Let me know when they really let kids grow what they want to eat.
Posted on 10/03/2012 7:28:12 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
In their August/September issue, Scholastic Parent & Child Magazine selected Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School as one of the “25 Coolest Schools in America.”
King Middle School won the honor for its nonprocessed, organic and high-quality lunch menus cooked with many ingredients from the school’s own garden, in which students raise and harvest healthy vegetables.
The school’s unique healthy food curriculum began when Chez Panisse owner and activist Alice Waters founded the Edible Schoolyard project in 1995.
The Edible Schoolyard program has also had a positive psychological impact on students, school administrators said.
“There has not been formal research, but many anecdotes affirm that student behavior has greatly improved, as did the sense of community among students,” said eighth grade counselor at King Middle School Mercedes Sanders.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycal.org ...
No mention of test scores or whether any of the kids are learning to read, write, add or subtract.
The jokes write themselves.
Scholastic Parent & Child Magazine? More of the same 'educators' who churn out illiterate graduates every year while demanding more cash.
It's like asking the elves what they think of Santa Claus & Christmas.
This is not surprising. Student behavior would improve with nearly any sort of organizad, productive endeavor. Kids are badly behaved because their lives seem without purpose. If you are working in a team to grow vegetables, or to do anything else which has a definite, measurable goal, then you’ll have to get your act together.
True story - this month’s issue includes the article “This month’s issue includes an article “What Maggie Gyllenhaal Really Thinks About Education in America.”
It’s the burning question we’re all asking, isn’t it?
>>There has not been formal research, but many anecdotes affirm that...<<
Anecdotes are all but useless. This is agenda-driven crapola. Mayve they need to put cameras on the trash cans to see if the kids are really eating this stuff. Or, God forbid, ask the kids themselves.
Actually, if this is done right, it could be a good program....say if the kids doing the gardening are keeping their grades up. I’m thinking that their grades should all be above a C before they can participate. If that were the case, I would be all far it.
Why does that make me envision kids so hungry they are eating the swing set?
“cool”??
As determined by who? Larry Flynt?
I agree this ‘could’ be a good indicator, but yes it really needs to be cross-referenced with their grades, and also the COST of the program. If costs went down, then perfect. Also, can kids/parents opt-out.
That’s right...
To quote that sage of culture, Cher...
“ I’d rather DIE than not be cool....”
Let me know when they really let kids grow what they want to eat.
“cool”??
As determined by who? Larry Flynt?”
That’s kind of what I was tinking, what one person considers cool another may not.
Anyway, as far as I’m concerned, birkenstock sandals are never cool!
All the public schools near us have gardens (So. Cal.). It was a new thing about 15 years ago. A family friend did her masters thesis on it. She is a 4-H and FFA kind of person, so her own kids knew all about gardening, but in the public school where she taught, the low income, apartment dwelling kids had never gotten their hands into soil before. Some had no idea how to hold a spade or shovel dirt. Just getting their focus and eye-hand coordination and small and large motor skills going was an improvement for these students.
Shouldn’t these kids have been learning these kinds of life skills at home? Sure. But in a couple of hours a week at school, at least they got caught up a little bit, and had a way to tie book biology together with practical biology.
Also, in our district anyway, the garden supplies and tools are PTA and parent donations.
Complete unnecessary and irrelevant. Among their dropouts, which number 97%, 99% are consistent democrat voters. The remaining 1% is expected to be indicted for crimes against the 99%.
By this standard, the schools a major success. Take that, homeschoolers!
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