Sugar Loading At Recess - Eunice Sunday News Commentary Published Aug 24 2014

No matter where your child goes to public school these days, there are all kinds of restrictions about what they can eat during the day.

Typically, students can not bring their own canned or bottled beverages.  But, they can bring their own sandwiches or packed lunches. They can not buy bottled water in the lunch room. If they are thirsty, they must sip from the school fountain before they sit down with their peers.

Classic lunch favorites, such as green beans dripping in bacon fat, or nachos with generous helpings of cheese and sour cream disappeared from school lunches years ago.  Tacos and burgers are now made according to strict dietary guidelines - both are dry and crumbly as if our school children were already diagnosed as cardiac patients.

Last time I taught in New Orleans, fresh vegetables were not served to students.  One advantage of teaching in rural schools is that we usually have real vegetables on our menu every day. But, according to new guidelines, fresh salads will typically consist of a few lettuce leaves and a slice of tomato.  A fruit serving typically consists of a condiment cup filled with a few slices of orange or apple.

I haven't seen bacon bits in my school lunch vegetables in a decade.  Last year, sugar content in flavored milk and juice was reduced so much, I wondered if I should bring my own sweetner to the table.

Since the new school fitness craze took effect, homemade cinnamon rolls have been reduced to two-bite portions.  Federal USDA lunch guidelines suggest lunch chicken, beef, pork,and shrimp portions be reduced to one ounce servings - another two or three bite portion.

Pasta and bread portions were reduced so much that adults and kids alike question whether they are getting a healthy lunch or a quick snack in the cafeteria, because they are still hungry after eating their stinty Weight Watchers portions.

Last but not least, school lunch desserts have become a thing of the past. Once in a while graham crackers or a ginger snap cookie will appear at the end of the food line, right before we charge our bird food lunches to our school lunch accounts.  But, for the most part, fruit doubles as a dessert.

It is quite an understatement to say that school lunches have changed drastically these past few years.  Across these United States you can read many reports about disatisfaction with school lunches, because they are so  utterly lacking in serious calorie content -- however more nutritious they might be.

At afternoon recess, students stand in long lines to buy candy, sugar sodas, and other junk food, because they are still feeling the pangs of hunger.

Most public schools benefit from this irony, because recess junk food sales produce huge profits for cash-strapped school budgets. But obviously, the amount of candy and soda cosumed through school fundraising canteens essentailly cancels out any health benefit sought by mandating strict caloric intake in the school cafeteria.

If America is real in its quest to reduce medical costs by reducing childhood obesity, I don't think it will ever be enough to impose starvation diets in the lunch room.

A better option would be to provide enough protein, compex starch, and vegetables in our school lunches to fill our kids' tummies. At the same time, we would need to provide our schools with enough funding to cover the cost of building maintenance, sports programs, enrichment activities, etc.Policies to promote healthy eating habits in our children deserve praise, no question. 

Children shouldn't have to buy cokes and sugary snacks in order to fix wiring or repair buildings. Because they will eventually pay a huge personal price when their diets result in diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Of course, We will pay that price, too, in skyrocketing medical and disability costs. 

We may need to look beyond the lunch room to the recess sugar fix in order to cure what ails many of our kids: their access to junk food that calms their food cravings but does nothing to build healthy bodies or strong minds.

How does that saying go, "An ounce of prevention is worth of pound of cure?"  When it comes to childhood obesity, we may need to look beyond the lunch room to the recess candy stand to get to the heart of prevention.

Copyrighted August 20, 2014

Hazing Does Not Build Great Teams -- Published in Sunday Eunice News on August 17, 2014

You may have seen the Ohio State University Band animate half- time with their amazing Michael Jackson moonwalk. It is hard to imagine that this extraordinary band is under investigation for serious hazing activities, but, they are.

This time of year, bands, spirit clubs and sports teams are practicing hard and doing all kinds of activities to build team spirit. In college, freshmen are shopping around for clubs and fraternities for social support. All organizations have initiation rites to welcome new members and help them feel like they fully belong. These rites should be public, safe, and designed to build positive social relationships.

Too many organizations still confuse welcoming initiation rites with hazing, which is why we are still reading about il- legal hazing practices in high schools and colleges across the U.S.A.

What’s the difference? If an initiation rite is safe, no one will be harmed physically, emotionally, or socially. The persons inducted to a group will feel that they belong, that they have a positive role in the group, and that their time spent with the group can blossom into lifetime friendships.

Hazing causes physical or psychological harm. In Louisiana, hazing is illegal, thank goodness. Those who haze or permit hazing can be fined and/or imprisoned for 10-30 days if convicted. Students who haze can be expelled from school.

