Fat and Getting Fatter

The proportion of children in America who are overweight has tripled over the past 20 years. The health problems that are caused among overweight kids include hypertension and type-2 diabetes, formerly known only among the nation's overweight adult population. A group sponsored by the National Institute on Ageing has warned that this may be the first generation ever to have a shorter lifespan than their parents.
There are organizations out there dedicated to addressing the epidemic of overweight, undernourished kids by focusing on changes in schools. They work to improve children's nutrition and increase physical activity, which will in turn improve their learning and help them be more focused in the classroom. One thing I know of that helps this epidemic is that fast food restaurants aren’t allowed to be a certain close distance from the school. This is a great idea because it’s not convenient for kids to get cheap food that they can afford and enjoy, but is extremely bad for their health. Studies show that there is a decrease in exercise among students, and an increase in snacking. Congress in 2004 passed an act directing school districts that get money from the national school-lunch program to create “wellness” policies by the start of the2006-07 school year. The districts were told to set standards for nutrition, physical activity and education about good food, and then make sure that schools actually implement them. After one year of implementing this strategy, there were great results. A lot of schools banned fizzy drinks and junk food, and they increased exercise. However, not all schools are implementing these healthy strategies, or enforcing their guidelines when they should be and realize that this is an important matter.

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Merit Pay, Can it Boost Student Performance

This article is about merit pay, and how it should be implemented into teacher’s salaries, and used as a strategy to get good teachers. There are some questions that arise out of this article. Do incentives work for merit pay? And is merit pay effective to increase the good teachers and leave out the bad? When schools adopt this strategy to get good teachers and keeping them motivated, what form should merit pay take and how to they pay for it?

There are two sides to the merit pay strategy for developing better teachers. Giving a little extra to the teachers for students doing well will be part of their education strategy. "The public supports paying teachers on the basis of performance," said Thomas Toch, co-director of Education Sector, an independent think tank. "They believe that there are good teachers and bad teachers and they want to do anything that increases the number of good teachers." The other side is what about the bad students that the teacher can’t do anything about? Some argue that there is always going to be those students who have low academic performance, and that even the best teachers don’t have an effect on them. Under a merit pay of student performance, these teachers don’t get rewarded.
There’s also another strategy of having a system that doesn’t take student’s performance into account. Some critics charge that this is unfair because they reward the best teachers the same as the worst. Let’s face it, don’t most teachers want to be “good teachers”? Most of them go into the field to teach, inspire and guide students to be better. Their primary motive is making a difference and helping the students, and not the pay. However, that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be rewarded for their hard work. There’s a lot that goes into teaching. Teachers have to always learn different learning strategies to keep their kids on their toes and succeeding. They have to adapt to different teaching styles in order to be effective teachers with different types of students. They are also nurturers, give guidance and teach kids important values and lessons in life. They are part of the child’s development into becoming good citizens and a better person in the future. Why not reward them? Teaching is important for the children as it has an effect over their life time achievements. Good quality teaching matters more to student achievement than anything else schools provide. States, districts and schools need to focus on attracting, training, and supporting the very best people for the job. There’s nothing wrong with a little more motivation.

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Why are high schoolers studying less, but grades are rising?

Are C's really a thing of the past? This really caught my attention because statistics show that high school seniors are spending less time per week studying (about six hours), but their grades are better than ever compared to their predecessors. Educators are admitting to the grade inflation and that C's are very rare. "Only 17 percent earned A's in 1968, while 44 percent did in 2000"(Link)

Specialist report that student are spending more time on the Internet, but they are unsure of weather this is helping them with their studying or not. The Internet could help them do their homework faster, or it could take time away from them being productive and studying at the library or using other useful resources to better help their grades and their learning. It allows them to take "the easy way out". There is a relationship between the decline in time spend on homework and the increase on the Internet use.

The best observation that UCLA professor Alexander Astin said that they can make about the increase of this grade inflation is due to the pressure the teachers deal with from the parents and students to help them become more competitive for college.

Does this mean that they are giving these students better grades so that they can look better on paper when presenting it to the college that they dreamed of going to? If that's the case then the teachers aren't really preparing them very well for college. They are giving them false hope. I think that students should get graded on what they do, without the influence or the pressure of the parent, or that they have to pass. If the student is eager enough to get the good grade and impress a college, then they should work hard for their grade, just like they will in college. Giving them a "break" isn't really helping them for their future education, which only gets harder. I don't believe in strict teaching, and overloading students with work. But i think that they should be pushed to their potential. I think students at an early age need to realize that they have this potential, and the teachers should help them realize that. In that case when they get older and develop their own learning patterns they will push themselves because they will know what their potential is. The Internet is very useful tool if used properly by the students. it can help them do their homework better, and students can expand on the subject and learn more interesting things.

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