Sheri Munson-Castro
Writing 101-Winter 2008
March 14th, 2008
Writing 101 Portfolio Letter
My Reflective (Self-Assessment) Letter:
This portfolio is a reflection on me as well as my essay work that I have done this quarter in Writing 101. During this time in this class that I have taken with Craig McKenney as my instructor has been an interesting time. When I started this class back in December 2007, I thought that this would be an easy class for me to take. I enjoy writing as well as learning. I thought I had known all that was needed in the area of writing and since I knew all that there was to know in writing then this was just going to be a simple step to take for my degree.
I soon learned that was not to be so; that while I had strengths in some of the areas, there was a lot that I had weakness in which I would need to know in order to pass this class. It’s a good thing I like to write as well as learn new things; because I found out I would be doing a lot of both. In the beginning I had to turn myself around from what I would normally have use as a writing format to do an essay.
I have learned that it was so much more then just sitting and writing down words on a sheet of paper. I have also learned what writing philosophy is all about. That it is communicating information and ideas to one another, which involves three main parts: Thinking, Writing, and Speaking.
It is a basic fact that there are many different forms of content that will require different types of writing. I had learned that if you’re trying to convey straight forward information, its best to keep it short and simple coming straight to the point. While if your trying to communicating complex ideas, you will need to take more of your time and space and present fuller detail information.
Everything that I have learned in this class has help me build up my weakness's that I had. In my class for my three essays, I took one topic and broke it down to three separate sections. Which was consited of "They say, I say, and then a combination of the two first essays. I learned how to write what the experts said on my topic, as well as cite sources in the correct format. Then proceed to express my opinions in own voice, then to be learn to be able to combine both of them together using some of the information from them while in same process actually end up actually write a whole essay on the topic. There is only so much I could say on one topic, before running out of words. This particular essay took me about four revisions before it was completed.
One of the strength that I found that I had learned was how to have more critical thinking, thoughtful analysis of things. I feel that I have learned to stay more focused during any of my revisions on staying with the point, but considering the counterarguments as well with tstraying from my opinion. While the conclusion was not what I had hoped it would have been it this class helped to get at least closer to where I would have been before.
One of my goals that I had when I first began Writing 101 was to learn how to write better introductions and conclusions. I’ve definitely feel that I have improved on my introductions, but I am still very much a work in process in this part so that my conclusions that don’t end up “just rehashing the thesis.” In relation to organization, although I feel that I organize points well in paragraphs, at times, I don’t feel like I’ve established a strong transition between my points. On these type of essays it was hard for me to do this.
My 4th essay was a persuasive one about Banning Junk from the Schools, and why this would be something that is of beneficial value to everyone involved. I believe that it helps to fully demonstrate my growth of my strengths in the area of focus and argumentation. Which I had learned to use with my 1-3 essays’s showing that I am able to use vivid supporting descriptions as well as examples. So, that you are able to picture your self there with me.
I think that this one was my best essay for this quarter, as I feel more comfortable in this style of writing. I was able to take a bit more of creative risks with this essay because it seem like more creative writing to me, which I feel is one of my best areas of strength. It was interesting to really be able to experiences meant to me and to be able to make an audience see it. We were able to change to a new topic, which was great for me as I was running out of words to use on the other topic.
At the end of this quarter I think that my main strength is that I am able to take in new knowledge and growing with it, which has helped to improve my grammar as well that I have increased my ability to be able to vividly describe what I observed as well as experienced. I do feel through that I have come along ways from where I was at in the beginning of this class, which I will do my best to bring this knowledge that I learned into my next writing class.
I feel that this class has helped me beyond what I had thought to learn out it, with thinking I knew all there was to know about writing and finding out that it was not so. Thus by being able to recognize this and to allow myself to open up and take in that knowledge, it allowed me to grow and keep on growing. Which I feel has made me a better student because of it.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
PORTFOLIO ESSAY (#1)
Sheri Munson-Castro
Writ 101 – Winter 2008
Craig Mckenney-Instructor
February 2nd, 2008
“High School Students and Community Service hours “High school students and community service hours is it “Slave labor or Character building”?
There have been a lot of discussions going on about this matter and many debates between congress and the school boards around the United States. Many states have had it going on for the last couple of years and it has hit the Seattle school district and was just implemented into it as of this January.A lot of parents, me included were not aware of this until our children started high school and then we are notified that as part of the academic plan sixty (60) community service hours wereto be completed by the end of the twelve grade in order to graduate and in fact some of the teachers in the ninth grade which is the beginning grade in the high school require the students to be in rolled and completed at the minimum fifteen (15) hours by the end of first semester or receive a lower grade in the class.
What the teachers as well as the Seattle school board have said is that while for these students who have those teachers and need to complete the fifteen hours , this is a gift per say. As will help to teach them not to wait till the last moment and builds responsibility and is a jump start to finishing it and helps them to maybe even get it completed prior to the next year.There are a lot of debating going on as to the full meaning of having students complete community service hours and that its not only for those who get in trouble with the law.
And while there are some who think that this is another form of slave labor with out really knowing the true value of it or even looking into and discovering what’s involved. Many of them think differently on the matter. Many have after researching into the matter and watching what goes on in some the high school programs. And which is stated by, “Kris Betker and Jocelyn McCabe on the www.hecb.wa.gov/press/index.asp which is the Higher Education Coordination Board site.Where there are many debates on the positive and negative reactions to the items that affect the schools and the students themselves.
And there has been debates going on all across the states, including Michigan. Where there is currently a House Bill referred out to the Committee of Education for further study regarding this matter as well into the matter of if it’s Community Service or Servitude. Which you can see the updates as well as the history of this bill at the site, www.michiganlegislature.org Also, on the Seattle school website at www.seattleschool.edu you can see where it is written about community service hours and that they the students need to have completed the sixty by the end of the twelve grade.
And even for those students who complain on the hours. They need to be aware that there are states that require even more hours. With all the people I have talked to in regards to this and asked their opinions about it. I have discovered as well that there are many who agree 100 % on this matter. They feel that it builds character; the kids learn to have responsibility and to be part of the community they live in.
Building their self esteem and confidence in themselves and learning to reach out to each and sharing as well as feel in some of the emptiness that some of the students feel in their lives. And helps to build a better connection between the parents, teachers and community as well as help to shorten the list of potential drop outs down the road. From what I saw on many of the sites was they all have a similar main point.
Which was if we “Set the standard, Measuring the results, then we will be celebrating the Success of Our Students as they stride to meet and beat that standard.” Because of the simple fact that was mention in many of the sites as well as by the people I talked to; “Encouragement goes along way in building up your pride and confidence in yourself.” And helping them to have this confidence and pride in what they do, they will then go far in life and be successful it as they enter the adult world.
Writ 101 – Winter 2008
Craig Mckenney-Instructor
February 2nd, 2008
“High School Students and Community Service hours “High school students and community service hours is it “Slave labor or Character building”?
There have been a lot of discussions going on about this matter and many debates between congress and the school boards around the United States. Many states have had it going on for the last couple of years and it has hit the Seattle school district and was just implemented into it as of this January.A lot of parents, me included were not aware of this until our children started high school and then we are notified that as part of the academic plan sixty (60) community service hours wereto be completed by the end of the twelve grade in order to graduate and in fact some of the teachers in the ninth grade which is the beginning grade in the high school require the students to be in rolled and completed at the minimum fifteen (15) hours by the end of first semester or receive a lower grade in the class.
What the teachers as well as the Seattle school board have said is that while for these students who have those teachers and need to complete the fifteen hours , this is a gift per say. As will help to teach them not to wait till the last moment and builds responsibility and is a jump start to finishing it and helps them to maybe even get it completed prior to the next year.There are a lot of debating going on as to the full meaning of having students complete community service hours and that its not only for those who get in trouble with the law.
And while there are some who think that this is another form of slave labor with out really knowing the true value of it or even looking into and discovering what’s involved. Many of them think differently on the matter. Many have after researching into the matter and watching what goes on in some the high school programs. And which is stated by, “Kris Betker and Jocelyn McCabe on the www.hecb.wa.gov/press/index.asp which is the Higher Education Coordination Board site.Where there are many debates on the positive and negative reactions to the items that affect the schools and the students themselves.
And there has been debates going on all across the states, including Michigan. Where there is currently a House Bill referred out to the Committee of Education for further study regarding this matter as well into the matter of if it’s Community Service or Servitude. Which you can see the updates as well as the history of this bill at the site, www.michiganlegislature.org Also, on the Seattle school website at www.seattleschool.edu you can see where it is written about community service hours and that they the students need to have completed the sixty by the end of the twelve grade.
And even for those students who complain on the hours. They need to be aware that there are states that require even more hours. With all the people I have talked to in regards to this and asked their opinions about it. I have discovered as well that there are many who agree 100 % on this matter. They feel that it builds character; the kids learn to have responsibility and to be part of the community they live in.
Building their self esteem and confidence in themselves and learning to reach out to each and sharing as well as feel in some of the emptiness that some of the students feel in their lives. And helps to build a better connection between the parents, teachers and community as well as help to shorten the list of potential drop outs down the road. From what I saw on many of the sites was they all have a similar main point.
Which was if we “Set the standard, Measuring the results, then we will be celebrating the Success of Our Students as they stride to meet and beat that standard.” Because of the simple fact that was mention in many of the sites as well as by the people I talked to; “Encouragement goes along way in building up your pride and confidence in yourself.” And helping them to have this confidence and pride in what they do, they will then go far in life and be successful it as they enter the adult world.
PORTFOLIO ESSAY (#2)
Sheri Munson-Castro
Writ 101-Winter 2008
Essay #3
Craig McKenny-Instructor
March 2nd, 2008
Community Service Hours for High School Students: The Meaning and Beneficial Value behind them.
This is a Hot Topic that has been burning the wires as it has been debated a lot during the last couple of years in the State of Washington, as well as across the United States regarding high school students doing community hours as a requirement for graduating from high school as well.At the beginning of this year this plan has been introduced into The Seattle School District’s Academic plan. I received a copy of the syllabus from their high school showing all the requirements needed in order to graduate.
It showed me that all students going to high school in the Seattle School District would need to have completed 40 hours of community service prior to completing the 12th grade.Many of the other states have also started to implement community service hours into their academic plans. The amount of hours that the student will to do will depend on where he or she lives, as each state as well as the school district is different. In fact, some students may not have to do any hours at all due to not all high schools have implemented this plan into their academic requirements for graduation.
There are many supporters for both sides on this matter. On the one side there are some of those that have stated that they feel it’s not right for the children to have to do this without having a say in the matter at all. They have also greatly expressed that they felt it should be something that is a choice for the students to do as well as not being penalized if they don’t sign up for them. Let alone having them completed prior to their graduation.
Then there are those who feel that community service hours are a great thing to have come along. That it will help to build up confidence and self-esteem in the teens as well as help them to connect to their community, as well to become more aware of their surroundings and the people around them.Which for so many teens help’s to fill the emptiness that many have and with that void filled it will help them to go down a better path in life.
As such will be able to make better choices in their life, as they will be more aware of the consequences their actions may cause.I also feel that this is so true as well as feel that it’s a main key factor in what happen to my daughter and her life. What has happen to her has caused her to lose five years out of her life as well as her freedom. Which I believe was due to the fact that she had no real self-esteem in herself and did not feel connected to the community thus, helping to cause her not to fully understand what the consequences from her actions could be.
Causing her to also not feel any shame about some of her actions and in the things she got involved in with the other children that who I belief felt as she did.I feel that they were feeling as lost and confused as she was causing them to not really be connected to their surroundings or the people in their lives or surrounding them day-to-day and in so not fully understanding that they were hurting anyone. My oldest daughter has finally opened her eyes to what and who’s around her as well as recognizing and that she has anger issues. She is learning to become more aware of her surroundings and become part of the community.
The point that I am trying to make here is this (that while I was doing some research into this topic after I first learned about it after my other children entered high school) I have come to feel strongly that by doing community service it’s a great way to help students get involved with the community and help others. I think that it’s a great confidence builder and helps them to really connect. This is something that I feel that everyone needs to have at one time or another in his or her life, which helps him or her to build that connection to something or someone.
Which helps the children to build their confidence in themselves thus, helping to create that bond between them and their community as well as the people surrounding them.There are some websites as well as some articles that have been written on research done by some professors telling their thoughts and opinions on this that I located on this subject.There is a split down the middle on the positive and negative sides to this subject. Some of what I located is stories written by students themselves stating their side on the debate on it as well. Most of the stories that I found were on the positive side supporting the implementing of community service being a requirement in the academic plan in high school.
Many students themselves had also stated in the article that they felt it should actually be introduced into school as early as Middle school. Helping the kids get a jump-start to making the connection in the community, thus getting them started down the right path on the road towards adulthood. There is a Statistical Analysis Report that was written by Kathryn Candler back in 1997, for the National Center for Education Statistic providing them the information that was needed to help on improving the Educational system. It’s a great article that with a lot of information in it that I feel you would want to read.
I also read somewhere once about a statement that Alex Haley, (the famous author who wrote the book Roots) had made where he was quoted as saying: “A Community is built up by the people in it.” Which I have found to be true based upon a simple fact of life, which by being involved in your community and connecting as one is a very important key factor in life. I feel that it helps you to learn how to be less self- centered and more of a team player in life, as you connect together with the community as one you is building it and yourself up together.Thus planting your roots in the community and having a sense of belonging somewhere.
Because building our community and its people up and not knocking them down is important as breathing as we all live in the same community and as such need to learn to live and work together as a community.I have learned so much from all of the research that I did on this topic. I have come to strongly feel that this is something that we will come to appreciate in the future, with this starting to be implemented into the academic school plans in high schools across the United States. I feel that it does help them to get a jump-start on building that connection between students, their school as well as with the community’s they live in. Thus, helping the students want to complete their high school education and maybe even going on to college as well. Who knows what lies in the future, hopefully that we implement this into the Middle schools as well?
Resources:
1.) Academic Requirements for high school students in the Seattle School District (2008)http://www.seattle.edu
2.) Debates: The Positive and Negative sides to community service and students (2007)http://www.browardschools.com
3.) Candler, K.: Statistical Analysis Report for improvement on Education System (1997http://www.ed.gov/NCES/NHES
4.) Haley, Alex (Author of Roots, 1977): Quoted as saying; “A Community is built up by the People in it and as such work together to build it along with the people up, not down.
Writ 101-Winter 2008
Essay #3
Craig McKenny-Instructor
March 2nd, 2008
Community Service Hours for High School Students: The Meaning and Beneficial Value behind them.
This is a Hot Topic that has been burning the wires as it has been debated a lot during the last couple of years in the State of Washington, as well as across the United States regarding high school students doing community hours as a requirement for graduating from high school as well.At the beginning of this year this plan has been introduced into The Seattle School District’s Academic plan. I received a copy of the syllabus from their high school showing all the requirements needed in order to graduate.
It showed me that all students going to high school in the Seattle School District would need to have completed 40 hours of community service prior to completing the 12th grade.Many of the other states have also started to implement community service hours into their academic plans. The amount of hours that the student will to do will depend on where he or she lives, as each state as well as the school district is different. In fact, some students may not have to do any hours at all due to not all high schools have implemented this plan into their academic requirements for graduation.
There are many supporters for both sides on this matter. On the one side there are some of those that have stated that they feel it’s not right for the children to have to do this without having a say in the matter at all. They have also greatly expressed that they felt it should be something that is a choice for the students to do as well as not being penalized if they don’t sign up for them. Let alone having them completed prior to their graduation.
Then there are those who feel that community service hours are a great thing to have come along. That it will help to build up confidence and self-esteem in the teens as well as help them to connect to their community, as well to become more aware of their surroundings and the people around them.Which for so many teens help’s to fill the emptiness that many have and with that void filled it will help them to go down a better path in life.