Sadly, our most popular leaders and students can be caught up in hazing incidents. Students who want desperately to belong will go along with hazing if they think they will be accepted by their peers.

Teachers, coaches, band directors have tolerated the practice, or actively encouraged hazing in the misguided belief that hazing is a form of discipline or character-building. But, hazing does not build strong character. Hazing creates an abusive atmosphere of meanness and intimidation.

Some of us are old enough to remember relatives who served in the military during its worse days – the Vietnam era, when soldiers were physically abused and psychologically demeaned. After that war, there was a severe leadership crisis. But, the Army worked hard to change its culture for the better.

I was lucky to attend Officer Candidate School at “Fort Benning’s School for Boys” in the early 1980's – when the military worked hard to create a positive training culture – welcoming of diversity, welcoming of men and women who brought all kinds of skills and talent to their lives as soldiers.

Of course, soldiers were rated for their character traits, then, as now. We studied all kinds of reflections from leaders who kept their soldiers together in battle. I learned my best leadership lessons there. The first was how to correct behavior in my subordinates. We were required not only to memorize, but to live up to Schofield’s Definition of Discipline:

The discipline which makes the soldiers of a free country reliable in battle is not to be gained by harsh or tyrannical treatment. On the contrary, such treatment is far more likely to destroy than to make an army. It is possible to impart instructions and to give commands in such a manner and in such a tone of voice as to inspire in the soldier no feeling but and intense desire to obey, while the opposite manner and tone of voice cannot fail to excite strong resentment and a desire to disobey. The one mode or other of dealing with subordinates springs from a corresponding spirit in the breast of the commander. He who feels the respect which is due others cannot fail to inspire in them regard for himself; while he who feels, and hence manifests, disrespect toward other, especially his inferiors, cannot fail to inspire hatred against himself.

There’s no question in my mind that those teachers and coaches who have tolerated hazing in the past had very good, but very misguided intentions. They wanted to build discipline in their organization. But in fact, if discipline happened, it was in spite of the hazing.

As a parent, let your child know that under no circumstances should they participate in or be victim to any kind of hazing. Hazing is not welcoming. It is not good discipline. Hazing is a crime, not worthy of any sport or extracurricular activity in your child’s life. No matter how much prestige that group has in the moment, at some point, their hazing culture will be exposed.

Hopefully, before serious damage is done.

Begin Anew with Self-Confidence! - Sunday Eunice News Commentary published August 10, 2014

The new school year is upon us! We've stuffed our backpacks and classrooms with supplies and gadgets. We bought new clothes, new shoes, new accessories to mark our new beginning.  We are gradually adjusting our bed and wake-up times to conform to the demands of our school bus schedules. We've stopped by the office to pick up our schedules, pay fees, drop money in the school lunch account.

What's left?  Attitude adjustment.  Did we spend enough time this summer reflecting on our school experiences to get rid of our tired negative attitudes that may have crept up on us sometime between prom night and the last day of school?

Believe it or not, student, parent, teacher and community attitudes towards learning are highly predictive of student success.

When children have high “self-efficacy” beliefs, that is, the belief that they can accomplish academic tasks, they tend to perform much better in school.  They have a clear view of what their strengths and weaknesses are, and they know what they have to do each day to improve their skills and knowledge.

Children who have confidence in their self-efficacy can persist and work hard to solve school problems.   They have academic “resilience,” the ability to hang in there when the going gets tough.

There have been many studies that show that parents and teachers need to have  high self-efficacy ratings, too, for themselves and for their children if their children are to believe that they are strong learners.

When parents or teachers start with the premise “this child can't learn this,” the child is less likely to learn what is considered within their grasp by education experts.   Hence, it is important to foster positive “self-efficacy” beliefs in ourselves as well as our children and our students.

How do we do this?  For one, it is very important that materials taught are age and developmentally appropriate.  There's no sense in thrusting a third grader into a college level romantic literature class and telling them, “they can do it,” because the material is too advanced for their stage of life. They would not fail, but, they would believe they failed.  Teaching materials that are timely to a child's development is key to instilling self-efficacy in each child.

Students must also be taught how to figure out their own mistakes, how to build knowledge by looking for strategies and solutions if they discover they were off-base.  To do this, we must teach them to be confident in their study habits, persistent in their goal of understanding, and joyful that they have this God-given ability to learn new things every day.

