Here is what is happening in China. It’s and interesting read:

From China View

BEIJING, Jan. 14 — Winter vacation is coming next week, yet Shen Yiqian is upset. For her, the month-long winter break means more study, no fun. Her mother has already set up a demanding schedule: English, piano and painting lessons.

Chinese kids are sorely tested. All this extra schooling aims at making the seven-year-old more competitive in a demanding, fast-paced society.

For her winter-break studies Shen will be rewarded with a Japanese cartoon TV drama on DVD and a short trip to scenic Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.

“I have no choice,” says her mother Wu Lihua, an accountant. “People around me have all made detailed and early plans for their children. I just can’t let my daughter lose at the starting line.”

It’s fair enough to want to give your child an edge. Children of today like Shen won’t confront basic living problems in their future. But their parents can pay scant attention to their psychological needs for rest, fun and a largely worry-free childhood.

Parents are pushing their children too hard to excel academically at very early ages, says Professor Yang Xiong, director of the Institute of Youth and Juveniles with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

“Parents, many of whom are white-collar workers with good educational backgrounds, place excessive expectations on their children,” he says.

“Some kids are even deprived of a happy childhood since they are trained and supposed to be ‘geniuses.’ Yet a wise approach is to let children be children.”

He warns that though kids today, overwhelmingly in one-child families, are smarter or more knowledgeable than those in the past, they are also facing new problems such as lack of sleep and free time, anxiety over performance and pleasing their parents and even retrogression in their daily-life abilities and skills.

“It’s sad that some primary-school students still don’t know how to tie their shoes or take a bath on their own,” says Yang. Because of all the attention focused on them, he says, “they are also likely to become selfish and self-centered.”

Education these days is overwhelmingly exam-oriented. “Teaching for examination and learning for examination” has been the motto for years, and it’s difficult to change the mindset. The system is much criticized for turning out good test-takers but relatively few well-rounded students who are curious, inquiring and who take the initiative. Passive, not active learners.

The concept of “quality-oriented education” or quality education has been around since the 1980s and Chinese educators have tried to gradually put it into practice since the 1990s, encouraging students to think for themselves and be creative.

Turning out well-rounded, physically and emotionally healthy people is a slow process. Parents push their children to score high, and teachers still focus on the tests.

‘Quality education’

The exam score based on academics is still the only standard method to select students for college admission. Though a university degree no longer guarantees a good job and high salary, it can help, and parents still want to send their children to prestigious colleges for a bright future.

To fully embrace “quality education” in a rat-race era, however, means a new mindset and probably lower test scores.

In principle, quality education covers five aspects: academics, arts and music, moral and value education, physical education and physical labor. The physical labor part is dropped nowadays, and academics is emphasized.

Until that changes, extreme pressure, stress, distress and duress are a matter of course.

Quality education remains a goal, and children’s television can help achieve it through learning and entertainment. It can also promote healthy intellectual, emotional and physical growth.

Children’s TV in China dates back to the late 1950s. But teaching based on quality education will be incorporated into the 2008 programming by Haha TV, the dedicated children’s channel in Shanghai.

Haha TV, formerly a series of TV programs, became a separate channel as of this month. It targets children and teens 14 years old and younger.

Cong Haiying, an official from Shanghai Education Commission, says this is the first time some condensed content and requirements of quality education have been televised in a systematic and easy-to-understand way.

Yang Wenyan, channel director and veteran TV producer, describes today’s children, mostly from single-child families, as curious, emotional and capricious. She also sees depression and dissatisfaction.

“The fact is that they are getting too much homework and are asked to compete at the very beginning,” she says. “They have little chance to interact with society or nature.”

It seems that parents have only one mantra for their children: You must win. That pushes Yang and her team to promote healthy, meaningful learning and child development. It can also help parents understand children’s brain development and cognitive growth, and why enormous work loads and demands can be counterproductive.

“The primitive form of children’s TV like singing and dancing shows will be replaced by a format with more scientific planning,” says Yang. Most programs are developed with experts and psychologists from the Shanghai Education Commission and East China Normal University. Scientific research on children’s physical, neurological and emotional development goes into the planning.

“Haha Games” offers funny physical games that take into account children’s physical shape and abilities. The program’s “happy sports” spirit conforms to local teaching guidelines for physical education.

Children’s TV

Parents too can learn from “Happy Scampering” about the cognitive growth and development of children through age seven. Specialists in preschool education are program advisers.