As such will be able to make better choices in their life, as they will be more aware of the consequences their actions may cause.I also feel that this is so true as well as feel that it’s a main key factor in what happen to my daughter and her life. What has happen to her has caused her to lose five years out of her life as well as her freedom. Which I believe was due to the fact that she had no real self-esteem in herself and did not feel connected to the community thus, helping to cause her not to fully understand what the consequences from her actions could be.
Causing her to also not feel any shame about some of her actions and in the things she got involved in with the other children that who I belief felt as she did.I feel that they were feeling as lost and confused as she was causing them to not really be connected to their surroundings or the people in their lives or surrounding them day-to-day and in so not fully understanding that they were hurting anyone. My oldest daughter has finally opened her eyes to what and who’s around her as well as recognizing and that she has anger issues. She is learning to become more aware of her surroundings and become part of the community.
The point that I am trying to make here is this (that while I was doing some research into this topic after I first learned about it after my other children entered high school) I have come to feel strongly that by doing community service it’s a great way to help students get involved with the community and help others. I think that it’s a great confidence builder and helps them to really connect. This is something that I feel that everyone needs to have at one time or another in his or her life, which helps him or her to build that connection to something or someone.
Which helps the children to build their confidence in themselves thus, helping to create that bond between them and their community as well as the people surrounding them.There are some websites as well as some articles that have been written on research done by some professors telling their thoughts and opinions on this that I located on this subject.There is a split down the middle on the positive and negative sides to this subject. Some of what I located is stories written by students themselves stating their side on the debate on it as well. Most of the stories that I found were on the positive side supporting the implementing of community service being a requirement in the academic plan in high school.
Many students themselves had also stated in the article that they felt it should actually be introduced into school as early as Middle school. Helping the kids get a jump-start to making the connection in the community, thus getting them started down the right path on the road towards adulthood. There is a Statistical Analysis Report that was written by Kathryn Candler back in 1997, for the National Center for Education Statistic providing them the information that was needed to help on improving the Educational system. It’s a great article that with a lot of information in it that I feel you would want to read.
I also read somewhere once about a statement that Alex Haley, (the famous author who wrote the book Roots) had made where he was quoted as saying: “A Community is built up by the people in it.” Which I have found to be true based upon a simple fact of life, which by being involved in your community and connecting as one is a very important key factor in life. I feel that it helps you to learn how to be less self- centered and more of a team player in life, as you connect together with the community as one you is building it and yourself up together.Thus planting your roots in the community and having a sense of belonging somewhere.
Because building our community and its people up and not knocking them down is important as breathing as we all live in the same community and as such need to learn to live and work together as a community.I have learned so much from all of the research that I did on this topic. I have come to strongly feel that this is something that we will come to appreciate in the future, with this starting to be implemented into the academic school plans in high schools across the United States. I feel that it does help them to get a jump-start on building that connection between students, their school as well as with the community’s they live in. Thus, helping the students want to complete their high school education and maybe even going on to college as well. Who knows what lies in the future, hopefully that we implement this into the Middle schools as well?
Resources:
1.) Academic Requirements for high school students in the Seattle School District (2008)http://www.seattle.edu
2.) Debates: The Positive and Negative sides to community service and students (2007)http://www.browardschools.com
3.) Candler, K.: Statistical Analysis Report for improvement on Education System (1997http://www.ed.gov/NCES/NHES
4.) Haley, Alex (Author of Roots, 1977): Quoted as saying; “A Community is built up by the People in it and as such work together to build it along with the people up, not down.
PORTFOLIO ESSAY (#3)
Sheri Munson-Castro
Writing 101-Winter 2008
Essay #4
Craig McKenny-Instructor
March 12th, 2008
Sugar High, Goodbye: Banning Junk Food & Soda from SchooL
My son Francisco is a sixteen-year-old teenage boy who is a ninth grade student at Chief Sealth High School located in West Seattle. He is a young man that weighs almost two hundred and fifty pounds who has had weight issues all his life. Though his weight is not causing him problems now he has some trouble with some of his activates like playing tennis, walking up stairs, hills or even walking fast/jogging.
One of the central factors in his weight gain has been the excessive eating of junk foods. While he is trying to reduce the intake of it, has not easy with him having so readily a supply available to him at the school. This will become problematic later in life with our family health history.I have been told by the Seattle School District is that there are about six vending machines at his school.
The good thing about this is that four of the six contain healthy items for snacks. Two of the machines carry food items which are: chips, crackers, protein snack bars as well as a assortment of other items that are sugar free, non-saturated as well as low in sodium (salt), there is one item that has it all: sugar, salt etc, that is the rice krispies. The second pair of machines carries pure junk items such as: donuts, pastries, as well as candy bars and gum. The last pair of machines that are the ones which provides the drinks; has in it: 2% white milk, 1% chocolate, flavored water & juices, as well as they also carry soymilk.
I am glad to hear because the children need way less sugar as well as salt in their systems.From what I have learned from them (Seattle School District) as well is that prior there was double that amount of machines and only junk food & drink in them. They informed me that due to the rise on the numbers of overweight kids in the school shown on their research that was done, it has prompt them to implemented a change on the Pyramid plan for the school nutrition as well which vendors they were using to provide the snacks for the students.
Banning junk food from schools is being seen as the first step in attacking the obesity crisis in children. Sedentary lifestyle practices coupled with a shift in diet to junk foods are the main reason behind this explosion of overweight or obese children. With most households having both parents working, there is usually not enough time in the day to make those home cooked meals like we used to have at home. With so busy of a schedule most parents are having to resort to stocking their fridges with TV dinners and other assortments of quick fix foods (which pretty much junk). Myself included on this as well, although I have been doing better with reducing the amount they have access to at home.
Now if the schools follow along and really work at reducing it even more, we would have a win-win situation.The soaring levels of childhood obesity in American children have prompted an expert panel to recommend new nutritional standards for the nation schools. Obesity is linked to the so-called lifestyle diseases like type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, obstructive sleep apnea, heart disease, poor self-esteem, and a lower health-related quality of life.Per some of the studies on this subject it has shown that the Schools who back in the 1980's first allowed the access of junk food to help increase the revenue, have after coming to fully understand their part in the rise of health issues in children have started to implement changes into the schools.
Especially after a study was done last year showing that over 95% of all schools across the nation have vending machines, with over half of them filled with junk food & drinks. According to an early December New York Times Article, federal lawmakers were considering a national ban as well on the selling junk food in school vending machines. The measure, which was an amendment to the farm bill, faced significant hurdles before this beneficial change could become a realityIn the debates that I had found showed that the government panel made up of House and Senate lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill to reduce junk food in schools by requiring that any food and drinks sold on campuses, including in vending machines, meet the same federal nutritional standards as food served in the cafeteria.
The National School Nutrition Standards Amendment, sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), would have been the first legislation to update the nutrition standards since 1979, a period in which scientific opinion on what foods are appropriate has drastically shifted"There are many reasons for this public health crisis, but one big reason is that our nation's schools have become inundated with junk food and sugary drinks," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, a chief sponsor of the bill.There was a debate that was going on to see if the new federal proposal for reducing or taking junk food all the way out of school would pass the congress.
This new federal proposal is backed by the Parent Teacher Association, the School Nutrition Association, the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, the California Center for Public Health Advocacy and other health-related groups.This measure would force the Agriculture Department to rewrite its 30-year-old nutritional guidelines for schools to limit the amount of sugar, fat and sodium, as well as portion sizes, in response to a growing obesity epidemic among children. Whether the measure, an amendment to the farm bill, would survive the convoluted politics that bogged down that legislation in the Senate is one issue.
Whether it could survive the battle among factions in the fight to improve school food was another. The problem they would face is that the group they are attacking is one that was born in the mid-1980s, when money-strapped schools across the country began opening their doors to private vendors, and offering a wider variety of foods — letting many millions of students sate their hunger and thirst with chips and soda, rather than what was on the school lunch menu. Winning those kids back over to healthy food might be a tough task.
Later on it was discovered that there was no such luck on this being allowed to pass, because on Thursday, December 13, 2007, the Senate dropped the amendment. According to a December 15, 2007 Washington Post Article The Senate on Thursday night dropped an amendment to the farm bill that would have banned fatty foods and high-calorie beverages at school snack bars, stores and vending machines, dealing a blow to its chances of passage.Elsewhere there also was a news release talking about the new addition to the Center for Nutrition policy and Promotion (CNPP) group that may help resolve this issue in the near future even through for the moment the bill has been stopped: Agriculture Under Secretary Nancy Johner for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services today announced the appointment of Dr. Brian Wansink as the Executive Director of the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP).
“Dr. Wansink is nationally recognized in his field of nutrition research which focuses on how to encourage consumers to eat more nutritiously and better control how much they eat,” said Johner. At CNPP Dr. Wansink will be responsible for overseeing the planning, development and review of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the food pyramid known as MyPyramid.gov, and programs including the Healthy Eating Index, the USDA Food Plans, the Nutrient Content of the U.S. Food Supply, and the cost of raising a child.While elsewhere in the state of California; Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill in September that would raise nutritional standards -- limiting the amount of calories and sugar -- and ban the sale of soda in all California.
They had also implemented another law that had just passed not allowing any soda and sugary drinks in the elementary and middle schools. I feel that we need to really start this here in Washington State.Many parents supported this law being approved, as so many children have weight issues going on across the states. The facts per the research going on has also shown that this may be effecting the children’s learning abilities as well. I personally feel that by reducing the intake that children have we will help to reduce the number of them that diagnose with diabetic issues, obesity problems as well as may increase the number of children who are doing well in school.Because by implementing that law thus taking them off that “Sugar High”, they actually may pay attention and intake less of the sugar and more of the knowledge that is being taught to them by their teachers.Resources: On the Banning Junk Food in School:1.)
Resourse:
http://www.newslocale.org/health/hnews/banning_junk_food_in_schools_first_step_in_tacking_child_obesity_20070427306.html2.)
http://www.calendow.org/uploadedFiles/banning_junk_food_soda_sales.pdfArticle in regards toward the banning of Junk Food across the nation.3.)
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9903/25/child.food.pyramid/index.html4.)
http://www.scn.org/cccs/v5n4.pdf Articles on on money matters-food contracts, etc: In regards towards the money made by the school in the sales of food/drink to kids. Thats help to support the schools.
Writing 101-Winter 2008
Essay #4
Craig McKenny-Instructor
March 12th, 2008
Sugar High, Goodbye: Banning Junk Food & Soda from SchooL
My son Francisco is a sixteen-year-old teenage boy who is a ninth grade student at Chief Sealth High School located in West Seattle. He is a young man that weighs almost two hundred and fifty pounds who has had weight issues all his life. Though his weight is not causing him problems now he has some trouble with some of his activates like playing tennis, walking up stairs, hills or even walking fast/jogging.
One of the central factors in his weight gain has been the excessive eating of junk foods. While he is trying to reduce the intake of it, has not easy with him having so readily a supply available to him at the school. This will become problematic later in life with our family health history.I have been told by the Seattle School District is that there are about six vending machines at his school.
The good thing about this is that four of the six contain healthy items for snacks. Two of the machines carry food items which are: chips, crackers, protein snack bars as well as a assortment of other items that are sugar free, non-saturated as well as low in sodium (salt), there is one item that has it all: sugar, salt etc, that is the rice krispies. The second pair of machines carries pure junk items such as: donuts, pastries, as well as candy bars and gum. The last pair of machines that are the ones which provides the drinks; has in it: 2% white milk, 1% chocolate, flavored water & juices, as well as they also carry soymilk.
I am glad to hear because the children need way less sugar as well as salt in their systems.From what I have learned from them (Seattle School District) as well is that prior there was double that amount of machines and only junk food & drink in them. They informed me that due to the rise on the numbers of overweight kids in the school shown on their research that was done, it has prompt them to implemented a change on the Pyramid plan for the school nutrition as well which vendors they were using to provide the snacks for the students.
Banning junk food from schools is being seen as the first step in attacking the obesity crisis in children. Sedentary lifestyle practices coupled with a shift in diet to junk foods are the main reason behind this explosion of overweight or obese children. With most households having both parents working, there is usually not enough time in the day to make those home cooked meals like we used to have at home. With so busy of a schedule most parents are having to resort to stocking their fridges with TV dinners and other assortments of quick fix foods (which pretty much junk). Myself included on this as well, although I have been doing better with reducing the amount they have access to at home.
Now if the schools follow along and really work at reducing it even more, we would have a win-win situation.The soaring levels of childhood obesity in American children have prompted an expert panel to recommend new nutritional standards for the nation schools. Obesity is linked to the so-called lifestyle diseases like type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, obstructive sleep apnea, heart disease, poor self-esteem, and a lower health-related quality of life.Per some of the studies on this subject it has shown that the Schools who back in the 1980's first allowed the access of junk food to help increase the revenue, have after coming to fully understand their part in the rise of health issues in children have started to implement changes into the schools.
Especially after a study was done last year showing that over 95% of all schools across the nation have vending machines, with over half of them filled with junk food & drinks. According to an early December New York Times Article, federal lawmakers were considering a national ban as well on the selling junk food in school vending machines. The measure, which was an amendment to the farm bill, faced significant hurdles before this beneficial change could become a realityIn the debates that I had found showed that the government panel made up of House and Senate lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill to reduce junk food in schools by requiring that any food and drinks sold on campuses, including in vending machines, meet the same federal nutritional standards as food served in the cafeteria.
The National School Nutrition Standards Amendment, sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), would have been the first legislation to update the nutrition standards since 1979, a period in which scientific opinion on what foods are appropriate has drastically shifted"There are many reasons for this public health crisis, but one big reason is that our nation's schools have become inundated with junk food and sugary drinks," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, a chief sponsor of the bill.There was a debate that was going on to see if the new federal proposal for reducing or taking junk food all the way out of school would pass the congress.
This new federal proposal is backed by the Parent Teacher Association, the School Nutrition Association, the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, the California Center for Public Health Advocacy and other health-related groups.This measure would force the Agriculture Department to rewrite its 30-year-old nutritional guidelines for schools to limit the amount of sugar, fat and sodium, as well as portion sizes, in response to a growing obesity epidemic among children. Whether the measure, an amendment to the farm bill, would survive the convoluted politics that bogged down that legislation in the Senate is one issue.
Whether it could survive the battle among factions in the fight to improve school food was another. The problem they would face is that the group they are attacking is one that was born in the mid-1980s, when money-strapped schools across the country began opening their doors to private vendors, and offering a wider variety of foods — letting many millions of students sate their hunger and thirst with chips and soda, rather than what was on the school lunch menu. Winning those kids back over to healthy food might be a tough task.
Later on it was discovered that there was no such luck on this being allowed to pass, because on Thursday, December 13, 2007, the Senate dropped the amendment. According to a December 15, 2007 Washington Post Article The Senate on Thursday night dropped an amendment to the farm bill that would have banned fatty foods and high-calorie beverages at school snack bars, stores and vending machines, dealing a blow to its chances of passage.Elsewhere there also was a news release talking about the new addition to the Center for Nutrition policy and Promotion (CNPP) group that may help resolve this issue in the near future even through for the moment the bill has been stopped: Agriculture Under Secretary Nancy Johner for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services today announced the appointment of Dr. Brian Wansink as the Executive Director of the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP).
“Dr. Wansink is nationally recognized in his field of nutrition research which focuses on how to encourage consumers to eat more nutritiously and better control how much they eat,” said Johner. At CNPP Dr. Wansink will be responsible for overseeing the planning, development and review of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the food pyramid known as MyPyramid.gov, and programs including the Healthy Eating Index, the USDA Food Plans, the Nutrient Content of the U.S. Food Supply, and the cost of raising a child.While elsewhere in the state of California; Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill in September that would raise nutritional standards -- limiting the amount of calories and sugar -- and ban the sale of soda in all California.
