Elements of agriculture and the food industry have been at war with healthy lifestyles for decades.
For example, on one side there is the fast-food, sugar, soda, meat and dairy industry motivated by profit. On the other side, we have the PCRM, who supports healthy lifestyle choices.
I recently read about one of the battles in this food-health war at Yahoo’s Shine Foods. I have no idea how long Yahoo will leave this link active, because Yahoo—curse their stingy RAM policies—usually deletes what they publish after a few days or weeks probably to save space so they don’t have to buy more RAM.
It seems that many Americans don’t want to see the truth when it hits them in the eyes, and political correctness spoke up once again.
Parents/adults who refuse to see the truth in front of their eyes were outraged when the Children’s Place dared to sell a going-back-to-school “kid-size tee” shirt that said “My Best Subjects” are: Shopping, Music, Dancing and Math. There was a check box in front of each item and only three were checked.
Guess which one wasn’t checked.
The truth hurt so much that “nearly 3,000 outraged comments” hit the company’s Facebook page “along with a barrage of angry tweets.” Source: Yahoo! Shine
The company, of course, pulled the tees and apologized. Cowards!
Parents—who support teachers and do what they can at home to help their children earn an education through hard work—should not be offended. In fact, those parents should have laughed.
I think anyone who was outraged was slapped in the face with guilt for not supporting teachers and education which is the real explanation for the high drop-out rate in America’s public high schools; the embarrassing functional illiteracy rate in America, and the fact that the average American child and teen talks to his or her parents less than five minutes a day while spending several hours a day dividing his or her time between shopping, hanging out with friends, watching TV, listening to music, and dancing to the stars while dreaming of fame and fortune, playing video games, social networking, texting—need I saw more.
Parents need to talk to children at least a half hour a day while eating a family dinner together in the same room where tablets, lap tops, iPads, and cell phones are banned.
What the Children’s Place should have done was leave the check-off boxes empty and let the teachers fill them out in December right before Christmas. And another box is needed for homework.
Then the children should be required to wear those checked-off tees until the next report card. We could call it the good-parenting reminder report card. What do you think?
Lloyd Lofthouse is a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran.
His latest novel is the award winning Running with the Enemy. Blamed for a crime he did not commit while serving in Vietnam, his country considers him a traitor. Ethan Card is a loyal U.S. Marine desperate to prove his innocence or he will never go home again.
And the woman he loves and wants to save was trained to kill Americans.
To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper right-hand column and click on “Sign me up!”
Why can’t the United States learn from the best education systems in the world?
The Huffington Post reported that Finland and South Korea top country rankings while the U.S. is rated average at 17th among the 40 developed countries compared. “While Finland and South Korea differ greatly in methods of teaching and learning, they hold the top spots because of a shared social belief in the importance of education and its underlying moral purpose.”
It is a fact, that most American parents do not share or practice those same social beliefs and moral purposes.
The truth is that too many American parents don’t want their children unhappy or depressed and in a merit based system only so many can be in the top 5 – 10% and the rest lose out leading to embarrassment and unhappiness. In addition, far too many American parents would rather spend money on video games for their children than on tutors to teach the children after school.
Besides most American kids would declare war and probably butcher their parents if they had to give up a lifestyle that comes with an average 10 hours a day of dividing up free time watching TV; listening to music; playing video games; texting/social networking, etc.
In Finland, parents start teaching their children to read by age 3, and children start school at age 7 already literate, and the teachers—supported by the parents—make the major decisions in the classroom and the schools.
In South Korea, the educational system is based on meritocracy—for teachers and students—and the competition to earn a slot in the top spot is ruthless because everyone cannot be number one.
Amanda Ripley writing for The Wall Street Journal said in The $4 Million Teacher that “In 2012, [South Korean] parents spent more than $17 billion on tutoring from private schools—more than the $15 billion spent by Americans on videogames that year.”
While in 2010, the New York Times reported that in the United States, the estimated size of the tutoring industry was $5 billion to $7 billion a year.
How does that compare? Well, in the U.S. there are about 50-million students attending K – 12, and that is equal to South Korea’s entire population where only 6 million are students.
Crunch the numbers and Korean parents spend an average of $3,000 annually for each child for private tutoring. But in the US, parents spend—on average—about $100 – 140 annually, but we know that many American parents spend nothing extra to support public education—not even time!
In America—sad to say—about the extent of support most parents are willing to give is to ask a question or two later in the day or early in the morning.
“Honey, how was school today?”
The child replies, “Okay,” as he furiously texts friends.
“Did you do your homework?” the parent asks.
The child makes a face because he is being interrupted while sending his texts, and then he grumpily replies, “Yea.” And 80% [or more] of the children lie about this. In fact, the child usually doesn’t even know if there was homework because he didn’t pay attention in class or forgot.
Studies show that the average American parent talks to his or her children less than five minutes a day, because in the US, it’s a lot cheaper and easier to just blame the teachers and their unions when children/teens are not showing progress in school.
The educational systems of South Korea and Finland are very different but these countries exhibit similar traits that are mostly missing in America. Did you notice what those similarities are?
Lloyd Lofthouse is a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran.
