middle class (~20% Qualify for Free/Reduced Meals) in a state that is in the top 5 states for education, and my school system consistently performs above the national average. I feel like we are a bit of a unicorn, in that we are doing pretty well, despite the many, many challenges that public education is currently facing. 100% agree with you that the curriculum needs an overhaul. Agree that advanced math is overrated. I also was pressured to take AP Calc instead of Statistics and Probability, even though S&P would have been way more practical and beneficial to me in my current career. Media Literacy is an URGENT NEED. (Crash Course has an awesome video series on Media Literacy and another on Navigating Digital Information. I'd love to teach these! But not part of my curriculum...) My biggest frustration as an English teacher is that the lists of books we are allowed to teach are limited and dated. The book approval process is slow and tedious. And teaching outside the curriculum can get you fired. There is a wealth of amazing recent middle grade and YA lit that would be engaging and meaningful to teach... but we can't. Other factors that have a major impact on education: ~Lack of parental supports in the US. Starting at birth, we don't support parents of young children, financially, mentally, emotionally. We don't have "the village" support systems. Kiddos with overburdened parents come in lacking skills and dysregulated. ~Attention span is most certainly an issue. I don't necessarily believe in screentime limits and lack of tech exposure. But the kind of screentime and the types of tech being consumed at young ages MATTERS. As a teacher, I can't talk at 1.5x or 2.0x speed all day or cut in and out with effects and memes to hold my audience's attention. We need to be more mindful of what kids are consuming, and I honestly believe we need laws/regulations on tech and minors. ~Schools are currently majorly understaffed. And I don't see it getting better. Staffing is the biggest budget expense for most school districts, and any/every school district will trim to bare bones if they can. I'd wager that every single school in the US has had days in the past three years where they don't have enough adults to supervise classes. They beg us to give up our planning time to babysit a class where the teacher is out. New teacher recruitment is low because the pay is not compensatory for the level of education needed or the workload. ~Technology advancements in the classroom require constant adaptation from teachers and we have little training, time, or support. AI is looming on the horizon and I know it will have a huge impact on how we teach and learn. But I can't even begin to comprehend how I will need to adapt my practices and curriculum to meet the needs of students who will have AI at their fingertips. Is this how teachers felt at the dawn of the internet? I don't know. But it is a daunting feeling. (And I love tech. I normally embrace tech.) Things Schools are Doing RIGHT ^_^: ~Social Emotional Learning: So important and something I wish I'd had as a young person. ~Diverse Books: Slowly but surely we are adding more diverse books to the curriculum. ~Questioning the quantity and frequency of testing ~Increasing access to mental health professionals in schools ~Free breakfast programs ~Restorative justice and disciplinary practices that focus on repairing harm/restoring dignity Sorry for writing a novel. Would love to engage in the comments if there are other teachers here!

Omg. As a teacher, I agree with your take on the current state of our education system! It depresses me how much of a focus there is on academic excellence that doesn’t really apply outside of school/specialized settings. Even with the toddlers and preschoolers I teach, there is so much emphasis on learning 123s and ABCs instead of learning how to function as a member of a community. Like yes, obviously kids need to learn those basic academic skills eventually, but to me it seems like an early indicator of our backwards priorities as a society. In short: I fully support the idea that critical thinking > advanced math! Also that media literacy and home economics should totally be mandatory in schools. Also, I’ve been waiting for you to notice that your sheds could fit soooo many more kegs by doing back-to-back rows lol. The wiki has a photo with the “optimal” setup if you want to look it up… but I secretly don’t want you to make 10mil too quickly 😅 I’d rather you carry on with your unique brand of gentle chaos 😽

I am from Gen Z and I am currently in college going for a degree in social work. I currently work in a special needs preschool and I've had various internships, my current one working in foster care. I've seen a lot of information on exactly what you were saying (lower reading comprehension and a need for teaching life skills). I think also there is cause for concern about how these kids are respecting other people. I've seen and witnessed multiple videos and instances where children/adolescents have absolutely zero respect for others (i.e. rude remarks to teachers, not following general rules for the classroom, etc.) I think parents have some responsibility for these children's actions too. There's something called "Social Emotional Learning" that's slowly becoming more popular in schools. The school I work at currently uses a program that teaches kids about problem-solving skills, how to recognize emotions (in others and oneself), bodily autonomy (like asking for a hug first), etc. It's amazing to see how well this works in helping diminish negative behaviors and build the kids' social-emotional skills. There's even parent and teacher training so everyone is on the same page. Having seen the benefits myself, I feel like more schools need to implement similar programs, parents need to be more involved, and there needs to be more consistency. All this to say that I really do agree with you: schools are lacking, in more ways than one.