They had also implemented another law that had just passed not allowing any soda and sugary drinks in the elementary and middle schools. I feel that we need to really start this here in Washington State.Many parents supported this law being approved, as so many children have weight issues going on across the states. The facts per the research going on has also shown that this may be effecting the children’s learning abilities as well. I personally feel that by reducing the intake that children have we will help to reduce the number of them that diagnose with diabetic issues, obesity problems as well as may increase the number of children who are doing well in school.Because by implementing that law thus taking them off that “Sugar High”, they actually may pay attention and intake less of the sugar and more of the knowledge that is being taught to them by their teachers.Resources: On the Banning Junk Food in School:1.)
Resourse:
http://www.newslocale.org/health/hnews/banning_junk_food_in_schools_first_step_in_tacking_child_obesity_20070427306.html2.)
http://www.calendow.org/uploadedFiles/banning_junk_food_soda_sales.pdfArticle in regards toward the banning of Junk Food across the nation.3.)
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9903/25/child.food.pyramid/index.html4.)
http://www.scn.org/cccs/v5n4.pdf Articles on on money matters-food contracts, etc: In regards towards the money made by the school in the sales of food/drink to kids. Thats help to support the schools.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
NEW REVISED ESSAY # 4-
Sheri Munson-Castro
Writing 101-Winter 2008
Essay #4
Craig McKenny-Instructor
March 12th, 2008
Sugar High, Goodbye: Banning Junk Food & Soda from School
My son Francisco is a sixteen-year-old teenage boy who is a ninth grade student at Chief Sealth High School located in West Seattle. He is a young man that weighs almost two hundred and fifty pounds who has had weight issues all his life. Though his weight is not causing him problems now he has some trouble with some of his activates like playing tennis, walking up stairs, hills or even walking fast/jogging. One of the central factors in his weight gain has been the excessive eating of junk foods. While he is trying to reduce the intake of it, has not easy with him having so readily a supply available to him at the school. This will become problematic later in life with our family health history.
I have been told by the Seattle School District is that there are about six vending machines at his school. The good thing about this is that four of the six contain healthy items for snacks. Two of the machines carry food items which are: chips, crackers, protein snack bars as well as a assortment of other items that are sugar free, non-saturated as well as low in sodium (salt), there is one item that has it all: sugar, salt etc, that is the rice krispies. The second pair of machines carries pure junk items such as: donuts, pastries, as well as candy bars and gum. The last pair of machines that are the ones which provides the drinks; has in it: 2% white milk, 1% chocolate, flavored water & juices, as well as they also carry soymilk. I am glad to hear because the children need way less sugar as well as salt in their systems.
From what I have learned from them (Seattle School District) as well is that prior there was double that amount of machines and only junk food & drink in them. They informed me that due to the rise on the numbers of overweight kids in the school shown on their research that was done, it has prompt them to implemented a change on the Pyramid plan for the school nutrition as well which vendors they were using to provide the snacks for the students.
Banning junk food from schools is being seen as the first step in attacking the obesity crisis in children. Sedentary lifestyle practices coupled with a shift in diet to junk foods are the main reason behind this explosion of overweight or obese children. With most households having both parents working, there is usually not enough time in the day to make those home cooked meals like we used to have at home. With so busy of a schedule most parents are having to resort to stocking their fridges with TV dinners and other assortments of quick fix foods (which pretty much junk). Myself included on this as well, although I have been doing better with reducing the amount they have access to at home. Now if the schools follow along and really work at reducing it even more, we would have a win-win situation.
The soaring levels of childhood obesity in American children have prompted an expert panel to recommend new nutritional standards for the nation schools. Obesity is linked to the so-called lifestyle diseases like type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, obstructive sleep apnea, heart disease, poor self-esteem, and a lower health-related quality of life.
Per some of the studies on this subject it has shown that the Schools who back in the 1980's first allowed the access of junk food to help increase the revenue, have after coming to fully understand their part in the rise of health issues in children have started to implement changes into the schools. Especially after a study was done last year showing that over 95% of all schools across the nation have vending machines, with over half of them filled with junk food & drinks.
According to an early December New York Times Article, federal lawmakers were considering a national ban as well on the selling junk food in school vending machines. The measure, which was an amendment to the farm bill, faced significant hurdles before this beneficial change could become a reality
In the debates that I had found showed that the government panel made up of House and Senate lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill to reduce junk food in schools by requiring that any food and drinks sold on campuses, including in vending machines, meet the same federal nutritional standards as food served in the cafeteria.
The National School Nutrition Standards Amendment, sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), would have been the first legislation to update the nutrition standards since 1979, a period in which scientific opinion on what foods are appropriate has drastically shifted
"There are many reasons for this public health crisis, but one big reason is that our nation's schools have become inundated with junk food and sugary drinks," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, a chief sponsor of the bill.
There was a debate that was going on to see if the new federal proposal for reducing or taking junk food all the way out of school would pass the congress. This new federal proposal is backed by the Parent Teacher Association, the School Nutrition Association, the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, the California Center for Public Health Advocacy and other health-related groups.
This measure would force the Agriculture Department to rewrite its 30-year-old nutritional guidelines for schools to limit the amount of sugar, fat and sodium, as well as portion sizes, in response to a growing obesity epidemic among children. Whether the measure, an amendment to the farm bill, would survive the convoluted politics that bogged down that legislation in the Senate is one issue. Whether it could survive the battle among factions in the fight to improve school food was another.
The problem they would face is that the group they are attacking is one that was born in the mid-1980s, when money-strapped schools across the country began opening their doors to private vendors, and offering a wider variety of foods — letting many millions of students sate their hunger and thirst with chips and soda, rather than what was on the school lunch menu. Winning those kids back over to healthy food might be a tough task.
Later on it was discovered that there was no such luck on this being allowed to pass, because on Thursday, December 13, 2007, the Senate dropped the amendment. According to a December 15, 2007 Washington Post Article The Senate on Thursday night dropped an amendment to the farm bill that would have banned fatty foods and high-calorie beverages at school snack bars, stores and vending machines, dealing a blow to its chances of passage.
Elsewhere there also was a news release talking about the new addition to the Center for Nutrition policy and Promotion (CNPP) group that may help resolve this issue in the near future even through for the moment the bill has been stopped: Agriculture Under Secretary Nancy Johner for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services today announced the appointment of Dr. Brian Wansink as the Executive Director of the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP).
“Dr. Wansink is nationally recognized in his field of nutrition research which focuses on how to encourage consumers to eat more nutritiously and better control how much they eat,” said Johner. At CNPP Dr. Wansink will be responsible for overseeing the planning, development and review of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the food pyramid known as MyPyramid.gov, and programs including the Healthy Eating Index, the USDA Food Plans, the Nutrient Content of the U.S. Food Supply, and the cost of raising a child.
While elsewhere in the state of California; Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill in September that would raise nutritional standards -- limiting the amount of calories and sugar -- and ban the sale of soda in all California. They had also implemented another law that had just passed not allowing any soda and sugary drinks in the elementary and middle schools. I feel that we need to really start this here in Washington State.
Many parents supported this law being approved, as so many children have weight issues going on across the states. The facts per the research going on has also shown that this may be effecting the children’s learning abilities as well. I personally feel that by reducing the intake that children have we will help to reduce the number of them that diagnose with diabetic issues, obesity problems as well as may increase the number of children who are doing well in school.
Because by implementing that law thus taking them off that “Sugar High”, they actually may pay attention and intake less of the sugar and more of the knowledge that is being taught to them by their teachers.
Resources: On the Banning Junk Food in School:
1.) http://www.newslocale.org/health/hnews/banning_junk_food_in_schools_first_step_in_tacking_child_obesity_20070427306.html
2.) http://www.calendow.org/uploadedFiles/banning_junk_food_soda_sales.pdf
Article in regards toward the banning of Junk Food across the nation.
3.) http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9903/25/child.food.pyramid/index.html
4.) http://www.scn.org/cccs/v5n4.pdf
Articles on money matters-food contracts, etc: In regards towards the money made by the school in the sales of food/drink to kids. Thats help to support the schools.
Writing 101-Winter 2008
Essay #4
Craig McKenny-Instructor
March 12th, 2008
Sugar High, Goodbye: Banning Junk Food & Soda from School
My son Francisco is a sixteen-year-old teenage boy who is a ninth grade student at Chief Sealth High School located in West Seattle. He is a young man that weighs almost two hundred and fifty pounds who has had weight issues all his life. Though his weight is not causing him problems now he has some trouble with some of his activates like playing tennis, walking up stairs, hills or even walking fast/jogging. One of the central factors in his weight gain has been the excessive eating of junk foods. While he is trying to reduce the intake of it, has not easy with him having so readily a supply available to him at the school. This will become problematic later in life with our family health history.
I have been told by the Seattle School District is that there are about six vending machines at his school. The good thing about this is that four of the six contain healthy items for snacks. Two of the machines carry food items which are: chips, crackers, protein snack bars as well as a assortment of other items that are sugar free, non-saturated as well as low in sodium (salt), there is one item that has it all: sugar, salt etc, that is the rice krispies. The second pair of machines carries pure junk items such as: donuts, pastries, as well as candy bars and gum. The last pair of machines that are the ones which provides the drinks; has in it: 2% white milk, 1% chocolate, flavored water & juices, as well as they also carry soymilk. I am glad to hear because the children need way less sugar as well as salt in their systems.
From what I have learned from them (Seattle School District) as well is that prior there was double that amount of machines and only junk food & drink in them. They informed me that due to the rise on the numbers of overweight kids in the school shown on their research that was done, it has prompt them to implemented a change on the Pyramid plan for the school nutrition as well which vendors they were using to provide the snacks for the students.
Banning junk food from schools is being seen as the first step in attacking the obesity crisis in children. Sedentary lifestyle practices coupled with a shift in diet to junk foods are the main reason behind this explosion of overweight or obese children. With most households having both parents working, there is usually not enough time in the day to make those home cooked meals like we used to have at home. With so busy of a schedule most parents are having to resort to stocking their fridges with TV dinners and other assortments of quick fix foods (which pretty much junk). Myself included on this as well, although I have been doing better with reducing the amount they have access to at home. Now if the schools follow along and really work at reducing it even more, we would have a win-win situation.
The soaring levels of childhood obesity in American children have prompted an expert panel to recommend new nutritional standards for the nation schools. Obesity is linked to the so-called lifestyle diseases like type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, obstructive sleep apnea, heart disease, poor self-esteem, and a lower health-related quality of life.
Per some of the studies on this subject it has shown that the Schools who back in the 1980's first allowed the access of junk food to help increase the revenue, have after coming to fully understand their part in the rise of health issues in children have started to implement changes into the schools. Especially after a study was done last year showing that over 95% of all schools across the nation have vending machines, with over half of them filled with junk food & drinks.
According to an early December New York Times Article, federal lawmakers were considering a national ban as well on the selling junk food in school vending machines. The measure, which was an amendment to the farm bill, faced significant hurdles before this beneficial change could become a reality
In the debates that I had found showed that the government panel made up of House and Senate lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill to reduce junk food in schools by requiring that any food and drinks sold on campuses, including in vending machines, meet the same federal nutritional standards as food served in the cafeteria.
The National School Nutrition Standards Amendment, sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), would have been the first legislation to update the nutrition standards since 1979, a period in which scientific opinion on what foods are appropriate has drastically shifted
"There are many reasons for this public health crisis, but one big reason is that our nation's schools have become inundated with junk food and sugary drinks," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, a chief sponsor of the bill.
There was a debate that was going on to see if the new federal proposal for reducing or taking junk food all the way out of school would pass the congress. This new federal proposal is backed by the Parent Teacher Association, the School Nutrition Association, the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, the California Center for Public Health Advocacy and other health-related groups.
This measure would force the Agriculture Department to rewrite its 30-year-old nutritional guidelines for schools to limit the amount of sugar, fat and sodium, as well as portion sizes, in response to a growing obesity epidemic among children. Whether the measure, an amendment to the farm bill, would survive the convoluted politics that bogged down that legislation in the Senate is one issue. Whether it could survive the battle among factions in the fight to improve school food was another.
The problem they would face is that the group they are attacking is one that was born in the mid-1980s, when money-strapped schools across the country began opening their doors to private vendors, and offering a wider variety of foods — letting many millions of students sate their hunger and thirst with chips and soda, rather than what was on the school lunch menu. Winning those kids back over to healthy food might be a tough task.
Later on it was discovered that there was no such luck on this being allowed to pass, because on Thursday, December 13, 2007, the Senate dropped the amendment. According to a December 15, 2007 Washington Post Article The Senate on Thursday night dropped an amendment to the farm bill that would have banned fatty foods and high-calorie beverages at school snack bars, stores and vending machines, dealing a blow to its chances of passage.
Elsewhere there also was a news release talking about the new addition to the Center for Nutrition policy and Promotion (CNPP) group that may help resolve this issue in the near future even through for the moment the bill has been stopped: Agriculture Under Secretary Nancy Johner for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services today announced the appointment of Dr. Brian Wansink as the Executive Director of the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP).
“Dr. Wansink is nationally recognized in his field of nutrition research which focuses on how to encourage consumers to eat more nutritiously and better control how much they eat,” said Johner. At CNPP Dr. Wansink will be responsible for overseeing the planning, development and review of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the food pyramid known as MyPyramid.gov, and programs including the Healthy Eating Index, the USDA Food Plans, the Nutrient Content of the U.S. Food Supply, and the cost of raising a child.
While elsewhere in the state of California; Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill in September that would raise nutritional standards -- limiting the amount of calories and sugar -- and ban the sale of soda in all California. They had also implemented another law that had just passed not allowing any soda and sugary drinks in the elementary and middle schools. I feel that we need to really start this here in Washington State.
Many parents supported this law being approved, as so many children have weight issues going on across the states. The facts per the research going on has also shown that this may be effecting the children’s learning abilities as well. I personally feel that by reducing the intake that children have we will help to reduce the number of them that diagnose with diabetic issues, obesity problems as well as may increase the number of children who are doing well in school.
Because by implementing that law thus taking them off that “Sugar High”, they actually may pay attention and intake less of the sugar and more of the knowledge that is being taught to them by their teachers.
Resources: On the Banning Junk Food in School:
1.) http://www.newslocale.org/health/hnews/banning_junk_food_in_schools_first_step_in_tacking_child_obesity_20070427306.html
2.) http://www.calendow.org/uploadedFiles/banning_junk_food_soda_sales.pdf
Article in regards toward the banning of Junk Food across the nation.
3.) http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9903/25/child.food.pyramid/index.html
4.) http://www.scn.org/cccs/v5n4.pdf
Articles on money matters-food contracts, etc: In regards towards the money made by the school in the sales of food/drink to kids. Thats help to support the schools.
Monday, March 10, 2008
3rd REVISION ON ESSAY # 4/corrected
Sheri Munson-Castro
Writing 101-Winter 2008
Essay #4
Craig McKenny-Instructor
March 10th, 2008
Sugar High, Goodbye: Banning Junk Food & Soda from School
My son Francisco is a sixteen-year-old teenage boy who is a ninth grade student at Chief Sealth High School located in West Seattle. He is a young man that weighs almost two hundred and fifty pounds who has had weight issues all his life. Though his weight is not causing him problems now he has some trouble with some of his activates like playing tennis, walking up stairs, hills or even walking fast/jogging. One of the central factors in his weight gain has been the excessive eating of junk foods. While he is trying to reduce the intake of it, has not easy with him having so readily a supply available to him at the school. This will become problematic later in life with our family health history.
