Highlights: Education Edition

Brian and I were both sick all week.  That’s my excuse for lack of posts this week.  I wonder what my excuse will be next week :)

This week I got the really cool opportunity to show one of my classes Food, Inc.  Obviously, I was really excited about showing it and even more excited that it was what they’d chosen to watch (from the limited choices I’d offered).  Of course, I wasn’t surprised when they began to freak out a little bit at the information they were receiving.  To me, the information in Food, Inc is kind of old news, but its so cool to see someone hear it for the first time.

In honor of my students and their expanded awareness and the start of a new semester on Monday, this week’s highlights from my Reader are related to schools and the issues presented in the movie.

Highlights for January 17-23: Education

Tom Laskawy has a good opinion piece on Grist this week: Lessons for Schools: Sweetened Junk Shouldn’t Count as Food.  No kidding…and yet, it does!

Obviously some people agree with Laskawy, because Ontario schools will ban junk food starting in September.  Go Canada!

Several blogs have picked up on Fed Up: A School Lunch Project which follows an Illinois teacher as she buys school hot lunch every day.  If you’re not aware of what kids are being served, check it out.

NY Times has a great piece on the dangerous prevalence of snack time, especially among kids.  It is sort of ridiculous when you think about it…

Watching Food, Inc again sent me into another debate with myself over what I should really be eating.  It was really comforting to see that Holly was having a similar debate over a box of Special K bars.  And I probably would make the same choice she did.

Some of my students expressed the suspicion that there’s nothing we can do to change the food system.  I told them that I disagree and I believe the biggest way to create change is to educate our friends and families, one person at a time.  So, if you find any of these links helpful, share them!