Taken from “What’s the Big Deal with Idling”
by Stephanie Hastings–President at Naperville for Clean Energy and Conservation
According to the U.S. EPA, the personal automobile is the single largest polluter. Motor vehicles are responsible for about half of the toxic air pollutant emissions in the United States.
But what about when our cars are idling?
When our vehicles idle the combustion of fuel in our engines is incomplete. Incomplete combustion causes our vehicles to create more tail-pipe pollution than when our vehicles are traveling at normal speeds. Believe it or not, idling for just 20 minutes generates the same amount of hazardous emissions as driving nearly 320 miles!
[read the full article...]
by Jennifer Lance on January 25, 2010 · 2 comments
Photo by
soupboy
Bike education increases cycling to school
Does your child’s school have a bike education program? It is absent from my children’s curriculum, but maybe it shouldn’t be given the results in of school-based cycling programs in Wales. According to Treehugger:
From bike traffic schools in Santa Cruz to bike commuter guides, a little education can go a long way in helping people overcome their fear of adopting two-wheeled traffic. (Let’s not forget the one most important tip for staying safe on a bike either!) But an innovative program in North Wales seems to be way out in front in getting people to rethink the bike. It’s even claiming a three-fold increase in the number of kids cycling to school!
[read the full article...]
I fondly remember Scholastic book orders from my childhood. It was always so exciting to get that little newsprint catalog each month and browse the affordable books. My children experience this same excitement, only problem is…their book orders suck!
What has happened to Scholastic’s quality? Do they really think parents want to buy crappy cheap Chinese toys and video games instead of quality literature?
It’s been eight years since I taught elementary school full time, and even then I noticed the children were more attracted to the fuzzy diaries and the cheap horse necklaces than the actual books in book orders. As a teacher, I liked being able to provide affordable books for families to purchase, as well as earn points redeemable for classroom books from our orders, but I hated sending home all that junk and poorly written books. [read the full article...]
by Jennifer Lance on January 13, 2010 · 4 comments
Photo by
maveric2003
Parents can request hormone-free milk at school
Parents send their children to school to help them develop socially and intellectually; however, their health may be compromised by the food served to them daily in the lunchroom. School milk is no exception. Food & Water Watch has successfully campaigned for over a year to give schools a choice to buy hormone-free or organic milk, but does your school know they don’t have to serve rBGH milk? As a parent, did you know you have the right to request hormone-free milk be served to your child?
[read the full article...]
I swear you can find a research study to support any belief, custom, practice. Spanking is no exception. I’ve always fallen under the thought that spanking, a form of physical violence used for disciplining, teaches children that hitting is an appropriate solution to social problems.
In my 14 years in education, the children that were spanked by their parents are often the ones who exhibit more behavior and socialization problems later in life. A new study does supports my experience about aggressive behavior, but it also finds that “children who are smacked before the age of six perform better at school when they are teenagers.”
The spanking study was conducted by
Marjorie Gunnoe, professor of Psychology at Calvin College, through questionnaires. The
Daily Mail reports the results:
Young children who are smacked by their parents grow up to be happier and more successful than those who have never been hit, research claims…
They are also more likely to do voluntary work and to want to go to university than those who have never been physically disciplined.
[read the full article...]
by Jennifer Lance on December 22, 2009 · 5 comments
Photo by
Monica R.
Practical food education begins at an early age.
I’ve long advocated for gardening with kids, not only to connect children closer with nature but to improve their diet. Food for Life Partnership, “a network of schools and communities across England committed to transforming food culture,” agrees. The Telegraph reports:
Emma Noble, director of the Food for Life Partnership, said: “It is possible to transform school food culture and to increase school meal take-up at the same time when young people’s views are listened to and school meal changes are supported by practical food education like learning to cook, growing food and visiting farms to learn where food actually comes from.”
Every school should have a garden; every child should be involved in growing food. Food for Life Partnership works with 1500 schools across England to “change their school dinners with freshly prepared local, seasonal and organic ingredients.” The group is getting amazing results, with participation in school meals growing from 30 to 400 children at one of the partner schools “bucking” the national trend of “surprisingly low” involvement in healthy school meals.
[read the full article...]