I have just recently found your channel and your Stardew Valley videos are genuinely so entertaining and they have become one of my favourite anticipated uploads. What makes your videos even better is that you are such a lovely and kind person. You treat your viewers with such care and respect that I cannot help but watch. Thank you for your content! I am definitely going to watch more of you in the future ❤

I have been talking to my mom a lot about school requirements. OMG the US public school system needs a overhaul. I think for MATH specifically, like a practical math class. How to budget, invest, personal finance stuff. Like we need to know how to live in society, and we need our youths to know as well. I feel like school based knowledge needs to be a baseline for how people survive and live. Not necessarily learning a small bit of something. Like a year in a "personal finances" class in high school would be a lovely addition, and teaching actual history... but that's a whole other paragraph!!

Thank YOU for creating such a safe and comforting space, i always get super excited to watch any of your videos, especially the stardew ones bc it's always fun and comforting. So thank you for all the fun videos you make❤. I really appreciate them and the vibes u create!!

the editing on this video is *chefs kiss*

TWO VIDS IN ONE DAY?? We’re spoiled 🎉

kens business man voice around 24:00 sent me 🤣

I think that basic human biology is a critical need for humans today. People not knowing what the organs do or how their bodies and brains work is a big deal to me.

I agree with what you’re saying about math & high school education in particular! I was homeschooled for high school and didn’t go farther than algebra/geometry, and could still easily do college, jobs and everything I needed to do without being overworked and burnt out. I also love your discussions and watching this play through! Started some months ago but want to catch up from the beginning as well.💛

I worked at a high school last year and they had already lowered the graduation requirement to just be Algebra 1. I agree that not all students need Calculus unless they know they are heading into a stem field but it’s also scary to think what will happen if we just keep lowering the standards to pass instead of making sure kids actually reach a certain threshold of skills before we hand them a diploma. From my personal perspective, it wasn’t so much the curriculum I had an issue with but the students themselves. I saw high school students acting like toddlers (yelling, hitting, throwing tantrums when told no) and as someone who only trained for teaching older students I didn’t know how to handle that! I think a huge part of the problem when talking about education is that we aren’t talking about the parents and sadly in most cases their lack of engagement. Again from my experience, parents were quick to judge teachers and what happened at school but got upset when we sent home homework and were surprised when their students weren’t doing well despite ignoring parent portals where they can access grades, ignoring when we reached out for communication, or just never asking their student about school. I dunno, it is a huge mess with no simple solution

I think we need to teach a Life Finance class and teach kids about mortgages, budgets, loans, debt. I hate that I had to learn a lot of this the hard way cause i was never taught.

Okay, so a couple of things lol I think you're totally right about the educational system, and it needing to be updated and upgraded. My daughter, who is in 2nd grade, goes to a new school this year. The school that she went to last was amazing about teaching basic reading skills & took a slower approach to why letters/vowels make different sounds with different words. Also, spending a good amount of time on spelling words. It was a new approach to it & my daughter was thriving. Although we do really like her new school, they speed through things and just assume that the kids know the information. I don't even see her spelling words now. Idk, also these schools are about 10minutes apart from eachother but so drastically different

I think that changing the school system is needed -- but also in the course of overhauling the curriculum and actually implementing changes, people will feel the class divide more. Making courses electives means that they most likely won't be available in lower income areas, which would probably bar kids in those areas from getting or succeeding at higher education or other post-grad paths. Also (and as a person in a math heavy career I'm probably a little biased) I think both higher level math and language classes help build critical thinking skills and how to think about abstract/complex concepts, which absolutely helps you in life. HOT TAKE but I think that in the current system higher education is too accessible in the sense that everyone can get into a school as long as you have the money or are willing to take loans out for it. So now it's standard to have a degree, and everyone needs to have a degree in order to get any type of job. And then teenagers (whose brains are not finished developing yet) are spending tens of thousands to get a degree because they need one to get a job, but that job doesn't pay enough to pay off the loans once they're adults, and now they're too busy to look for another life path because they're too busy scraping by. It doesn't help that older generations are still stuck in the mindset that college degree = well paying job, and that as a society we look down on people without degrees. In high school I think my English and Government teachers did excellent jobs at encouraging media literacy -- they really emphasized looking at multiple sources, fact checking, looking up author's backgrounds to see if they had an agenda, etc., but unfortunately that's not part of the curriculum and just something those specific teachers felt was important to tie in.