I have been told that there are about six vending machines at his school. The good thing about this is that four of the six contain healthy items for snacks. From what I have learned from the Seattle School District is that there use to be double that amount of machines and only junk food & drink in them. They also informed me that due to the rise on the numbers of overweight kids in the school shown on their research that was done, it has prompt them to implemented a change on the Pyramid plan for the school nutrition as well which vendors they were using to provide the snacks for the students.
Banning junk food from schools is being seen as the first step in attacking the obesity crisis in children. Sedentary lifestyle practices coupled with a shift in diet to junk foods are the main reason behind this explosion of overweight or obese children. The soaring levels of childhood obesity in American children have prompted an expert panel to recommend new nutritional standards for the nation schools. Obesity is linked to the so-called lifestyle diseases like type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, obstructive sleep apnea, heart disease, poor self-esteem, and a lower health-related quality of life.
The rate of type 2 Diabetes is at an all-time high in American children, as is Childhood obesity is also a growing menace to the society as well, and is one of the contributing factors in type 2-diabetes. In recent years, this epidemic has risen alarmingly. That is why the Congress requested the IOM and the CDC to review prevailing food standards and recommend guidelines to make them healthier.
Per one of the studies on this subject has shown that the Schools who back in the 1980's first allowed the access of junk food to help increase the revenue, have after coming to fully understand their part in the rise of health issues in children have started to implement changes into the schools. Especially after a study was done last year showing that over 95% of all schools across the nation have vending machines, with over half of them filled with junk food & drinks.
According to an early December New York Times Article, federal lawmakers were considering a national ban as well on the selling junk food in school vending machines. The measure, which was an amendment to the farm bill, faced significant hurdles before this beneficial change could become a reality. Federal lawmakers are considering the broadest effort ever to limit to what children eat: a national ban on selling candy, sugary soda and salty,
fatty food in school snack bars, vending machines and a la carte cafeteria lines.
In the debates that I had found showed that the government panel made up of House and Senate lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill to reduce junk food in schools by requiring that any food and drinks sold on campuses, including in vending machines, meet the same federal nutritional standards as food served in the cafeteria.
The National School Nutrition Standards Amendment, sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), would have been the first legislation to update the nutrition standards since 1979, a period in which scientific opinion on what foods are appropriate has drastically shifted
"There are many reasons for this public health crisis, but one big reason is that our nation's schools have become inundated with junk food and sugary drinks," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, a chief sponsor of the bill.
The measure would also force the Agriculture Department to rewrite its 30-year-old nutritional guidelines for schools to limit the amount of sugar, fat and sodium, as well as portion sizes, in response to a growing obesity epidemic among children. Whether the measure, an amendment to the farm bill, would survive the convoluted politics that bogged down that legislation in the Senate is one issue. Whether it could survive the battle among factions in the fight to improve school food was another.
There was a debate that was going on to see if the new federal proposal for reducing or taking junk food all the way out of school would pass the congress. This new federal proposal is backed by the Parent Teacher Association, the School Nutrition Association, the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, the California Center for Public Health Advocacy and other health-related groups
Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, and Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn sponsors the measure in the House. The sponsors predicted the bill would be approved, although it may not get a vote in Congress during this busy election year. Woolsey noted: "A bill that has bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate is rare, indeed, these days, but that's what we have here."
The problem they will face is that the group they are attacking is one that was born in the mid-1980s, when money-strapped schools across the country began opening their doors to private vendors, and offering a wider variety of foods — letting many millions of students sate their hunger and thirst with chips and soda, rather than what was on the school lunch menu. Winning those kids back over to healthy food might be a tough task.
There was no such luck on either side, because on Thursday, December 13, 2007, the Senate dropped the amendment. According to a December 15, 2007 Washington Post Article The Senate on Thursday night dropped an amendment to the farm bill that would have banned fatty foods and high-calorie beverages at school snack bars, stores and vending machines, dealing a blow to its chances of passage.
Elsewhere there also was a news release talking about the new addition to the Center for Nutrition policy and Promotion (CNPP) group that may help resolve this issue in the near future even through for the moment the bill has been stopped: Agriculture Under Secretary Nancy Johner for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services today announced the appointment of Dr. Brian Wansink as the Executive Director of the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP).
“Dr. Wansink is nationally recognized in his field of nutrition research which focuses on how to encourage consumers to eat more nutritiously and better control how much they eat,” said Johner. At CNPP Dr. Wansink will be responsible for overseeing the planning, development and review of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the food pyramid known as MyPyramid.gov, and programs including the Healthy Eating Index, the USDA Food Plans, the Nutrient Content of the U.S. Food Supply, and the cost of raising a child.
While elsewhere in the state of California; Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill in September that would raise nutritional standards -- limiting the amount of calories and sugar -- and ban the sale of soda in all California. They had also implemented another law that had just passed not allowing any soda and sugary drinks in the elementary and middle schools.
Many parents were behind this law being approved and implemented across the board, as so many children have weight issues going on. The facts per the research going on has also shown that this may be effecting the children’s learning abilities as well. I personally feel that by reducing the intake that children have we will help to reduce the number of them that diagnose with diabetic issues, obesity problems as well as may increase the number of children who are doing well in school.
Because by implementing that law thus taking them off that “Sugar High”, they actually may pay attention and intake less of the sugar and more of the knowledge that is being taught to them by their teachers.
Resources: On the Banning Junk Food in School:
1.) http://www.newslocale.org/health/hnews/banning_junk_food_in_schools_first_step_in_tacking_child_obesity_20070427306.html
2.) http://www.calendow.org/uploadedFiles/banning_junk_food_soda_sales.pdf
Article in regards toward the banning of Junk Food across the nation.
3.) http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9903/25/child.food.pyramid/index.html
4.) http://www.scn.org/cccs/v5n4.pdf
Articles on money matters-food contracts, etc: In regards towards the money made by the school in the sales of food/drink to kids. Thats help to support the schools.
Writing 101-Winter 2008
Essay #4
Craig McKenny-Instructor
March 10th, 2008
Sugar High, Goodbye: Banning Junk Food & Soda from School
My son Francisco is a sixteen-year-old teenage boy who is a ninth grade student at Chief Sealth High School located in West Seattle. He is a young man that weighs almost two hundred and fifty pounds who has had weight issues all his life. Though his weight is not causing him problems now he has some trouble with some of his activates like playing tennis, walking up stairs, hills or even walking fast/jogging. One of the central factors in his weight gain has been the excessive eating of junk foods. While he is trying to reduce the intake of it, has not easy with him having so readily a supply available to him at the school. This will become problematic later in life with our family health history.
I have been told that there are about six vending machines at his school. The good thing about this is that four of the six contain healthy items for snacks. From what I have learned from the Seattle School District is that there use to be double that amount of machines and only junk food & drink in them. They also informed me that due to the rise on the numbers of overweight kids in the school shown on their research that was done, it has prompt them to implemented a change on the Pyramid plan for the school nutrition as well which vendors they were using to provide the snacks for the students.
Banning junk food from schools is being seen as the first step in attacking the obesity crisis in children. Sedentary lifestyle practices coupled with a shift in diet to junk foods are the main reason behind this explosion of overweight or obese children. The soaring levels of childhood obesity in American children have prompted an expert panel to recommend new nutritional standards for the nation schools. Obesity is linked to the so-called lifestyle diseases like type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, obstructive sleep apnea, heart disease, poor self-esteem, and a lower health-related quality of life.
The rate of type 2 Diabetes is at an all-time high in American children, as is Childhood obesity is also a growing menace to the society as well, and is one of the contributing factors in type 2-diabetes. In recent years, this epidemic has risen alarmingly. That is why the Congress requested the IOM and the CDC to review prevailing food standards and recommend guidelines to make them healthier.
Per one of the studies on this subject has shown that the Schools who back in the 1980's first allowed the access of junk food to help increase the revenue, have after coming to fully understand their part in the rise of health issues in children have started to implement changes into the schools. Especially after a study was done last year showing that over 95% of all schools across the nation have vending machines, with over half of them filled with junk food & drinks.
According to an early December New York Times Article, federal lawmakers were considering a national ban as well on the selling junk food in school vending machines. The measure, which was an amendment to the farm bill, faced significant hurdles before this beneficial change could become a reality. Federal lawmakers are considering the broadest effort ever to limit to what children eat: a national ban on selling candy, sugary soda and salty,
fatty food in school snack bars, vending machines and a la carte cafeteria lines.
In the debates that I had found showed that the government panel made up of House and Senate lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill to reduce junk food in schools by requiring that any food and drinks sold on campuses, including in vending machines, meet the same federal nutritional standards as food served in the cafeteria.
The National School Nutrition Standards Amendment, sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), would have been the first legislation to update the nutrition standards since 1979, a period in which scientific opinion on what foods are appropriate has drastically shifted
"There are many reasons for this public health crisis, but one big reason is that our nation's schools have become inundated with junk food and sugary drinks," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, a chief sponsor of the bill.
The measure would also force the Agriculture Department to rewrite its 30-year-old nutritional guidelines for schools to limit the amount of sugar, fat and sodium, as well as portion sizes, in response to a growing obesity epidemic among children. Whether the measure, an amendment to the farm bill, would survive the convoluted politics that bogged down that legislation in the Senate is one issue. Whether it could survive the battle among factions in the fight to improve school food was another.
There was a debate that was going on to see if the new federal proposal for reducing or taking junk food all the way out of school would pass the congress. This new federal proposal is backed by the Parent Teacher Association, the School Nutrition Association, the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, the California Center for Public Health Advocacy and other health-related groups
Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, and Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn sponsors the measure in the House. The sponsors predicted the bill would be approved, although it may not get a vote in Congress during this busy election year. Woolsey noted: "A bill that has bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate is rare, indeed, these days, but that's what we have here."
The problem they will face is that the group they are attacking is one that was born in the mid-1980s, when money-strapped schools across the country began opening their doors to private vendors, and offering a wider variety of foods — letting many millions of students sate their hunger and thirst with chips and soda, rather than what was on the school lunch menu. Winning those kids back over to healthy food might be a tough task.
There was no such luck on either side, because on Thursday, December 13, 2007, the Senate dropped the amendment. According to a December 15, 2007 Washington Post Article The Senate on Thursday night dropped an amendment to the farm bill that would have banned fatty foods and high-calorie beverages at school snack bars, stores and vending machines, dealing a blow to its chances of passage.
Elsewhere there also was a news release talking about the new addition to the Center for Nutrition policy and Promotion (CNPP) group that may help resolve this issue in the near future even through for the moment the bill has been stopped: Agriculture Under Secretary Nancy Johner for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services today announced the appointment of Dr. Brian Wansink as the Executive Director of the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP).
“Dr. Wansink is nationally recognized in his field of nutrition research which focuses on how to encourage consumers to eat more nutritiously and better control how much they eat,” said Johner. At CNPP Dr. Wansink will be responsible for overseeing the planning, development and review of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the food pyramid known as MyPyramid.gov, and programs including the Healthy Eating Index, the USDA Food Plans, the Nutrient Content of the U.S. Food Supply, and the cost of raising a child.
While elsewhere in the state of California; Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill in September that would raise nutritional standards -- limiting the amount of calories and sugar -- and ban the sale of soda in all California. They had also implemented another law that had just passed not allowing any soda and sugary drinks in the elementary and middle schools.
Many parents were behind this law being approved and implemented across the board, as so many children have weight issues going on. The facts per the research going on has also shown that this may be effecting the children’s learning abilities as well. I personally feel that by reducing the intake that children have we will help to reduce the number of them that diagnose with diabetic issues, obesity problems as well as may increase the number of children who are doing well in school.
Because by implementing that law thus taking them off that “Sugar High”, they actually may pay attention and intake less of the sugar and more of the knowledge that is being taught to them by their teachers.
Resources: On the Banning Junk Food in School:
1.) http://www.newslocale.org/health/hnews/banning_junk_food_in_schools_first_step_in_tacking_child_obesity_20070427306.html
2.) http://www.calendow.org/uploadedFiles/banning_junk_food_soda_sales.pdf
Article in regards toward the banning of Junk Food across the nation.
3.) http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9903/25/child.food.pyramid/index.html
4.) http://www.scn.org/cccs/v5n4.pdf
Articles on money matters-food contracts, etc: In regards towards the money made by the school in the sales of food/drink to kids. Thats help to support the schools.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
ESSAY # 4-Second try
Sheri Munson-Castro
Writing 101-Winter 2008
Essay #4
Craig McKenny-Instructor
March 6, 2008
Sugar High, Goodbye: Banning Junk Food & Soda from School
My son Francisco is a sixteen year old teenage boy who is a ninth grade student at Chief Sealth High School located in West Seattle. He is a young man that weighs almost two hundred and fifty pounds who has had weight issues all his life. Though his weight is not causing him problems now he has some trouble with some of his activates like playing tennis, walking up stairs, hills or even walking fast/jogging.
One of the central factor in his weight gain has been the accessive eatting of junk foods. While he is trying to reduce the intake of it, its has not easy with him having so readliy a supply available to him at the school. This will become problematic later in life with our family health history.
With all of the this easy access to junk food it has been even harder for him to stay away from it, as there are about six (6) machines at his school. The one good thing about this is that at least half of them have healthy items, while the other half are full of junk products. From what I have learned from the Seattle School District is that there use to be double that amount. They also informed me that with the rise on the numbers of overweight kids in the school, that they had found off their research, it prompt them to implemented a change on the Pyramid plan for the school nutrition.
I was also informed that there had also been a change in some of the vendors that they are using to provide snacks for the students. There are now only two (2) out of the four (4) machines that are pure junk per say.
The soaring levels of childhood obesity in American children have prompted an expert panel to recommend new nutritional standards for the nation's schools. Banning junk food from schools is being seen as the first step in attacking the obesity crisis in children. Sedentary lifestyle practices coupled with a shift in diet to junk foods are the main reason behind this explosion of overweight or obese children. Obesity is linked to the so-called lifestyle diseases like type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, obstructive sleep apnea, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, heart disease, poor self-esteem, and a lower health-related quality of life.
The rate of type 2 diabetes is at an all-time high in American children. In September last year a report by the Institute of Medicine had criticized the efforts to tackle child obesity. The report said although many measures were in place they were proving ineffective. Childhood obesity is a growing menace to the society. In recent years, this epidemic has risen alarmingly. That is why the Congress requested the IOM and the CDC to review prevailing food standards and recommend guidelines to make them healthier.
Per one of the studies on the subject has shown that Schools who back in the 1980's first allowed the access of junk food to help increase the revenue have after coming to understand their part in the rise of health issues in children have started to implement changes into the schools.
They have already banned or limited the sale of fizzy drinks following a deal between major companies and the Alliance for a Healthier Generation in May 2006. The Alliance is a joint venture of the William J. Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association.
In the debates that I had found showed that the government panel made up of House and Senate lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill to reduce junk food in schools by requiring that any food and drinks sold on campuses, including in vending machines, meet the same federal nutritional standards as food served in the cafeteria.
The measure would also force the Agriculture Department to rewrite its 30-year-old nutritional guidelines for schools to limit the amount of sugar, fat and sodium, as well as portion sizes, in response to a growing obesity epidemic among children.
According to an early December New York Times Article, federal lawmakers were considering a national ban as well on the selling junk food in school vending machines. The measure, which was an amendment to the farm bill, faced significant hurdles before this beneficial change could become a reality. Federal lawmakers are considering the broadest effort ever to limit what children eat: a national ban on selling candy, sugary soda and salty, fatty food in school snack bars, vending machines and à la carte cafeteria lines.
Whether the measure, an amendment to the farm bill, would survive the convoluted politics that bogged down that legislation in the Senate is one issue. Whether it could survive the battle among factions in the fight to improve school food was another.
