The day is bright and warm and I just remembered a few quick NY Times articles I wanted to share with you regarding school food and the future of education.
By Gerri Hirshey, 9/26/08, NY Times
This article addresses a program and innitiative that is very close to my heart: healthful local food for children in our public school systems. There is no reason why we should not, as the American society on a whole, be able to to provide our children with the most in-season foods from our local farmers.
Hirshey's piece brought me back to Morgan Spurlocks documentary, Super Size Me, several years ago. There was a segment in which they discussed a "bad-behavioral" school with a "normal" school. At the special school they feed students healthy breakfast and lunches (whole grain pastas, no fried foods, no soda or power drinks, etc) and made the kids part of the food preparation process, as opposed to the "normal" school diet which did not (mainly cheap, sugary, and high in calories). They found astonishing advancements in the students' concentration levels, grades, attitudes, and all around health. They were never "bad", they were hyped up on sugar!
By Winnie Hu, 10/7/08, NY Times
By Motoko Rich, 10/5/08, NY Times
Both of these have to deal with bringing video games in the classroom. I share mixed thoughts.
First of all, I had video games when I was in elementary school - part of our computer literacy class. Typing games, math and reading games, Oregon Trail, etc. But, they were part of the computer class, not the subject with which they were dealing (math, history, literature, etc).
While I am fearful that children will no longer be excited about sitting down and losing themselves in a book for the pure pleasure of doing so, I met a lady Friday evening who pronounced a point I had never thought of: texting as sequences of letters to form words. Yes, yes, texting is not gaming, I know, but it is a "new" technology and approach to typing communication.
I have my doubts, but that could be the very little bit of conservatism I have in me. However, I'm going to keep digging down in the soil to find more studies that spark more thought!
ENJOY THE BOUNTY!!
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