California schoolkids who want to raise money for field trips and extracurricular activities will have to think of something other than holding a bake sale. Cookies, cupcakes, pizza and other goodies exceed the fat, sugar and caloric limits set by the state’s legislature for foods sold on campus, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Parents and teachers are not too happy about it, especially in these tight budgetary times.
Bake sales are one of the quickest and easiest ways for schools to raise money,” said Wendy Morrison, president of the Montclair Elementary School Parent-Teacher Association in Oakland. “To limit this option has a significant impact on fundraising. And as a parent, it should really be my choice if I want to buy my child a cookie or slice of pizza after school.”
State guidelines passed in 2005 limit the calories, fat and sugar content of snacks sold in California schools. Each district is responsible for enforcing the new law, and some have hired “wellness coordinators” to ensure that schools are in compliance, the Chronicle reports. State Department of Education officials make periodic visits to schools and will put schools on notice if illegal treats are discovered.
Of course, not every school district is upset. In Berkeley (naturally) candy and baked goods were “banned by the district four years ago. Instead of peppermint candies on a school secretary’s desk, kids can reach for cashews and peanuts,” the paper notes. “A district-issued cookbook of healthy alternatives to brownies and cupcakes, such as vegan cookies and fruit and granola concoctions, is available to parents.” Yum!
Good to know California has solved all their other problems and can finally turn their attention to those insidious bake sales.
Despite an increase in achievement on standardized tests, the brainpower of Britain’s brightest teenagers has deteriorated dramatically over the past generation, according to a new study in the British Journal of Educational Psychology.
Researchers at King’s College London compared the performance of 800 bright 13 and 14-year-olds on tests of higher order thinking skills with similar tests carried out three decades ago. The cognitive abilities of today’s brightest 14-year-olds were found to be the same as 12-year-olds in 1976. Professor Michael Shayer, who led the study, believes the decline in brainpower is linked to over-testing in school and changes in children’s leisure activities, according to London’s Daily Mail.
The advent of multi-channel TV has encouraged passive viewing while computer games, particularly for boys, are feared to have supplanted time spent playing with tools, gadgets and other mechanisms. Professor Shayer warned that without the development of higher-order thinking skills, the future supply of scientists will be compromised.
Shayer also ascribes the brainpower slump to over-testing. “The moment you introduce targets,” Shayer says, ”people will find the most economical strategies to achieve them. In the case of education, I’m sure this has had an effect on driving schools away from developing higher levels of understanding.”
Listen to a BBC interview with Professor Shayer here.
This teacher has an amusing twist on the idea of paying students for attendance and test scores: Fine students who waste instructional time.
A few weeks ago we wondered about the research behind the claims made by Richard Louv, author of the best-seller The Last Child in the Woods, who links lack of contact with nature to obesity, ADD, depression and diminished “executive function.” Louv responds in the comments section here.
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