Unfortunely no such luck on either side, because on Thursday, December 13, 2007, the Senate dropped the amendment. According to a December 15, 2007 Washington Post Article The Senate on Thursday night dropped an amendment to the farm bill that would have banned fatty foods and high-calorie beverages at school snack bars, stores and vending machines, dealing a blow to its chances of passage.
The National School Nutrition Standards Amendment, sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), would have been the first legislation to update the nutrition standards since 1979, a period in which scientific opinion on what foods are appropriate has drastically shifted.
"There are many reasons for this public health crisis, but one big reason is that our nation's schools have become inundated with junk food and sugary drinks," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, a chief sponsor of the bill. A Government Accountability Office study last year found that 99 percent of high schools, 97 percent of middle schools and 83 percent of elementary schools have vending machines, school stores or snack bars that sell mostly unhealthy snacks and drinks.
One Report that I saw was in regards to:
USDA AWARDS $2.5 MILLION FOR RESEARCH ON FOOD AND NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS
USDA News Release:
Washington, Oct. 24, 2007—Acting Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner today announced $2.5 million in grant and cooperative agreement awards in ten states and the District of Columbia for research on food and nutrition assistance.
"USDA administers 15 domestic food and nutrition assistance programs that work to provide a nutritional safety net for children and low-income adults" said Conner. "Sound research helps these programs continue to operate effectively and efficiently."
The goal of the research is to examine, evaluate, and enhance USDA's food and nutrition assistance programs. The grants and cooperative agreements will fund projects in California, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Utah.
Another was on: USDA news release;
CENTER FOR NUTRITION POLICY AND PROMOTION
Washington, Nov. 19, 2007 -- Agriculture Under Secretary Nancy Johner for Food,Nutrition and Consumer Services today announced the appointment of Dr. BrianWansink as the Executive Director of the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion(CNPP). Dr. Wansink currently serves as the John S. Dyson Professor of Marketing and the Director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab in the Department of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
“Dr. Wansink is nationally recognized in his field of nutrition research which focuses on how to encourage consumers to eat more nutritiously and better control how much they eat,” said Johner. “Dr. Wansink’s work has been featured in national print and broadcast media. We feel quite fortunate in having Dr. Wansink join our team here at the Department of Agriculture (USDA), and look forward to working with him.”
At CNPP Dr. Wansink will be responsible for overseeing the planning, development and review of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the food pyramid known as MyPyramid.gov, and programs including the Healthy Eating Index, the USDA Food Plans, the Nutrient Content of the U.S. Food Supply, and the cost of raising a child.
In the state of California; Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill in September that would raise nutritional standards -- limiting the amount of calories and sugar -- and ban the sale of soda in all California. They had also implemented another law that had just passed not allowing any soda and sugary drinks in the elementary and middle schools.
There is some debating going on to see if the law for reducing or taking junk food all the way out of school will pass the congress. Which if it does could be implemented across the nation. The new federal proposal is backed by the Parent Teacher Association, the School Nutrition Association, the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, the California Center for Public Health Advocacy and other health-related groups
The measure is sponsored in the House by Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, and Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn. The sponsors predicted the bill would be approved, although it may not get a vote in Congress during this busy election year. Woolsey noted: "A bill that has bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate is rare, indeed, these days, but that's what we have here."
The problem the group is attacking is one that was born in the mid-1980s, when money-strapped schools across the country began opening their doors to private vendors, and offering a wider variety of foods — letting many millions of students sate their hunger and thirst with chips and soda, rather than what was on the school lunch menu. Winning those kids back over to healthy food might be a tough task.
Many parents are behind this law being approved and implemented across the board. So many children have weight issues going on as well as the fact per the research going on may be effecting their learning abilities as well. I personally feel that by reducing the intake that children have we will help to reduce the number of them that diagnose with diabetic issues, obesity problems as well as may increase the number of children who are doing well in school. Because by taking them off that “Sugar High”, they actually may pay attention and intake more of the knowledge that is being taught to them by their teachers.
Resources: On the positive as well as the negative sides of Banning Junk Food in School:
1.) http://www.newslocale.org/health/hnews/banning_junk_food_in_schools_first_step_in_tacking_child_obesity_20070427306.html
2.) http://www.calendow.org/uploadedFiles/banning_junk_food_soda_sales.pdf A article regarding the banning of Junk Food across the nation.
3.) http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9903/25/child.food.pyramid/index.html
4.) http://www.scn.org/cccs/v5n4.pdf
articles on money matters-food contracts, etc. Regarding the money made by the school in the sales of food/drink to kids. Thats helps to suport the schools.
5.) Link to the current bill: Bill Summary and Status the report on the bill that present and denied for the moment in regards to banning junk food in schools.
Writing 101-Winter 2008
Essay #4
Craig McKenny-Instructor
March 6, 2008
Sugar High, Goodbye: Banning Junk Food & Soda from School
My son Francisco is a sixteen year old teenage boy who is a ninth grade student at Chief Sealth High School located in West Seattle. He is a young man that weighs almost two hundred and fifty pounds who has had weight issues all his life. Though his weight is not causing him problems now he has some trouble with some of his activates like playing tennis, walking up stairs, hills or even walking fast/jogging.
One of the central factor in his weight gain has been the accessive eatting of junk foods. While he is trying to reduce the intake of it, its has not easy with him having so readliy a supply available to him at the school. This will become problematic later in life with our family health history.
With all of the this easy access to junk food it has been even harder for him to stay away from it, as there are about six (6) machines at his school. The one good thing about this is that at least half of them have healthy items, while the other half are full of junk products. From what I have learned from the Seattle School District is that there use to be double that amount. They also informed me that with the rise on the numbers of overweight kids in the school, that they had found off their research, it prompt them to implemented a change on the Pyramid plan for the school nutrition.
I was also informed that there had also been a change in some of the vendors that they are using to provide snacks for the students. There are now only two (2) out of the four (4) machines that are pure junk per say.
The soaring levels of childhood obesity in American children have prompted an expert panel to recommend new nutritional standards for the nation's schools. Banning junk food from schools is being seen as the first step in attacking the obesity crisis in children. Sedentary lifestyle practices coupled with a shift in diet to junk foods are the main reason behind this explosion of overweight or obese children. Obesity is linked to the so-called lifestyle diseases like type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, obstructive sleep apnea, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, heart disease, poor self-esteem, and a lower health-related quality of life.
The rate of type 2 diabetes is at an all-time high in American children. In September last year a report by the Institute of Medicine had criticized the efforts to tackle child obesity. The report said although many measures were in place they were proving ineffective. Childhood obesity is a growing menace to the society. In recent years, this epidemic has risen alarmingly. That is why the Congress requested the IOM and the CDC to review prevailing food standards and recommend guidelines to make them healthier.
Per one of the studies on the subject has shown that Schools who back in the 1980's first allowed the access of junk food to help increase the revenue have after coming to understand their part in the rise of health issues in children have started to implement changes into the schools.
They have already banned or limited the sale of fizzy drinks following a deal between major companies and the Alliance for a Healthier Generation in May 2006. The Alliance is a joint venture of the William J. Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association.
In the debates that I had found showed that the government panel made up of House and Senate lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill to reduce junk food in schools by requiring that any food and drinks sold on campuses, including in vending machines, meet the same federal nutritional standards as food served in the cafeteria.
The measure would also force the Agriculture Department to rewrite its 30-year-old nutritional guidelines for schools to limit the amount of sugar, fat and sodium, as well as portion sizes, in response to a growing obesity epidemic among children.
According to an early December New York Times Article, federal lawmakers were considering a national ban as well on the selling junk food in school vending machines. The measure, which was an amendment to the farm bill, faced significant hurdles before this beneficial change could become a reality. Federal lawmakers are considering the broadest effort ever to limit what children eat: a national ban on selling candy, sugary soda and salty, fatty food in school snack bars, vending machines and à la carte cafeteria lines.
Whether the measure, an amendment to the farm bill, would survive the convoluted politics that bogged down that legislation in the Senate is one issue. Whether it could survive the battle among factions in the fight to improve school food was another.
Unfortunely no such luck on either side, because on Thursday, December 13, 2007, the Senate dropped the amendment. According to a December 15, 2007 Washington Post Article The Senate on Thursday night dropped an amendment to the farm bill that would have banned fatty foods and high-calorie beverages at school snack bars, stores and vending machines, dealing a blow to its chances of passage.
The National School Nutrition Standards Amendment, sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), would have been the first legislation to update the nutrition standards since 1979, a period in which scientific opinion on what foods are appropriate has drastically shifted.
"There are many reasons for this public health crisis, but one big reason is that our nation's schools have become inundated with junk food and sugary drinks," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, a chief sponsor of the bill. A Government Accountability Office study last year found that 99 percent of high schools, 97 percent of middle schools and 83 percent of elementary schools have vending machines, school stores or snack bars that sell mostly unhealthy snacks and drinks.
One Report that I saw was in regards to:
USDA AWARDS $2.5 MILLION FOR RESEARCH ON FOOD AND NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS
USDA News Release:
Washington, Oct. 24, 2007—Acting Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner today announced $2.5 million in grant and cooperative agreement awards in ten states and the District of Columbia for research on food and nutrition assistance.
"USDA administers 15 domestic food and nutrition assistance programs that work to provide a nutritional safety net for children and low-income adults" said Conner. "Sound research helps these programs continue to operate effectively and efficiently."
The goal of the research is to examine, evaluate, and enhance USDA's food and nutrition assistance programs. The grants and cooperative agreements will fund projects in California, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Utah.
Another was on: USDA news release;
CENTER FOR NUTRITION POLICY AND PROMOTION
Washington, Nov. 19, 2007 -- Agriculture Under Secretary Nancy Johner for Food,Nutrition and Consumer Services today announced the appointment of Dr. BrianWansink as the Executive Director of the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion(CNPP). Dr. Wansink currently serves as the John S. Dyson Professor of Marketing and the Director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab in the Department of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
“Dr. Wansink is nationally recognized in his field of nutrition research which focuses on how to encourage consumers to eat more nutritiously and better control how much they eat,” said Johner. “Dr. Wansink’s work has been featured in national print and broadcast media. We feel quite fortunate in having Dr. Wansink join our team here at the Department of Agriculture (USDA), and look forward to working with him.”
At CNPP Dr. Wansink will be responsible for overseeing the planning, development and review of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the food pyramid known as MyPyramid.gov, and programs including the Healthy Eating Index, the USDA Food Plans, the Nutrient Content of the U.S. Food Supply, and the cost of raising a child.
In the state of California; Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill in September that would raise nutritional standards -- limiting the amount of calories and sugar -- and ban the sale of soda in all California. They had also implemented another law that had just passed not allowing any soda and sugary drinks in the elementary and middle schools.
There is some debating going on to see if the law for reducing or taking junk food all the way out of school will pass the congress. Which if it does could be implemented across the nation. The new federal proposal is backed by the Parent Teacher Association, the School Nutrition Association, the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, the California Center for Public Health Advocacy and other health-related groups
The measure is sponsored in the House by Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, and Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn. The sponsors predicted the bill would be approved, although it may not get a vote in Congress during this busy election year. Woolsey noted: "A bill that has bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate is rare, indeed, these days, but that's what we have here."
The problem the group is attacking is one that was born in the mid-1980s, when money-strapped schools across the country began opening their doors to private vendors, and offering a wider variety of foods — letting many millions of students sate their hunger and thirst with chips and soda, rather than what was on the school lunch menu. Winning those kids back over to healthy food might be a tough task.
Many parents are behind this law being approved and implemented across the board. So many children have weight issues going on as well as the fact per the research going on may be effecting their learning abilities as well. I personally feel that by reducing the intake that children have we will help to reduce the number of them that diagnose with diabetic issues, obesity problems as well as may increase the number of children who are doing well in school. Because by taking them off that “Sugar High”, they actually may pay attention and intake more of the knowledge that is being taught to them by their teachers.
Resources: On the positive as well as the negative sides of Banning Junk Food in School:
1.) http://www.newslocale.org/health/hnews/banning_junk_food_in_schools_first_step_in_tacking_child_obesity_20070427306.html
2.) http://www.calendow.org/uploadedFiles/banning_junk_food_soda_sales.pdf A article regarding the banning of Junk Food across the nation.
3.) http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9903/25/child.food.pyramid/index.html
4.) http://www.scn.org/cccs/v5n4.pdf
articles on money matters-food contracts, etc. Regarding the money made by the school in the sales of food/drink to kids. Thats helps to suport the schools.
5.) Link to the current bill: Bill Summary and Status the report on the bill that present and denied for the moment in regards to banning junk food in schools.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Rough Draft -Essay # 4
Sheri Munson-Castro
Writing 101-Winter 2008
Craig McKenny-Instructor
March 4, 2008th
Essay # 4-rough draft
Too Fast and Too Furious:
Ready, Set, Go or living with the consequences
This is a serious problem that affects everyone around the world, not just here. Involving car accidents, where there can be more then one Victim in any given situation. Per the research out there we have between 35,000 to 40,000 car accidents per year and at least 29,000 are male drivers and the rest are female. About 25% of them are brand new drivers, and most of them are young drivers averaging between the ages of 16 and 30 years old. This is something that will affect everyone here tonight. We all have had at least one member of our family’s if not ourselves in some type of fender bender at one time or another. As we all now this can happen anytime and with out a moments notice.
Now while they teach drivers education in high school plus at some outside private classes for
teenagers as well as adults of all ages to learn, I strongly feel that they are lacking in knowledge.
I think that while they are teaching you all about cars, and the driving rules they need to teach
you something even more important: Which is how to respond to all types of case scenarios
involving all forms of weather conditions. As well as to pay more attention to the road, the
condition of the road and the drivers around you also, teaching you about road rage or fighting
with the people in your car if not alone. There have been debates going on all around us about
these very facts that they need to teach in the class as they teach driving to the people learning to drive.
Many people in the debates have been trying to get stricter driving laws as well as steeper
fines on infractions-especially for those involving drinking and driving, as well as on cell phones
enforced. So, far this has only hit the Senates chair for discussion, and not put to a vote. But, hopefully coming in the near future. They’re some down sides to these laws. Which will be in regards to driving while talking on a cell phone. One part to help avoid accidents as well as a ticket maybe to make sure you have a ear pierce. But, if not then if caught you get a ticket. This maybe the part that will be have a down side as that I will most likely get a ticket as well as others. Now on to the part involving drinking and driving, this I do feel that should be way stricter in the laws. I have seen to many accidents where there was drinking involved and serious injury’s as well as deaths incurred from it
My family is a example on being a new driver with out any prior knowledge on dealing with
all weather conditions as well as show, as well as show one level of how bad it can get and it can
happen in a moments notice. And you can be dealing with the results for the rest of your life.
Which is depending if you survive the accident at all. The example is my boyfriend; he was a
brand new driver, only 29yrs old. I was trying to teach him how to drive as we lived so far from
where he worked and was spending over 3 hours a day going to and from work. He was
impatient and went out to drive on his own without me, and it was during October-when we have the first rains. Its “Oily and slippery roads” and as even the most experience driver can tell you it, it’s very easy to lose control. We think that when he was going up the hill and going a bit
faster then he should have had due to being a large car then starting downhill and at the same
speed. Well he started to slide and not knowing any better since had not learned how to deal with the different type of weathers yet, he panic and hit the brakes hard and it cause him to flip
over/many times. He almost died from this and was so badly hurt with front lobal injury, fracture ribs and not breathing at the time the EMTS got there.
Over a year and half later we are still dealing with the consequences (physiological, emotional,
physical) caused from the results of that one moment in time. This will last a lifetime, as many of the issues he has as a result from the accident never go away.
