no cupcake for you!

Despite the strict new nutrition regulations in many school districts–which often result in bans on bake sales and birthday cake–school food policies may not have any particular effect on students’ eating habits. A (small, quasi-experimental, nonrandomized) study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior found that reducing the availability of sodas did not meaningfully reduce soda consumption among students. This is supported by data which suggest that childhood weight increases at a faster rate during the summer. None of this is surprising, for two reasons: one, children only spend seven of their twenty-four hours in school and most only consume one meal there; and two, real food is expensive.

When Christopher Greenslate and Kerri Leonard tried to live on a food budget of a dollar a day (the average American eats $7 of food a day, but the daily food-stamp allowance is only a few dollars), they found themselves unable to afford fresh fruits and vegetables of any kind–and seemed only to survive because of their ability to make their own bread and tortillas, a skill that’s losing ground by the day. Furthermore, there’s this: 

Last year, Dr. Drewnowski led a study, published in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association, comparing the prices of 370 foods sold at supermarkets in the Seattle area. The study showed that “energy dense” junk foods, which pack the most calories and fewest nutrients per gram, were far less expensive than nutrient-rich, lower-calorie foods like fruits and vegetables. The prices of the most healthful foods surged 19.5 percent over the two-year study period, while the junk food prices dropped 1.8 percent. [NYTimes]

This is all the more reason for schools to cut soda and junk food from their vending machines and cafeterias–and replace them with water and fruit. Making it harder to get a Coke isn’t really helpful if students turn around and buy Gatorade or drink nothing at all. There have to be worthwhile alternatives. And this way, even if their eating habits aren’t changed substantially, at least you got some baby carrots into ‘em. 

HOWEVER: banning bake sales and birthday cake isn’t the answer, either. Fundraisers in particular should be exciting, and what’s more exciting than a brownie, particularly at a school where your only dessert options are nature’s candy? It also sends the message that under no circumstances are refined sugars acceptable, EVER. This makes said sugars way sexier (you say I can’t touch that red button, ay?) and also makes that whole “moderation” lesson much more difficult to learn. One glass of wine does not a raging  alcoholic make, nor a pumpkin-shaped cookie a 600-pound 10-year-old who can’t leave his bed.

oh really?

This Yes We Can (Hold Babies) post is less than galvanizing, given said baby’s failure to point his Ns the right way. Clearly it’s fake, but would it be too much to ask for our GObama! inspirational images to have a little more hope for our education system? 

[Ian Curcio via Yes We Can (Hold Babies)]

• Cindi Rigsbee, a teacher who herself attended segregated schools, writes about what it means to teach an Obama victory. “So now we have a Black President,” she says. “And when I stand in front of my students, especially my African American ones, I can say, ‘You can be anything you want to be. You can even be President,’ and know that it’s true.” 

• Skoolboy kills our buzz by reminding us that Obama didn’t cure racism. “Although our President-Elect is a singular, charismatic individual who is the right man at the right time, the social, economic and political forces that shape the educational opportunities of African-Americans in U.S. society are deeply entrenched. Sadly, the scourge of race will not be easy to overcome.” 

Yes. We. Did.

Minority students in Brooklyn, Rockville, and presumably everywhere else celebrated President-Elect Barak Obama yesterday. 

Sixth-graders at Eagle Academy described Obama’s acceptance speech as “heartwarming”, “outstanding”, “magnificent” and “amazing”. 

Grant Durando, of Potomac Falls High, told the Washington Post, ”Today, I said the Pledge of Allegiance for the first time in three years. I said it because I’m proud–that our country can go from killing millions of people on slave ships to one that puts a black man in office. I think I meant it for the first time, too.”

And at Howard University, Dorian Archie pointed to the American flag and said, ”That flag way up there means something to me today.”

Yes. We. Can!

do it!

[Yes We Can (Hold Babies)]

FHS' mascot, the Confederate Rebel

The Duval County, FL school board voted Monday not to change the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest High School, despite Forrest’s status as Confederate general and KKK leader. Defeated 5-2, only the board’s two black members cast votes to change the name.

Incidentally, Forrest High School has also received two consecutive F grades on state assessments. Perhaps the specter of vicious, ignorant racism is stunting the student body?

A 5-year-old lists the presidents in order, with a little plug for her candidate of choice thrown in for good measure.

[YouTube via Yes We Can (Hold Babies)]

Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings

Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced new regulations to strengthen NCLB last week. Highlights include:

Under the new regulations, all states will use the same formula to calculate how many students graduate from high school on time and how many drop out. The final regulations define the “four year adjusted cohort graduation rate” as the number of students who graduate in four years with a regular high school diploma divided by the number of students who entered high school four years earlier, adjusted for transfers, students who emigrate and deceased students. The data will be made public so that educators and parents can compare how students of every race, background and income level are performing….

The final rules announced by the Secretary today also require that parents must be notified in a clear and timely way about their public school choice and supplemental education service options. The regulations seek to ensure that states make more information available to the public about what tutoring providers are available, how these providers are approved and monitored, and most importantly, how effective they are in helping students improve.

LALALALALALA

According to the NYTimes, college professors’ insidious schemes to turn their students into mindless liberal zombies are failing. By which I mean, professors are not the ones turning college campuses into Steamy Dens of the Left. 

Which makes sense. By the time you’re 18-22, your basic social orientations–if not your explicit political affiliations–are pretty well fixed. What seems more likely is that putting hundreds or thousands of teenagers who might already be somewhere on the spectrum of liberalism together increases that liberalism by a matter of degree. Putting hundreds or thousands of teenagers together, as it happens, increases a lot of things.

boo!

Jezebel’s stunning gallery of Past Fashions: Halloween. Extra points for early-’90s goodness.