Why bring this up at the start of the year?  I recently attended a celebration at my elementary school. A group of us talked about old times (40-50 years ago) as if we were still living in that era, when nuns slapped the wrists of naughty students, and publicly berated students for missing answers in ways that were so cruel, my classmates still felt the sting when we gathered on that reunion

Many of my peers had parents and teachers who told them over and over “you are not college material.”   They did not go to college.  My own parents were oddly different, expecting us to do our school work, and to prove our smarts by reading big books and writing from our imagination.  “You can do anything you put your mind to,” was their mantra whenever we were discouraged about our homework or our standing at school.

When kids come to school today,  they need to know that they ARE capable of learning, and that they will gain much by believing in their own hard work in the classroom and at the homework table.  They need to know that making mistakes is a huge part of learning.  Children should be encouraged to make many mistakes, and taught how to fix their own mistakes.

No question, the start of the school year is the best time for us to renew our partnership as parents, teachers, and the community responsible for educating all our children.  As we do so, let's promise each other to teach our children self-efficacy, and help them, thereby, to develop a deep and lasting love of learning.

Author's note: Last week I said Louisiana pays schools based on a single head count day.  In fact, the state bases it's payment on three head-count days, but the principle and the outcomes are the same: lower attendance rates and lower school performance scores.

Copyright August 6, 2014

Time to Change School Head Count: My Aug 3, 2014 Commentary in Sunday Eunice News

     Average daily attendance in Louisiana public schools is lower than it should be. This is not a good thing. Poor school attendance hurts not only the child who misses too much instruction -- it hurts the whole school.

     How?  When children don’t come to school, teachers must go back and re-teach significant chunks of material – making it hard for those who do come to school every day to learn as much as they should.

True, children who miss too many days receive makeup instruction. It is also true that “recovery instruction time” costs our school extra money. Recovery instruction time rarely brings a child with chronic absenteeism up to “grade level expectations.”

     There’s no substitute for showing up and participating in class when it comes to being successful on tests. But, showing up is also a basic work skill that must be learned and practiced if our youth are to be properly prepared for the adult world of work.

     Louisiana state laws seem harsh when it comes to punishing parents who allow their children to stay home too often without valid excuses. Some school districts in Louisiana use the courts as a remedy, because it is the only tool available at this time to pressure parents to send their children to school once absenteeism has gotten out of hand. Parents can be fined or jailed for allowing their children to be chronically absent without valid excuses.

     But, we need alternative strategies to solve the problem of chronic school absenteeism -- strategies that directly focus on interventions that will promote daily student attendance and prevent court actions later on.

     Teachers should not be blamed when children fail to come to school, so, it seems fair that the failing grades of chronically absent students are not counted against them in their teacher evaluations.

     But, when chronic absentee test scores are not counted in teacher evaluations, the problem of chronic absenteeism is temporarily avoided, not solved. A school’s performance score will be lower when there is chronic absenteeism because the students who don’t come to school naturally score lower on state tests. Until we fix our state evaluation system, all of our students –those who come to school and those who don’t are included in our school performance score.  Our school reputation is hurt by those who don’t come to school.

     How do we solve this problem of excessive student absenteeism?  For one thing, we need to identify this root cause of truancy in Louisiana that is often ignored.

     Presently, school attendance rates are lower in Louisiana because there are no immediate and direct consequences for any school or school district that tolerates high rates of truancy. Lower school performance scores happen so late in the education cycle that they are as useful as beating a dead horse.

     School districts must be incentivized to address the problem of chronic absenteeism as early as possible so that interventions focus on correcting absenteeism before it gets out of hand.

     Louisiana schools are funded annually for every student who is enrolled on a particular day in October. Whether or not a child comes to school for the remainder of the year, if that child is enrolled in the school on the designated head count day in October, the school is paid in full for the year for that child.

     The same thing happens for online public schools. K-12, INC and other “approved” online schools receive annualized payments whether or not they teach students for a full year.  We would be better off ensuring that educational services were actually delivered before sending our annual state tax dollars to any K-12 teaching institution.

     Other states tackled their chronic low attendance problems by changing school payment formulae from a single head count day once per year to what is called “Average Daily Membership,” or ADM.

     With the ADM model, school districts receive funds for the days when students actually attend classes throughout the year, rather than for just one day, annual head count day.

     It is too easy for busy administrators to defer action when a student is chronically absent in a funding system that pays the district in full using the annual headcount method. The ADM model would ensure that school administrators and school board members take the issue of chronic absenteeism seriously by managing the daily attendance of all students enrolled in their schools on a daily basis – not waiting to react until a child’s absenteeism is out of control.

     Money talks in our society. But, money should also walk -- especially when school districts, charter schools, and online K-12 alternative schools cannot demonstrate they did everything in their power to work with parents to get their children to school every day as the law requires.

Copyright July 30, 2014