Another example is of a young girl who was celebrating her 21st birthday in the rehabilitation center over at the UW. She was also a brand new driver who had never dealt with the kind of weather we were having that weekend of her accident. Some crazy driver who was going all over the road that night, bumped into her as she was driving on the freeway. Causing her to start to slide couldn’t get control and plowed off the road through the guardrail, she slammed right into a tree head shoving the front of her car into her chest/pelvic area. Which cause her to be paralyzed from the neck down. When we took my boyfriend home from the center, she had just gotten to the point of moving her right hand up to her mouth while gently eating Bon Bon’s. She could eat with out being on a tube if it was soft enough to swallow, the Bon Bon’s was her birthday present. What a way to spend any birthday, let alone your 21st birthday as well as the rest of them aren’t it.
Everyone of all ages and races/ethic groups need to and will be more vigilant, as well as
observant of how to respond in all types of driving conditions to avoid becoming the next victim
in a car accident and really see what the results from one can be and in a moments notice. Which is why they should include in the driving course a visit to go to see the Trauma Unit as well as the Emergency room at Harborview Medical center located in Downtown Seattle, as well as visit the Rehabilitation floor located on the 8th floor at the University of Washington Medical center located on NE Pacific Road. To see what can happen and not have to go through what we did.
Learning the driving rules and using them, and continuous keep up on learning and practicing
being responsible. No speeding, especially when changing lanes-and make sure they know your
moving over to their lane, especially at night time. As well as trying to consciously practice safer
driving and know your limits as a driver and that of your car.
Which is why I choose this particular title: Fast and Furious; The ending results that can happen
in a moment of time and place and wreck the rest of your life, your family’s as well as others if
not totally end it.
This is my family’s life. This could be yours, would you want it? Stop and really think before
driving or watch when making any of those decisions that you or those close to you make next,
as a moment in time can last you a lifetime.
I feel we would really wake up and smell the coffee. We can have more safer and calmer driving
experiences. Imagine living in a world where people actually practice well driving skills and
follow the rules in the driver-licensing book.
Resources:
1.) Dorfman, K (2000). Recovering From Trauma: Violent Crime, Car Accidents, and Disasters. Located at Amazon.com
This is an audiocassette resource for survivors of traumatic stress. This is a tape designed to help those with post-traumatic stress reactions recover from their systems. The tape has two sides to it and side one helps to educate you in the physical response from trauma, setbacks, and the stages of recovery. And side two, shows you relaxation exercises design to reduce your stress and help to control the emotional and physical problems you will have.
The author Karen Dorfman, M.S. W, L.C.S. W has provided post-trauma counseling to families for over 10 years. She received her M.S.W degree from U.C.L.A in 1988
2.) Blanchard, E and Hickling, E (2000). After the Crash: Assessment and Treatment of Motor Vehicle Accidents Survivors. Albany, NY/Published by the APA 800-374-2721
This is a book written by two gentlemen from Albany, NY. Dr Blanchard has his Ph.D from the University of Albany at SUNY and Dr Hickling has a Psy.D from Russell Sage College and Albany Medical College. Both the doctors have done massive research into the physical as well as psychological results pending from car accidents
And which there is more information on the book as well as the authors can be located at the APA News Release on the http://www.ptsdsupport.net which is a great site for those looking for more on posttraumatic stress orders.
3.) http://www.osbrake.com/teenage-driving.aspx where you can find out a lot about the statistic on teen driving as well as how many accidents per year cause by teen drivers.
4.) http://www.resource4accidents.com/topics/death.html Has great info about teen drivers and resources for help if needed
Writing 101-Winter 2008
Craig McKenny-Instructor
March 4, 2008th
Essay # 4-rough draft
Too Fast and Too Furious:
Ready, Set, Go or living with the consequences
This is a serious problem that affects everyone around the world, not just here. Involving car accidents, where there can be more then one Victim in any given situation. Per the research out there we have between 35,000 to 40,000 car accidents per year and at least 29,000 are male drivers and the rest are female. About 25% of them are brand new drivers, and most of them are young drivers averaging between the ages of 16 and 30 years old. This is something that will affect everyone here tonight. We all have had at least one member of our family’s if not ourselves in some type of fender bender at one time or another. As we all now this can happen anytime and with out a moments notice.
Now while they teach drivers education in high school plus at some outside private classes for
teenagers as well as adults of all ages to learn, I strongly feel that they are lacking in knowledge.
I think that while they are teaching you all about cars, and the driving rules they need to teach
you something even more important: Which is how to respond to all types of case scenarios
involving all forms of weather conditions. As well as to pay more attention to the road, the
condition of the road and the drivers around you also, teaching you about road rage or fighting
with the people in your car if not alone. There have been debates going on all around us about
these very facts that they need to teach in the class as they teach driving to the people learning to drive.
Many people in the debates have been trying to get stricter driving laws as well as steeper
fines on infractions-especially for those involving drinking and driving, as well as on cell phones
enforced. So, far this has only hit the Senates chair for discussion, and not put to a vote. But, hopefully coming in the near future. They’re some down sides to these laws. Which will be in regards to driving while talking on a cell phone. One part to help avoid accidents as well as a ticket maybe to make sure you have a ear pierce. But, if not then if caught you get a ticket. This maybe the part that will be have a down side as that I will most likely get a ticket as well as others. Now on to the part involving drinking and driving, this I do feel that should be way stricter in the laws. I have seen to many accidents where there was drinking involved and serious injury’s as well as deaths incurred from it
My family is a example on being a new driver with out any prior knowledge on dealing with
all weather conditions as well as show, as well as show one level of how bad it can get and it can
happen in a moments notice. And you can be dealing with the results for the rest of your life.
Which is depending if you survive the accident at all. The example is my boyfriend; he was a
brand new driver, only 29yrs old. I was trying to teach him how to drive as we lived so far from
where he worked and was spending over 3 hours a day going to and from work. He was
impatient and went out to drive on his own without me, and it was during October-when we have the first rains. Its “Oily and slippery roads” and as even the most experience driver can tell you it, it’s very easy to lose control. We think that when he was going up the hill and going a bit
faster then he should have had due to being a large car then starting downhill and at the same
speed. Well he started to slide and not knowing any better since had not learned how to deal with the different type of weathers yet, he panic and hit the brakes hard and it cause him to flip
over/many times. He almost died from this and was so badly hurt with front lobal injury, fracture ribs and not breathing at the time the EMTS got there.
Over a year and half later we are still dealing with the consequences (physiological, emotional,
physical) caused from the results of that one moment in time. This will last a lifetime, as many of the issues he has as a result from the accident never go away.
Another example is of a young girl who was celebrating her 21st birthday in the rehabilitation center over at the UW. She was also a brand new driver who had never dealt with the kind of weather we were having that weekend of her accident. Some crazy driver who was going all over the road that night, bumped into her as she was driving on the freeway. Causing her to start to slide couldn’t get control and plowed off the road through the guardrail, she slammed right into a tree head shoving the front of her car into her chest/pelvic area. Which cause her to be paralyzed from the neck down. When we took my boyfriend home from the center, she had just gotten to the point of moving her right hand up to her mouth while gently eating Bon Bon’s. She could eat with out being on a tube if it was soft enough to swallow, the Bon Bon’s was her birthday present. What a way to spend any birthday, let alone your 21st birthday as well as the rest of them aren’t it.
Everyone of all ages and races/ethic groups need to and will be more vigilant, as well as
observant of how to respond in all types of driving conditions to avoid becoming the next victim
in a car accident and really see what the results from one can be and in a moments notice. Which is why they should include in the driving course a visit to go to see the Trauma Unit as well as the Emergency room at Harborview Medical center located in Downtown Seattle, as well as visit the Rehabilitation floor located on the 8th floor at the University of Washington Medical center located on NE Pacific Road. To see what can happen and not have to go through what we did.
Learning the driving rules and using them, and continuous keep up on learning and practicing
being responsible. No speeding, especially when changing lanes-and make sure they know your
moving over to their lane, especially at night time. As well as trying to consciously practice safer
driving and know your limits as a driver and that of your car.
Which is why I choose this particular title: Fast and Furious; The ending results that can happen
in a moment of time and place and wreck the rest of your life, your family’s as well as others if
not totally end it.
This is my family’s life. This could be yours, would you want it? Stop and really think before
driving or watch when making any of those decisions that you or those close to you make next,
as a moment in time can last you a lifetime.
I feel we would really wake up and smell the coffee. We can have more safer and calmer driving
experiences. Imagine living in a world where people actually practice well driving skills and
follow the rules in the driver-licensing book.
Resources:
1.) Dorfman, K (2000). Recovering From Trauma: Violent Crime, Car Accidents, and Disasters. Located at Amazon.com
This is an audiocassette resource for survivors of traumatic stress. This is a tape designed to help those with post-traumatic stress reactions recover from their systems. The tape has two sides to it and side one helps to educate you in the physical response from trauma, setbacks, and the stages of recovery. And side two, shows you relaxation exercises design to reduce your stress and help to control the emotional and physical problems you will have.
The author Karen Dorfman, M.S. W, L.C.S. W has provided post-trauma counseling to families for over 10 years. She received her M.S.W degree from U.C.L.A in 1988
2.) Blanchard, E and Hickling, E (2000). After the Crash: Assessment and Treatment of Motor Vehicle Accidents Survivors. Albany, NY/Published by the APA 800-374-2721
This is a book written by two gentlemen from Albany, NY. Dr Blanchard has his Ph.D from the University of Albany at SUNY and Dr Hickling has a Psy.D from Russell Sage College and Albany Medical College. Both the doctors have done massive research into the physical as well as psychological results pending from car accidents
And which there is more information on the book as well as the authors can be located at the APA News Release on the http://www.ptsdsupport.net which is a great site for those looking for more on posttraumatic stress orders.
3.) http://www.osbrake.com/teenage-driving.aspx where you can find out a lot about the statistic on teen driving as well as how many accidents per year cause by teen drivers.
4.) http://www.resource4accidents.com/topics/death.html Has great info about teen drivers and resources for help if needed
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Final Draft -Essay # 3
Sheri Munson-Castro
Writ 101-Winter 2008
Essay #3
Craig McKenny-Instructor
March 2nd, 2008
Community Service Hours for High School Students: The Meaning and Beneficial Value behind them.
This is a Hot Topic that has been burning the wires as it has been debated a lot during the last couple of years in the State of Washington, as well as across the United States regarding high school students doing community hours as a requirement for graduating from high school as well.At the beginning of this year this plan has been introduced into The Seattle School District’s Academic plan. I received a copy of the syllabus from their high school showing all the requirements needed in order to graduate.
It showed me that all students going to high school in the Seattle School District would need to have completed 40 hours of community service prior to completing the 12th grade.Many of the other states have also started to implement community service hours into their academic plans. The amount of hours that the student will to do will depend on where he or she lives, as each state as well as the school district is different. In fact, some students may not have to do any hours at all due to not all high schools have implemented this plan into their academic requirements for graduation.
There are many supporters for both sides on this matter. On the one side there are some of those that have stated that they feel it’s not right for the children to have to do this without having a say in the matter at all. They have also greatly expressed that they felt it should be something that is a choice for the students to do as well as not being penalized if they don’t sign up for them. Let alone having them completed prior to their graduation.Then there are those who feel that community service hours are a great thing to have come along. That it will help to build up confidence and self-esteem in the teens as well as help them to connect to their community, as well to become more aware of their surroundings and the people around them.
Which for so many teens help’s to fill the emptiness that many have and with that void filled it will help them to go down a better path in life. As such will be able to make better choices in their life, as they will be more aware of the consequences their actions may cause.
I also feel that this is so true as well as feel that it’s a main key factor in what happen to my daughter and her life. What has happen to her has caused her to lose five years out of her life as well as her freedom. Which I believe was due to the fact that she had no real self-esteem in herself and did not feel connected to the community thus, helping to cause her not to fully understand what the consequences from her actions could be. Causing her to also not feel any shame about some of her actions and in the things she got involved in with the other children that who I belief felt as she did.I feel that they were feeling as lost and confused as she was causing them to not really be connected to their surroundings or the people in their lives or surrounding them day-to-day and in so not fully understanding that they were hurting anyone. My oldest daughter has finally opened her eyes to what and who’s around her as well as recognizing and that she has anger issues. She is learning to become more aware of her surroundings and become part of the community.
The point that I am trying to make here is this (that while I was doing some research into this topic after I first learned about it after my other children entered high school) I have come to feel strongly that by doing community service it’s a great way to help students get involved with the community and help others. I think that it’s a great confidence builder and helps them to really connect. This is something that I feel that everyone needs to have at one time or another in his or her life, which helps him or her to build that connection to something or someone. Which helps the children to build their confidence in themselves thus, helping to create that bond between them and their community as well as the people surrounding them.There are some websites as well as some articles that have been written on research done by some professors telling their thoughts and opinions on this that I located on this subject.
There is a split down the middle on the positive and negative sides to this subject. Some of what I located is stories written by students themselves stating their side on the debate on it as well. Most of the stories that I found were on the positive side supporting the implementing of community service being a requirement in the academic plan in high school. Many students themselves had also stated in the article that they felt it should actually be introduced into school as early as Middle school. Helping the kids get a jump-start to making the connection in the community, thus getting them started down the right path on the road towards adulthood.
There is a Statistical Analysis Report that was written by Kathryn Candler back in 1997, for the National Center for Education Statistic providing them the information that was needed to help on improving the Educational system. It’s a great article that with a lot of information in it that I feel you would want to read.I also read somewhere once about a statement that Alex Haley, (the famous author who wrote the book Roots) had made where he was quoted as saying: “A Community is built up by the people in it.” Which I have found to be true based upon a simple fact of life, which by being involved in your community and connecting as one is a very important key factor in life. I feel that it helps you to learn how to be less self- centered and more of a team player in life, as you connect together with the community as one you is building it and yourself up together.Thus planting your roots in the community and having a sense of belonging somewhere.
Because building our community and its people up and not knocking them down is important as breathing as we all live in the same community and as such need to learn to live and work together as a community.I have learned so much from all of the research that I did on this topic. I have come to strongly feel that this is something that we will come to appreciate in the future, with this starting to be implemented into the academic school plans in high schools across the United States. I feel that it does help them to get a jump-start on building that connection between students, their school as well as with the community’s they live in. Thus, helping the students want to complete their high school education and maybe even going on to college as well. Who knows what lies in the future, hopefully that we implement this into the Middle schools as well?
Resources:
1.) Academic Requirements for high school students in the Seattle School District (2008)http://www.seattle.edu
2.) Debates: The Positive and Negative sides to community service and students (2007)http://www.browardschools.com
3.) Candler, K.: Statistical Analysis Report for improvement on Education System (1997http://www.ed.gov/NCES/NHES
4.) Haley, Alex (Author of Roots, 1977): Quoted as saying; “A Community is built up by the People in it and as such work together to build it along with the people up, not down.
Writ 101-Winter 2008
Essay #3
Craig McKenny-Instructor
March 2nd, 2008
Community Service Hours for High School Students: The Meaning and Beneficial Value behind them.
This is a Hot Topic that has been burning the wires as it has been debated a lot during the last couple of years in the State of Washington, as well as across the United States regarding high school students doing community hours as a requirement for graduating from high school as well.At the beginning of this year this plan has been introduced into The Seattle School District’s Academic plan. I received a copy of the syllabus from their high school showing all the requirements needed in order to graduate.
It showed me that all students going to high school in the Seattle School District would need to have completed 40 hours of community service prior to completing the 12th grade.Many of the other states have also started to implement community service hours into their academic plans. The amount of hours that the student will to do will depend on where he or she lives, as each state as well as the school district is different. In fact, some students may not have to do any hours at all due to not all high schools have implemented this plan into their academic requirements for graduation.