His latest novel is the award winning Running with the Enemy. Blamed for a crime he did not commit while serving in Vietnam, his country considers him a traitor. Ethan Card is a loyal U.S. Marine desperate to prove his innocence or he will never go home again.
And the woman he loves and wants to save was trained to kill Americans.
To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper right-hand column and click on “Sign me up
The self-esteem generation may be fixing the cultural train wreck caused by the average Baby Boomer parent.
But before I talk about how the Self-Esteem Generation—known as the Me, Me, Me people or the Millennials—are going to do this, I want to point out some of the damage the Baby Boomer parents have already heaped on their children.
First, what has led modern soldiers to become twice as susceptible to suicide?
When I was in the U.S. Marines in the 1960s, we lived in communal barracks—we did not have our own TV or our own rooms—and there are stark psychological differences between today’s 20-somethings and the mindsets of veterans of past generations, according to David Rudd, co-founder and scientific director of the National Center for Veteran Studies based at the University of Utah.
Today, “Entitlement has grown in younger generations and society has embraced that, giving in to the entitlement … The military has made decisions in accommodating these kinds of requests for more privacy and more seclusion by isolating (soldiers) even further.” Source: WND Health.com
Second, from The Huffington Postwe learn that “They (the Millennials) appear choosy or picky … they want work to have meaning, and they love being heard by supervisors even though they’re young and have no experience. How does one find meaning pushing a broom or working at a fast-food joint?
Their work ethic appears low … but seventy-one percent want coworkers to be like a second family, and work should be fun. What happens if work isn’t fun and there is no other job available?
Fifty percent would rather have no job, than have a job they hate, but who pays the bills if you refuse to work: daddy, mommy, uncle, aunt, grandpa, grandma?
Seventy-six percent believe “my boss could learn a lot from me.”
Sixty-five percent say “I should be mentoring older coworkers when it comes to tech and getting things done.” If you have a low work ethic, how is that going to compute?
Sixty percent agree “if I can’t find a job I like, I will try and figure out a way to create my own job.” Imagine, everyone will be the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, and once they are all rich and famous who is going to do the boring jobs that are not fun—robots?
A full 70 percent of Millennials say they need me time at work, almost twice as much as Baby Boomers.
But there may be hope on the horizon because Millennials as (married or unmarried) parents might be raising children that may not join the ranks of the Me, Me, Me Generation, because Resilience is the new buzzword these days (in young parenting circles). It permeates contemporary non-fiction within the genre of parenting books and beyond. Gone are the days of Baby Einstein and trophies just for showing up (a product of the self-esteem movement).
Now the emphasis is on learning through failure and character building. It’s on healing through the tough skin you develop after a fall. Learning through natural resistance and appropriately measured adversity are the new Mozart sonatas for developing children. But learning through trial and error can only happen if we dare to remove the bubblewrap. And hence Millennials will have to allow their children to experience risks and disappointmentthey never faced. Source: Millennials as Parents – Multigenerational Living May Build a Modern VillagebyAnne Boysen
And if Millennial parents succeed in fixing the self-esteem train wreck their parents caused, America will owe them a debt of gratitude they are sure to collect.
Lloyd Lofthouse is a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran.
His latest novel is the award winning Running with the Enemy. Blamed for a crime he did not commit while serving in Vietnam, his country considers him a traitor. Ethan Card is a loyal U.S. Marine desperate to prove his innocence or he will never go home again.
And the woman he loves and wants to save was trained to kill Americans.
To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper right-hand column and click on “Sign me up!”
This reblogged post offers some thoughts and a reality check on what a relationship and marriage should really mean. Worth reading!!!
I suggest strongly that you click the link and read it—especially if you are a twenty something starting out in life and haven’t found your significant other.
We are responsible for our own education even at a young age. One wrong or right decision in school may change your life, and this post that I have reblogged from another site is an example.
After I heard we had to dissect the body of a cat in tenth grade biology class, I requested to take a replacement course instead. Today many school districts are sensitive to this issue and students can opt out without creating a stir. But back in 1971, school administrators at my Michigan school had never heard of a college-track student requesting to skip the foundation of high school science classes—and all over a dead cat. (How and Why the cat would die wasn’t divulged). Although they were surprised by my request, they allowed me to switch over to a course called Earth Science, but the only connection it had with its name was interminable dullness like dirt.
At fifteen I saw the world through a lens like a microscope and never from the top of a cliff. My father often said, “You can’t see beyond your own nose. It’s the…
I have a suggestion: Take the KOBO pledge. I plan to.
It’s easy to support an independent bookstore because hundreds are participating in KOBO’s e-reading program. All you have to do us buy a Kobo e-reader and then click on the following link to contact an individual indie bookstore that is participating in the program close to where you live to discover the details.
For example, in California, I counted fifty-six bookstores. Then I clicked on Green Apple Books in San Francisco—I’ve been there and enjoy browsing and shopping at this indie bookstore that has a unique character of its own. In addition, Green Apple is in one of San Francisco’s three China towns—a fun place to eat and shop.
Here’s what Green Apple Books says, “We’ve partnered with Kobo to bring you eBooks and eReaders, so that…
Crazy Normal - the Classroom Exposé 