Teacher’s viral experiment will ensure your kids never skip hand-washing again

What kid has time to wash their hands? Really, between taking the time to clean up after being outdoors or going to the bathroom, or having a few extra minutes to play, there’s no competition. But now with those coughs and sneezes raising their germy heads it’s time to put these bugs to bed, which means regularly washing those dirty mitts.

However, as our busy kids seem allergic to water (unless it comes to swimming pools) they seem pretty reluctant to listen to our advice. So one teacher, Courtney Lee Simpson, decided to show her class exactly what it means to have dirty hands, and the end result is not very appetizing.

Simpson, a teacher, carried out a simple but brilliant experiment to show just how easily germs spread. “You let all the kids see you put a piece of bread in a baggy with a glove on hence ‘controlled’ then you wash your hands and put a piece of bread in a baggy for ‘clean.’ Last but definitely not least you pass a piece of bread around and let every kid in class touch it then you put it in a baggy and label it dirty.” Then watch the results as the germs do their work.

This show-and-tell alternative is certainly effective at proving a point and should get any kid rushing to scrub their hands.

However, to make sure your kids get top marks, get them to look at this video by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on how to wash your hands — it’s not as straightforward as you may think; a quick dip under the faucet is not going to get the job done. So as fall sets in, help your child get into a good habit of keeping those germs at bay. As the CDC points out, washing hands is a “do-it-yourself vaccine,” and can actually save lives.