There are many supporters for both sides on this matter. On the one side there are some of those that have stated that they feel it’s not right for the children to have to do this without having a say in the matter at all. They have also greatly expressed that they felt it should be something that is a choice for the students to do as well as not being penalized if they don’t sign up for them. Let alone having them completed prior to their graduation.Then there are those who feel that community service hours are a great thing to have come along. That it will help to build up confidence and self-esteem in the teens as well as help them to connect to their community, as well to become more aware of their surroundings and the people around them.
Which for so many teens help’s to fill the emptiness that many have and with that void filled it will help them to go down a better path in life. As such will be able to make better choices in their life, as they will be more aware of the consequences their actions may cause.
I also feel that this is so true as well as feel that it’s a main key factor in what happen to my daughter and her life. What has happen to her has caused her to lose five years out of her life as well as her freedom. Which I believe was due to the fact that she had no real self-esteem in herself and did not feel connected to the community thus, helping to cause her not to fully understand what the consequences from her actions could be. Causing her to also not feel any shame about some of her actions and in the things she got involved in with the other children that who I belief felt as she did.I feel that they were feeling as lost and confused as she was causing them to not really be connected to their surroundings or the people in their lives or surrounding them day-to-day and in so not fully understanding that they were hurting anyone. My oldest daughter has finally opened her eyes to what and who’s around her as well as recognizing and that she has anger issues. She is learning to become more aware of her surroundings and become part of the community.
The point that I am trying to make here is this (that while I was doing some research into this topic after I first learned about it after my other children entered high school) I have come to feel strongly that by doing community service it’s a great way to help students get involved with the community and help others. I think that it’s a great confidence builder and helps them to really connect. This is something that I feel that everyone needs to have at one time or another in his or her life, which helps him or her to build that connection to something or someone. Which helps the children to build their confidence in themselves thus, helping to create that bond between them and their community as well as the people surrounding them.There are some websites as well as some articles that have been written on research done by some professors telling their thoughts and opinions on this that I located on this subject.
There is a split down the middle on the positive and negative sides to this subject. Some of what I located is stories written by students themselves stating their side on the debate on it as well. Most of the stories that I found were on the positive side supporting the implementing of community service being a requirement in the academic plan in high school. Many students themselves had also stated in the article that they felt it should actually be introduced into school as early as Middle school. Helping the kids get a jump-start to making the connection in the community, thus getting them started down the right path on the road towards adulthood.
There is a Statistical Analysis Report that was written by Kathryn Candler back in 1997, for the National Center for Education Statistic providing them the information that was needed to help on improving the Educational system. It’s a great article that with a lot of information in it that I feel you would want to read.I also read somewhere once about a statement that Alex Haley, (the famous author who wrote the book Roots) had made where he was quoted as saying: “A Community is built up by the people in it.” Which I have found to be true based upon a simple fact of life, which by being involved in your community and connecting as one is a very important key factor in life. I feel that it helps you to learn how to be less self- centered and more of a team player in life, as you connect together with the community as one you is building it and yourself up together.Thus planting your roots in the community and having a sense of belonging somewhere.
Because building our community and its people up and not knocking them down is important as breathing as we all live in the same community and as such need to learn to live and work together as a community.I have learned so much from all of the research that I did on this topic. I have come to strongly feel that this is something that we will come to appreciate in the future, with this starting to be implemented into the academic school plans in high schools across the United States. I feel that it does help them to get a jump-start on building that connection between students, their school as well as with the community’s they live in. Thus, helping the students want to complete their high school education and maybe even going on to college as well. Who knows what lies in the future, hopefully that we implement this into the Middle schools as well?
Resources:
1.) Academic Requirements for high school students in the Seattle School District (2008)http://www.seattle.edu
2.) Debates: The Positive and Negative sides to community service and students (2007)http://www.browardschools.com
3.) Candler, K.: Statistical Analysis Report for improvement on Education System (1997http://www.ed.gov/NCES/NHES
4.) Haley, Alex (Author of Roots, 1977): Quoted as saying; “A Community is built up by the People in it and as such work together to build it along with the people up, not down.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
REVISED-3rd/Rough Draft on Essay # 3
Sheri Munson-Castro
Writ 101-Winter 2008
Essay #3
Craig McKenny-Instructor
February 25th, 2008
Community Service Hours for High School Students: The Beneficial Value of them.
This is a Hot Topic that has been burning the wires as it has been debated a lot during the last couple of years in the State of Washington, as well as across the United States regarding high school students doing community hours as a requirement for graduating from high school as well.
At the beginning of this year this plan has been introduced into The Seattle School District’s Academic plan. I received a copy of the syllabus from their high school showing all the requirements needed in order to graduate. It showed me that all students going to high school in the Seattle School District will need to have completed 40 hours of community service prior to completing the 12th grade.
Many of the other states have also started to implement community service hours into their academic plans. The amount of hours that the student will to do will depend on where he or she lives, as each state as well as the school district is different. In fact, some students may not have to do any hours at all due to not all high schools have implemented this plan into their academic requirements for graduation.
There are many supporters for both sides on this matter. On the one side there are some of those that have stated that they feel it’s not right for the children to have to do this without having a say in the matter at all. They have also greatly expressed that they felt it should be something that is a choice for the students to do as well as not being penalized if they don’t sign up for them. Let alone having them completed prior to their graduation.
Then there are those who feel that community service hours are a great thing to have come along. That it will help to build up confidence and self-esteem in the teens as well as help them to connect to their community, as well to become more aware of their surroundings and the people around them. Which for so many teens help’s to fill the emptiness that many have and with that void filled it will help them to go down a better path in life. As such will be able to make better choices in their life, as they will be more aware of the consequences their actions may cause.
I feel that this is so true and feel that it’s a main key factor in what happen to my daughter and her life. What has happen to her has caused her to lose five years out of her life as well as her freedom. Which I believe was due to the fact that she had no real self-esteem in herself and did not feel connected to the community thus, helping to cause her not to understand what the consequences from her actions could be. To be able to fully feel any shame about some actions and the things she got involved in with others that where I belief felt as she did.
I feel that they were feeling as lost and confused as she was causing them to not really be connected to their surroundings or the people in their lives or surrounding them day-to-day and in so not fully understanding that they were hurting anyone. My oldest daughter has finally open her eyes to what and who’s around her as well as recognizing and that she has anger issues. She is learning to become more aware of her surroundings and become part of the community.The point that I am trying to make here is this (that while I was doing some research into this topic after I first learned about it after my other children entered high school) I have come to feel strongly that by doing community service it’s a great way to help students get involved with the community and help others. I think that it’s a great confidence builder and helps them to really connect.
Which I feel is something that everyone needs at some time or another in his or her life.
There are some websites as well as some articles that have been written on research done by some professors telling their thoughts and opinions on this that I located on this subject. There is a split down the middle on the positive and negative sides to this subject. Some of what I located is stories written by students themselves stating their side on the debate on it as well. Most of the stories that I found were on the positive side supporting the implementing of community service being a requirement in the academic plan in high school. Many students themselves had also stated in the article that they felt it should actually be introduced into school as early as Middle school. Helping the kids get a jump start to making the connection in the community, thus getting them started down the right path on the road towards adulthood.
There is a Statistical Analysis Report that was written by Kathryn Candler back in 1997, for the National Center for Education Statistic providing them the information that was needed to help on improving the Educational system. It’s a great article that with a lot of information in it that I feel you would want to read.
I also read somewhere once about a statement that Alex Haley, (the famous author who wrote the book Roots) had made where he was quoted as saying: “A Community is built up by the people in it.” Which I have found to be true based upon a simple fact of life, which by being involved in your community and connecting as one is a very important key factor in life. I feel that it helps you to learn how to be less self- centered and more of a team player in life, as you connect together with the community as one you are building it and yourself up together.
Thus planting your roots in the community and having a sense of belonging somewhere. Because building our community and its people up and not knocking them down is important as breathing as we all live in the same community and as such need to learn to live and work together as a community.
I have learned so much from all of the research that I did on this topic. I have come to strongly feel that this is something that we will come to appreciate in the future, with this starting to be implemented into the academic school plans in high schools across the United States. I feel that it does help them to get a jump start on building that connection between students, their school as well as with the community’s they live in. Thus, helping the students want to complete their high school education and maybe even going on to college as well. Who knows what lies in the future, hopefully that we implement this into the Middle schools as well?
Resources:
1.) Academic Requirements for high school students in the Seattle School District (2008)
http://www.seattle.edu
2.) Debates: The Positive and Negative sides to community service and students (2007)
http://www.browardschools.com
3.) Candler, K. : Statistical Analysis Report for improvement on Education System (1997
http://www.ed.gov/NCES/NHES
4,) Haley, Alex (Author of Roots, 1977): Quoted as saying; “A Community is built up by the People in it and as such work together to build it along with the people up, not down.
Writ 101-Winter 2008
Essay #3
Craig McKenny-Instructor
February 25th, 2008
Community Service Hours for High School Students: The Beneficial Value of them.
This is a Hot Topic that has been burning the wires as it has been debated a lot during the last couple of years in the State of Washington, as well as across the United States regarding high school students doing community hours as a requirement for graduating from high school as well.
At the beginning of this year this plan has been introduced into The Seattle School District’s Academic plan. I received a copy of the syllabus from their high school showing all the requirements needed in order to graduate. It showed me that all students going to high school in the Seattle School District will need to have completed 40 hours of community service prior to completing the 12th grade.
Many of the other states have also started to implement community service hours into their academic plans. The amount of hours that the student will to do will depend on where he or she lives, as each state as well as the school district is different. In fact, some students may not have to do any hours at all due to not all high schools have implemented this plan into their academic requirements for graduation.
There are many supporters for both sides on this matter. On the one side there are some of those that have stated that they feel it’s not right for the children to have to do this without having a say in the matter at all. They have also greatly expressed that they felt it should be something that is a choice for the students to do as well as not being penalized if they don’t sign up for them. Let alone having them completed prior to their graduation.
Then there are those who feel that community service hours are a great thing to have come along. That it will help to build up confidence and self-esteem in the teens as well as help them to connect to their community, as well to become more aware of their surroundings and the people around them. Which for so many teens help’s to fill the emptiness that many have and with that void filled it will help them to go down a better path in life. As such will be able to make better choices in their life, as they will be more aware of the consequences their actions may cause.
I feel that this is so true and feel that it’s a main key factor in what happen to my daughter and her life. What has happen to her has caused her to lose five years out of her life as well as her freedom. Which I believe was due to the fact that she had no real self-esteem in herself and did not feel connected to the community thus, helping to cause her not to understand what the consequences from her actions could be. To be able to fully feel any shame about some actions and the things she got involved in with others that where I belief felt as she did.
I feel that they were feeling as lost and confused as she was causing them to not really be connected to their surroundings or the people in their lives or surrounding them day-to-day and in so not fully understanding that they were hurting anyone. My oldest daughter has finally open her eyes to what and who’s around her as well as recognizing and that she has anger issues. She is learning to become more aware of her surroundings and become part of the community.The point that I am trying to make here is this (that while I was doing some research into this topic after I first learned about it after my other children entered high school) I have come to feel strongly that by doing community service it’s a great way to help students get involved with the community and help others. I think that it’s a great confidence builder and helps them to really connect.
Which I feel is something that everyone needs at some time or another in his or her life.
There are some websites as well as some articles that have been written on research done by some professors telling their thoughts and opinions on this that I located on this subject. There is a split down the middle on the positive and negative sides to this subject. Some of what I located is stories written by students themselves stating their side on the debate on it as well. Most of the stories that I found were on the positive side supporting the implementing of community service being a requirement in the academic plan in high school. Many students themselves had also stated in the article that they felt it should actually be introduced into school as early as Middle school. Helping the kids get a jump start to making the connection in the community, thus getting them started down the right path on the road towards adulthood.
There is a Statistical Analysis Report that was written by Kathryn Candler back in 1997, for the National Center for Education Statistic providing them the information that was needed to help on improving the Educational system. It’s a great article that with a lot of information in it that I feel you would want to read.
I also read somewhere once about a statement that Alex Haley, (the famous author who wrote the book Roots) had made where he was quoted as saying: “A Community is built up by the people in it.” Which I have found to be true based upon a simple fact of life, which by being involved in your community and connecting as one is a very important key factor in life. I feel that it helps you to learn how to be less self- centered and more of a team player in life, as you connect together with the community as one you are building it and yourself up together.
Thus planting your roots in the community and having a sense of belonging somewhere. Because building our community and its people up and not knocking them down is important as breathing as we all live in the same community and as such need to learn to live and work together as a community.
I have learned so much from all of the research that I did on this topic. I have come to strongly feel that this is something that we will come to appreciate in the future, with this starting to be implemented into the academic school plans in high schools across the United States. I feel that it does help them to get a jump start on building that connection between students, their school as well as with the community’s they live in. Thus, helping the students want to complete their high school education and maybe even going on to college as well. Who knows what lies in the future, hopefully that we implement this into the Middle schools as well?
Resources:
1.) Academic Requirements for high school students in the Seattle School District (2008)
http://www.seattle.edu
2.) Debates: The Positive and Negative sides to community service and students (2007)
http://www.browardschools.com
3.) Candler, K. : Statistical Analysis Report for improvement on Education System (1997
http://www.ed.gov/NCES/NHES
4,) Haley, Alex (Author of Roots, 1977): Quoted as saying; “A Community is built up by the People in it and as such work together to build it along with the people up, not down.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
ESSAY # 3-REVISED ROUGH DRAFT: 02/24/2008
Sheri Munson-Castro
Writ 101-Winter 2008
Essay #3-Revised
Craig McKenny-Instructor
February 24th , 2008
High School Students and Community Service Hours:
The subject on whether High School Students should have to do Community Service hours is one that has been talked about across the United States, and it looks like has been doing so for quite awhile. Many states have started to implement community service hours into their academic plans as a requirement for graduating from high school. The amount of community hours the student will have to do will depend on where he or she lives, as each state as well as the school district will be different. In fact some may not have to do any hours at all due to not all high schools have implemented this plan into their academic requirements for graduation.
There has been debate’s over this subject during the past couple of years in Washington State regarding high school students doing community hours. As of the first of this year this plan had been introduced into The Seattle School District’s Academic plan. There are many supporters on both sides of the coin on this matter. There are many who feel that it’s not right for the children to have to do this without having a say in the matter at all. They have also greatly expressed in this opinion that they felt it should be something that is a choice for the students and not to be penalized if they don’t sign up for community hours and have them completed prior to their graduation.
In the same token there are many who feel that community service hours are a great thing to have come along. That it helps to build confidence and self-esteem in the teens as well as connect to their community, as well to become more aware of their surroundings and the people around them. Which for so many teens help’s to fill the emptiness that many have and with that void filled it will help them to go down a better path in life. As such will be able to make better choices in their life, as they will be more aware of the consequences their actions may cause.
I feel that this is so true and feel that it’s a main key factor in what happen to my daughter and her life. What has happen to her has caused her to lose five years out of her life as well as her freedom. Which I believe was due to the fact that she had no real self-esteem in herself and did not feel connected to the community thus, helping to cause her not to understand what the consequences from her actions could be. To be able to fully feel any shame about some actions and the things she got involved in with others that where I belief felt as she did, that they were feeling as lost and confused as she was causing them to not really be connected to their surroundings or the people in their lives or surrounding them day-to-day and in so not fully understanding that they were hurting anyone.
Especially my oldest daughter who has finally open her eyes to what and who’s around her as well as recognizing that she has anger issues.The point that I am trying to make here is this. That I have done some research into this topic after I first learned about it. Which was just after my younger children entered high school where I received a copy of the syllabus from their high school showing all the requirements needed in order to graduate. It showed that for students going to school in the Seattle School District needed to have completed 40 hours of community service prior to completing the 12th grade.
