By Arnav Sampigethaya
I must have been around 11 or 12 when I watched my first Crash Course World History video by John Green and I was HOOKED. All my friends would spend their time watching gaming videos or comedy sketches or vines on YouTube and I would spend hours binging and researching Crash Course’s catalogue. Something about John Green and his brother Hank taught complex topics was life-changing.
Source- Uzer Friendy
Source- Business Insider
As you begin a Crash Course video, there’s a cold open followed by which you get one of the most fun and iconic themes, as you see a wide array of trivia and facts being displayed on the screen. Then, the teacher will explain things to you using jump-cuts and quick fades, unlike anything else I’ve seen. When a tough topic comes, we got the Thought Bubble! Where the geniuses at Thought Café, visualize these harder-to-explain topics. Then we come back to the explanation and the teacher goes through some shenanigans and a game after which there’s a question asked to the viewer that’ll make them think about the topic they just learned and in a span of under 12 minutes, you learn so much, understand so much and it never leaves your mind because it’s taught in such a unique way. You’re always challenged and made to think.
Source- Crash Course World History
I’ve watched the Crash Course series for World History, World History II, US Government and Politics, Film History, Film Criticism, Literature (1,2,3 and 4), Computer Science, Study Skills, Chemistry, Physics, Philosophy, Anatomy and Physiology and Games in their entirety. I can attribute my passion to learn from these videos because it teaches you things in such a unique way.
I want to educate people the way the Green Brothers and their amazing channel has educated me. I want to challenge your notions, revolutionize the way you learn, I want you to feel like the lesson is teaching you something but you’re also attaching something personal to each thing you learn. That’s been my goal with my articles. I try my best to show all sides of a story or all facets of an issue because, in the end, my opinion doesn’t matter. YOURS does.
We need responsible people, we need knowledgeable people in our future and if I can change someone’s perspective or educate even ONE person, then I’ve accomplished my goal.
Source- Crash Course Anatomy and Physiology
The things I learnt from Crash Course changed me as a person because I went from being this geek whose main character trait was Marvel, DC and Star Wars to being knowledgeable and being someone whose opinion on things like current affairs are valued because of how much I had studied and learnt. I went from being desperate to get on to the inter-house quiz team to representing Greenwood High in a state-level quiz competition and getting the bronze medal over 100 other teams.
It’s also made my conversational skills much better, I can talk about so many topics because of what I learnt or an interest that was planted by a Crash Course video. The Green brothers are some of the most inspirational people because they teach for free, they don’t have their own fancy website, they teach directly on the biggest video platform on the world. Despite his busy schedule as a full-time renowned author, John Green STILL finds time to teach European History every week and I’m along for the ride. There’s a Crash Course series for pretty much everything at this point and if you haven’t checked them out, you’ve missed out on an ocean of learning. But it’s never too late to start learning, so grab your notebook, and throw on a video of Crash Course.
And as they say in John Green’s home town, “Don’t forget to be awesome”.
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