As someone who's been an employee of a low income area public school for years I feel the same. I've been a cleaner for a decade now. I came from a low income home and went to the same school district I now work for. The schools have zero wiggle room with curriculum these days, each year there's some new state controlled curriculum implemented. Lots of standardized testing. All of which doesn't seem to help rather, it seems to be worsening the actual education the children get. They really should bring back home economics because a lot of that is basic survival and not everyone has the opportunity for parents or family to teach them that sadly. Of course your math , language arts, science, history , and reading is "more" important but there should be more time for other things also like different arts, music, or dance along with the more basic life things like taxes. Teachers definitely do not get paid enough for the job they do, they deal with so much behind the scenes. They really do deserve more recognition/ pay than they currently get that's for sure. Public schools are just a way for the top people to keep making more money and assure there's plenty of semi obedient people to have in the workforce in the future.

Just something I’ve noticed with my 2 kids. They kind of just push these kids through elementary school. Then they get to middle school and it’s a shock, cause they start grading for real and having to study, etc… Another thing lol…wish the education system acknowledged that we all learn differently. Not everyone excels thru the traditional book learning.

your right shed has the bottom row up against the bottom wall, so you can fit an extra row! your left shed has the casks/kegs/whatever one tile up from the wall.

Hi Ken! I’ve been watching so many of your videos for the past 6 months but I haven’t taken a second to say hello. I recently followed your twitch to chime into the chat instead of lurk in the corner (cozygamingtina is the my other username) 🙃 it’s funny that you mention education in this video because I’m a former teacher (taught for the past 5 years) and unfortunately got burnt out by the system, my partner taught for 4 years and experienced the same. I’m in grad school now taking a millennial gap year & exploring different career pathways. I have no thoughts to add on the education system due to the fatigue from it, but I wanted to say thank you for your content as it’s really been healing to learn about the cozy gaming world and have a community to hang out with online 💕

In Canada, the math equivalent to lower maths, opposite pre-cal, is called consumer math and it focuses on budgeting and applying math to everyday life...

Media literacy and critical thinking are so important!! My partner teaches English and that’s part of their curriculum. Definitely an essential life skill.

this has become the podcast of my dreams

Hi Kennedy. Check the spacing of your kegs in the second house. It looks like the first row in the first house is more “flush” with the front wall compared to the second one. 😊

I noticed that you have more than 300 cloth in your chest with resources. It sells for 658 with artisan profession! Also you can make a bunch of crystalariums and sell diamonds, but they take like 5 days

im SO not able to just sit down and do nothing, if im watching a movie sitting on the couch im like “yeah this is not productive at all” and immediately start doing something else WHILE i watch the movie 😭😭😭

As someone who majored in math in college I might be biased but I really feel like advanced math can teach critical thinking and problem solving skills. Although you might not directly use math daily, the skills set of having a set of tools to tackle a problem and learning how to try different ways to get to a solution can be broadly applicable. Definitely agree that social skills, financial literacy, etc are super valuable as well. I think the sad thing is people decide really early on whether they are “good” at math and that often leads to them giving up on the subject entirely. I think how a subject is taught can be more important than the subject itself. But why get rid of advanced math and not history? You can get through the day without needing to know historical facts but history and math both provide important context to the world around us. Or understanding statistics and how that ties into things like probability, survey population/sample sizes and correlation vs causation. I don’t disagree that education needs to be valued, teachers should get paid more, and there are many other issues to be fixed, but I don’t think removing advanced math courses would be a good solution.

Honestly the education system is all about money. The people in charge only care about what brings in the most money and highest test scores. Kids are literally just numbers to them. And teachers are scored too. I work in a district where they've implemented a teacher incentive program. Basically, the higher your test scores, the higher chance you have at getting a pay raise. This is their way to try to retain teachers since so many are quitting... instead of just paying us all more... I'm in my 7th year of teaching and have so much more to say but I'll stop there 😅

The main reason that schools dont focusing on teaching skills like budgeting or home economics is because our current system relies on capitalism. It’s teaching a generation to rely on the government and not be self sufficient which is always dangerous.

Ok I need you to know something I just saw about stardew that I never knew. Apparently “hardcore” players never use sprinklers or water their plants. They make it rain everyday. Apparently the weather has to do with how many steps you’ve taken. So they make sure they take enough steps to make it rain. 🤯

i’m about to be a mom in april and i’m pretty concerned about the education system too. i feel like they teach things that aren’t super necessary like financial literacy and other important life skills. i’m hoping to be able to help my child as best as i can but at the same time, something in the system itself has to change too. i literally have a bunch of little cousins who i know for a fact don’t know how to read or spell bc of the usage of sight words instead of learning how to sound things out. it’s just crazy and i’m sure there’s other factors going into it

I fully agree with what you had to say about our education system. it does need a complete rehaul. but the reason the way it is now is to make compliant non thinking workers so unless we change a lot of other things it will continue to be that way. the American school system isn't designed to create smart independt people.

hahahahahaha the chila edit! 😂 I tried the flamin hot mac and cheese because of this and now I feel like I need to try all the other ones to compare my ranking hahahaha also I didnt expect to be diagnosed with The Insides, but it makes sense I should've known u_u also also I loved seeing smallleaf post and seeing us there as a lil family it was so sweeet! 🥺 happy sunday, ken!