I strongly feel that doing community service is a way to help students get involved with the community and help others. It made them feel special by doing this. It’s a great confidence builder and helps them to really connect. Which I feel is something everyone needs at some time or another in his or her life. I have gone out and done research on this seeing all the websites on this topic as well as reading up on discussions on it. This makes for some interesting reading material. Also there have been some debates going on regarding this issue of community service hours and teens in high school having to do them.
There are some websites as well as some articles that have been written on research done by some professors telling their thoughts and opinions on this. There is almost a split down the middle on the positive and negative sides to this subject. I also located some stories written by students themselves stating their side on the debate on it as well. Many of the stories that I found were on the positive side supporting the implementing of community service being a requirement in the academic plan in high school. Many students had also stated in the article that they felt it should actually be introduced into school as early as Middle school. Helping the kids get a jump to make the connection in the community, thus getting them started down the right path on the road towards adulthood.
There is also a Statistical Analysis Report that was written by Kathryn Candler for the National Center for Education Statistic. Through this Analysis Reports she had written to help get the information that was needed to help on improving the Educational system was done back in 1997. She has written a great article with lots of information on it that I feel you would want to take a look at. There was something that I had also read somewhere once about a statement that Alex Haley, (the famous author who wrote the book Roots) where he was quoted as saying: “A Community is built up by the people in it.” Which I have found to be true based upon a simple fact of life. That by being involved in your community and connecting as one is a very important key factor in life. I feel that it helps you to learn how to be less self- centered and more of a team player in life. Also as you connect as one you are building it and yourself up together. Thus planting your roots in the community and having a sense of belonging somewhere.
I have learned so much from all of this research on this matter. I strongly feel that this is something we will come to appreciate in the future, now we have come to implement this into the academic school plans in the high schools across the United States. Who knows what lays in the future, hopefully to implement this in Middle school also as well. Getting a jump start on helping to build that connection between students with their community’s as well as maybe keeping more students in school. Thus really helping students want to complete their high school education and maybe even going on to college as well as we all live in the same community and as such needs to work together. Building our community and its people up and not helping to know it or them down.
Resources:
1.) Academic Requirements for high school students in the Seattle School District (2008)
http://www.seattle.edu
2.) Debates: The Positive and Negative sides to community service and students (2007)
http://www.browardschools.com
3.) Candler, K. : Statistical Analysis Report for improvement on Education System (1997
http://www.ed.gov/NCES/NHES
4.) Haley, Alex (Author of Roots, 1977): Quoted as saying; “A Community is built up by the People in it and as such work together to build it along with the people up, not down.
Writ 101-Winter 2008
Essay #3-Revised
Craig McKenny-Instructor
February 24th , 2008
High School Students and Community Service Hours:
The subject on whether High School Students should have to do Community Service hours is one that has been talked about across the United States, and it looks like has been doing so for quite awhile. Many states have started to implement community service hours into their academic plans as a requirement for graduating from high school. The amount of community hours the student will have to do will depend on where he or she lives, as each state as well as the school district will be different. In fact some may not have to do any hours at all due to not all high schools have implemented this plan into their academic requirements for graduation.
There has been debate’s over this subject during the past couple of years in Washington State regarding high school students doing community hours. As of the first of this year this plan had been introduced into The Seattle School District’s Academic plan. There are many supporters on both sides of the coin on this matter. There are many who feel that it’s not right for the children to have to do this without having a say in the matter at all. They have also greatly expressed in this opinion that they felt it should be something that is a choice for the students and not to be penalized if they don’t sign up for community hours and have them completed prior to their graduation.
In the same token there are many who feel that community service hours are a great thing to have come along. That it helps to build confidence and self-esteem in the teens as well as connect to their community, as well to become more aware of their surroundings and the people around them. Which for so many teens help’s to fill the emptiness that many have and with that void filled it will help them to go down a better path in life. As such will be able to make better choices in their life, as they will be more aware of the consequences their actions may cause.
I feel that this is so true and feel that it’s a main key factor in what happen to my daughter and her life. What has happen to her has caused her to lose five years out of her life as well as her freedom. Which I believe was due to the fact that she had no real self-esteem in herself and did not feel connected to the community thus, helping to cause her not to understand what the consequences from her actions could be. To be able to fully feel any shame about some actions and the things she got involved in with others that where I belief felt as she did, that they were feeling as lost and confused as she was causing them to not really be connected to their surroundings or the people in their lives or surrounding them day-to-day and in so not fully understanding that they were hurting anyone.
Especially my oldest daughter who has finally open her eyes to what and who’s around her as well as recognizing that she has anger issues.The point that I am trying to make here is this. That I have done some research into this topic after I first learned about it. Which was just after my younger children entered high school where I received a copy of the syllabus from their high school showing all the requirements needed in order to graduate. It showed that for students going to school in the Seattle School District needed to have completed 40 hours of community service prior to completing the 12th grade.
I strongly feel that doing community service is a way to help students get involved with the community and help others. It made them feel special by doing this. It’s a great confidence builder and helps them to really connect. Which I feel is something everyone needs at some time or another in his or her life. I have gone out and done research on this seeing all the websites on this topic as well as reading up on discussions on it. This makes for some interesting reading material. Also there have been some debates going on regarding this issue of community service hours and teens in high school having to do them.
There are some websites as well as some articles that have been written on research done by some professors telling their thoughts and opinions on this. There is almost a split down the middle on the positive and negative sides to this subject. I also located some stories written by students themselves stating their side on the debate on it as well. Many of the stories that I found were on the positive side supporting the implementing of community service being a requirement in the academic plan in high school. Many students had also stated in the article that they felt it should actually be introduced into school as early as Middle school. Helping the kids get a jump to make the connection in the community, thus getting them started down the right path on the road towards adulthood.
There is also a Statistical Analysis Report that was written by Kathryn Candler for the National Center for Education Statistic. Through this Analysis Reports she had written to help get the information that was needed to help on improving the Educational system was done back in 1997. She has written a great article with lots of information on it that I feel you would want to take a look at. There was something that I had also read somewhere once about a statement that Alex Haley, (the famous author who wrote the book Roots) where he was quoted as saying: “A Community is built up by the people in it.” Which I have found to be true based upon a simple fact of life. That by being involved in your community and connecting as one is a very important key factor in life. I feel that it helps you to learn how to be less self- centered and more of a team player in life. Also as you connect as one you are building it and yourself up together. Thus planting your roots in the community and having a sense of belonging somewhere.
I have learned so much from all of this research on this matter. I strongly feel that this is something we will come to appreciate in the future, now we have come to implement this into the academic school plans in the high schools across the United States. Who knows what lays in the future, hopefully to implement this in Middle school also as well. Getting a jump start on helping to build that connection between students with their community’s as well as maybe keeping more students in school. Thus really helping students want to complete their high school education and maybe even going on to college as well as we all live in the same community and as such needs to work together. Building our community and its people up and not helping to know it or them down.
Resources:
1.) Academic Requirements for high school students in the Seattle School District (2008)
http://www.seattle.edu
2.) Debates: The Positive and Negative sides to community service and students (2007)
http://www.browardschools.com
3.) Candler, K. : Statistical Analysis Report for improvement on Education System (1997
http://www.ed.gov/NCES/NHES
4.) Haley, Alex (Author of Roots, 1977): Quoted as saying; “A Community is built up by the People in it and as such work together to build it along with the people up, not down.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Essay # #-Revised of the Revised: Rough Draft
Sheri Munson-Castro
Writ 101-Winter 2008
Essay #3
Craig McKenny-Instructor
February 21st, 2008
High School Students and Community Service Hours:
This is a hot subject that has been and still as of today being talked about across the United States. And it looks like has been doing so for quite awhile. Many states have started to implement community service hours into their academic plans as a requirement for graduating from high school. Depending on what state you live in as well as the school area you are in will determine the amount of community hours you as the student will have to do. If any at all as some of the schools have not as of yet started doing this.
There have been many struggling debates over this subject during the last couple of years in Washington State. As to whether they should implement it into the academic plan for high school students. And just as of January 1st of this year it has been introduced into Seattle School District’s plan. There are many supporters on both sides of the coin on this matter. There are some of the supporters as well as some experts who feel that it’s not right for the children to have to do this without having a say in the matter at all. They have also greatly expressed in this opinion that they felt it should be something that is a choice for the students and not to be penalized if they don’t sign up for community hours and have them completed prior to their graduation.
While in the same token there are many who feel that it’s a great thing to have come along. That it helps to build confidence in them as well as connect to their community. Thus being more aware of their surroundings and the people around them. And for so many to help fill the emptiness that many have and with that void filled it will help them to go down a better path in life. As such will be able to make better choices in their life, as they will be more aware of the consequences their actions may cause.
I feel that this is so true and feel that it’s a main key factor in what happen to my daughter and her life. What has happen to her has caused her to loss five years out of her life as well as her freedom. Which I believe was due to the fact that she had no real self-esteem in herself and did not feel connected to the community. Thus, helping to cause her not to understand what the consequences from her actions could be. Or to fully feel any shame about some of her actions and the things she got involved in with others that where I belief felt as she did. That they were feeling as lost and confused as she was. Which cause them to not really be connected to their surroundings or the people in their lives or surrounding them day-to-day and in so not fully understanding that they were hurting anyone with their actions. Especially my oldest daughter who has finally open her eyes to what and who’s around her as well as recognizing that she has anger issues.
The point that I am trying to make here is this. That I have done some research into this topic after I first learned about it. Which was just after my younger children entered high school where I received a copy of the syllabus from their high school showing all the requirements needed in order to graduate. It showed that for students going to school in the Seattle School District needed to have completed 40 hours of community service prior to completing the 12th grade. Which is fully explained on the Seattle School website at: http://www.seattle.edu as well as lists what other requirements is needed to complete and graduate high school.Which in the beginning I was not really thrilled with.
I even talked to my other children about it and asked them if this was something they really wanted to do. They told me that they were okay with it and felt it help them. That it was a way to get involved with the community and help others. It made them feel special by doing this. Was a great confidence builder and help them to connect. Which I feel is something everyone needs at some time or another in his or her life.I have gone out and researched on the websites that there are out there on this topic and have discovered there are many different ones out there. And they are about split down the middle on their opinions this subject.
One of which is: http://www.browardschools.com , which has many different debates going about this very topic. Involving the positive and negative effects on students doing community service hours. Some of the articles written are by some teachers and parents as well as some students themselves regarding their thoughts on this. Many of who felt this was a great tool that helped them to develop onto the path of adulthood.There is also a Statistical Analysis Report at: http://www.ed.gov/NCES/NHES which has some great information on it written by Kathryn Candler. While this particular site where she has written her Analysis Report for the National Center for Education Statistic was done in 1997, it is a really great article and you should take a look at it.
I think this will be a great topic that will be written and discussed about for many years to come.I had also read somewhere once about a statement that Alex Haley, a famous author made: Where he was quoted as saying: “A Community is built up by the people in it.” Which I have found to be true based upon a simple fact of life. And is that by being involved in your community and connecting as one is a very important key factor in life. I feel that it helps you to learn how to be less self- centered and more of a team player in life. Also as you connect as one you are building it and yourself up together. Thus planting your roots in the community and having a sense of belonging somewhere.
I have learned so much from all of this research on this matter. I strongly feel that this is something we will come to appreciate in the future. That we have come to implement this into the academic school plans in the high schools across the United States. Who knows what lays in the future, maybe to implement this in Middle school also as well. Getting a jump start on helping to build that connection between students with their community’s as well as maybe keeping more students in school. Thus really helping students want to complete their high school education and maybe even going on to college as well.As we all live in the same community and as such needs to work together. Building our community and its people up and not helping to know it or them down.
Writ 101-Winter 2008
Essay #3
Craig McKenny-Instructor
February 21st, 2008
High School Students and Community Service Hours:
This is a hot subject that has been and still as of today being talked about across the United States. And it looks like has been doing so for quite awhile. Many states have started to implement community service hours into their academic plans as a requirement for graduating from high school. Depending on what state you live in as well as the school area you are in will determine the amount of community hours you as the student will have to do. If any at all as some of the schools have not as of yet started doing this.
There have been many struggling debates over this subject during the last couple of years in Washington State. As to whether they should implement it into the academic plan for high school students. And just as of January 1st of this year it has been introduced into Seattle School District’s plan. There are many supporters on both sides of the coin on this matter. There are some of the supporters as well as some experts who feel that it’s not right for the children to have to do this without having a say in the matter at all. They have also greatly expressed in this opinion that they felt it should be something that is a choice for the students and not to be penalized if they don’t sign up for community hours and have them completed prior to their graduation.
While in the same token there are many who feel that it’s a great thing to have come along. That it helps to build confidence in them as well as connect to their community. Thus being more aware of their surroundings and the people around them. And for so many to help fill the emptiness that many have and with that void filled it will help them to go down a better path in life. As such will be able to make better choices in their life, as they will be more aware of the consequences their actions may cause.
I feel that this is so true and feel that it’s a main key factor in what happen to my daughter and her life. What has happen to her has caused her to loss five years out of her life as well as her freedom. Which I believe was due to the fact that she had no real self-esteem in herself and did not feel connected to the community. Thus, helping to cause her not to understand what the consequences from her actions could be. Or to fully feel any shame about some of her actions and the things she got involved in with others that where I belief felt as she did. That they were feeling as lost and confused as she was. Which cause them to not really be connected to their surroundings or the people in their lives or surrounding them day-to-day and in so not fully understanding that they were hurting anyone with their actions. Especially my oldest daughter who has finally open her eyes to what and who’s around her as well as recognizing that she has anger issues.
The point that I am trying to make here is this. That I have done some research into this topic after I first learned about it. Which was just after my younger children entered high school where I received a copy of the syllabus from their high school showing all the requirements needed in order to graduate. It showed that for students going to school in the Seattle School District needed to have completed 40 hours of community service prior to completing the 12th grade. Which is fully explained on the Seattle School website at: http://www.seattle.edu as well as lists what other requirements is needed to complete and graduate high school.Which in the beginning I was not really thrilled with.
I even talked to my other children about it and asked them if this was something they really wanted to do. They told me that they were okay with it and felt it help them. That it was a way to get involved with the community and help others. It made them feel special by doing this. Was a great confidence builder and help them to connect. Which I feel is something everyone needs at some time or another in his or her life.I have gone out and researched on the websites that there are out there on this topic and have discovered there are many different ones out there. And they are about split down the middle on their opinions this subject.
One of which is: http://www.browardschools.com , which has many different debates going about this very topic. Involving the positive and negative effects on students doing community service hours. Some of the articles written are by some teachers and parents as well as some students themselves regarding their thoughts on this. Many of who felt this was a great tool that helped them to develop onto the path of adulthood.There is also a Statistical Analysis Report at: http://www.ed.gov/NCES/NHES which has some great information on it written by Kathryn Candler. While this particular site where she has written her Analysis Report for the National Center for Education Statistic was done in 1997, it is a really great article and you should take a look at it.
I think this will be a great topic that will be written and discussed about for many years to come.I had also read somewhere once about a statement that Alex Haley, a famous author made: Where he was quoted as saying: “A Community is built up by the people in it.” Which I have found to be true based upon a simple fact of life. And is that by being involved in your community and connecting as one is a very important key factor in life. I feel that it helps you to learn how to be less self- centered and more of a team player in life. Also as you connect as one you are building it and yourself up together. Thus planting your roots in the community and having a sense of belonging somewhere.
I have learned so much from all of this research on this matter. I strongly feel that this is something we will come to appreciate in the future. That we have come to implement this into the academic school plans in the high schools across the United States. Who knows what lays in the future, maybe to implement this in Middle school also as well. Getting a jump start on helping to build that connection between students with their community’s as well as maybe keeping more students in school. Thus really helping students want to complete their high school education and maybe even going on to college as well.As we all live in the same community and as such needs to work together. Building our community and its people up and not helping to know it or them down.
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