As someone who is a school librarian I fully agree with you on this issue. College is a scam and student loans are as well. I owe 90k for a MA in History and could not find a job in my field. I love my job as a librarian but I still dream about working in my actual field

both of my parents have been teachers my whole life. in preschool. elementary and high school. and my dad was a college professor for 20 + years and is now working at a highschool. They have opinions for sure. I just see their suffering and it breaks my hear

My son is almost 2 months old and we read to him daily basically since birth - I'm hoping he has as great of an educational experience that I did as a tail end millennial. I went to both private and public school, but I learned so much. I remember taking photography in high school and our building had a dark room and everything. I also had an amazing college experience, but things are changing unfortunately D:. I remember my private elementary school we were looking at newspaper articles in like second grade for homework and learning French. Fast-forward, my brother is gen Z - my mom sent him to the same school and it was insane how little work they did in comparison. The principal said the parents were complaining that it was "too much work" - what? lol; needless to say that school shutdown because it was expensive and the kids weren't learning nearly as much. We moved out of the US to where my husband is from, so hoping the education where we are now will be better!

I think the standard school system is so wrong. I think standarized testing is NOT an acurate evaluation of how much someone has learned. I dont think the memorize and brain dump method is effective. We had three levels of math- the highest being a university entry math, the lowest, for the "not as smart people" being the one where you actually learn about taxes, financing a car, etc. So much more useful! The only college prerequists i had to was 2 english courses and a world issues course... and the reality? My program had no use for a math or science anyways. How we did teach kids to me empathetic and good communicators. To care for a home and a vehicle. Actual sex education. So many things.

Had to rewatch to figure it out, but it's because the kegs are on the very bottom row in one shed and not in the other. So you've got that extra gap between the bottom row and the next row up. If that makes sense.

im a new sub teacher--just in my second year now--and lord the deficiencies students are facing these days is crazy. students in like grade 6 reading at a grade 3 level, so many students just genuinely not caring enough to put in the effort to focus for like 4 hours in a day and get work done. it sucks, and its not completely their fault, but it makes my job a million times harder yk. doesn't matter how much schooling i went through to get certified, they would've never been able to prepare me for this lol

The Cheetos Mac n cheese sent me I almost double tapped the screen 💀

I realised I hadn’t finished Saltburn so had to run and watch it before I tucked into this. The way those keg lines confused me for longer than it should.

I literally did not pass a math class until they put me in Money Management. My ADHD brain would not accept things I would not use.

I think it would be cool to learn like basic medicine in school. As in like what to do when you get a scrape vs cut. What Ibprofen does. Learning herbs would be cool but that’s wishful thinking lol but yea even like CPR, why can’t they teach that in schools?

College is high school 2.0... NGL loved my Master Program. HATE how expensive it was.

There is a "Cheesy Ranch" Cheetos Mac'n'Cheese that you left off your tier list. Didn't know if you knew about it.

At the beginning of Saltburn it showed pretty clearly Oliver's obsession with Felix, the whole perspective was from his POV, and he's also seen staring at felix through his window having sex with a girl and the camera is constantly panning over his body from Oliver's viewpoint. My issue with it was it was pretty much the Talented Mr Ripley... but I still really loved watching it somehow lol

literally sounds like im listening to myself talk. lol

THE MUG GETTING A SHOUTIEEEEEEE

26:01 I am a teacher and yes….the little ones growing up cannot read 😢

***SALTBURN SPOILERS*** I think you missed the reveal at the end that showed he was a sociopath from the beginning, that he entered college with the intention of finding someone to latch onto and he targeted Jacob Elordi’s character. The whole shock factor of his personality flip was supposed to be a slow burn so you were surprised when he would be one way with someone versus another with someone else (masking, matching). Its all sociopathic behavior and really interesting when you watch real life interviews with sociopaths (not all are bad people, they’re just interestingly honest). But really it doesn’t all connect because it’s a surrealist film meant to disturb. Not comparable to Call Me By Your Name when that entire film is about European romance lol Just my two cents!

if you see this jump to 31:00 for a little treat

Hi!!! I watch your twitch streams and heard you now have a separate cozy gaming channel?! But, I can't find it, plz help

Commenting for the algorithm ✨️☕️💕