Programs will also encourage children to become readers and get interested in traditional Chinese festivals and customs.

“This is my favorite show,” says 12-year-old Chen Qinian of “Haha Games.” “My classmates and I seldom miss it. It has taught us how to play football and basketball. That is so cool.”

Program highlights include a children’s drama about campus life titled “Together We Bond” and a pantomime about building healthy parent-child relationships.

The four-month “Happy Art” teaching program by Norwegian cartoonist Oistein Kristiansen helps children from three to 12 years old express themselves and build constructive imagination through doodling, cartoon drawing, painting, paper craft and other expressions.

“We will apply bright and mild colors in the studio to help children’s eyesight,” says channel director Yang. “There will be no sharp edges of furniture on the sets and our camera gets down to the child’s height to make them comfortable.”

The channel will also sponsor a national doodling contest, a children’s charity dinner and summer camps for kids to get to know about nature and Chinese society and culture.

If you’ve ever watched a group of children play, interact or just plain enjoy something together, it’s easy to see the different personalities blossoming. Right from the beginning children are either contributers or collectors. They either give information sharing what they know, bringing up questions that the whole group can learn from, or they collect what is being given out by the teacher and use it privately as if they are the only child there.

This week during circle time little boy named David asked a marvelous question: How can an igloo be air tight if the blocks are square? Brilliant question for a six year old. Our first grade teacher was delighted, and Miss Kelly promptly did a math project that corresponded to the question. The children built with three kinds of blocks – rectangular blocks from a Jinga set, square old fashioned blocks from an old alphabet set, and trapezoid blocks from a set meant to build a coliseum. They learned about building, about blocks, about life and mostly about sharing ideas. They quickly saw the difference.

But what if David had kept that question to himself? What if David refused to share? What if David was a collector instead of a contributor? What makes one child a giver and another a taker?

The question must always return to the home because it is from the home that children learn the most about being in the world. The parent is the primary educator of the child. So who are David’s parents? David is lucky because his parents are outgoing, loving, positive people; they share with purpose and energy, and that makes all the difference.

In every early childhood place, there will be children who always pick up their toys, who want to help, who offer a smile, an extra chair at the table to someone out in the emotional cold. They offer ideas, questions, and points of view politely and in a loving manner. These children have lots of friends, are respected by their community, and can tackle jobs and work with blossoming talents.

But not all children are like this. Some children are simply takers. They take from the community all the time and effort they can, and they return very little. They talk about themselves exclusively as if they are the only children in the room. They make it known what they want as if no one else matters. They interrupt with what is important to them as if no one else has ideas or anything of value to share. They make demands on the group for time and more time, and they make their presence known as well, but it’s all centered around them and it’s always about what they didn’t get. They never ask questions much less listen to the answer. These children have few friends and can never seem to accomplish anything. They rarely contribute to the group. Their talents are hovering around tending the basics – self care, personal habits, what they did and what they didn’t do. It’s as if they can’t pull away from self to enter the warmer atmosphere of the giving children. There is a natural block and the question is why. It too must return to the parents, because this is what they learned at home.

The question parents should ask is: what am I teaching my child by my own example. Am I teaching my child how to give or take? Am I teaching my child to share his thoughts and work, or am I teaching him to collect without even thinking of the community around them? A good indicator is how many friends your child mentions in an average week, because through an awareness of friendship do people begin to open up and share.

Let’s look at communication skills to see what could be the culprit. There are three main levels of conversation or communication, and children glean this at home. They listen to what their parents talk about and they mimic this in school. The least important is the discussion about things like cars, houses, clothes, toys, TVs, and possessions in general. Quite frankly, a discussion about things is dull. You can make that even duller by talking exclusively about “my things.” When my things dominate a conversation in school, there is only one thing to do with it: climb to the top of the mountain of belongings, and this usually takes an ugly turn. Children will compete for who has what, and it separates friends and causes children to fight.

The middle level of discussion is about people. Discussing people can easily become gossip, and that’s never a good thing. Conversation about people should be informative and interesting and complimentary. Children are listening! People talk should give the listener a lift not a descent into tales out of school. Gossip breeds hatred not love, and children who busy-body, gossip or tattle about other children have also listened to what their parents talk about. Tearing apart another person who is not present to defend themselves is not an example for children to hear at all. It breeds contempt and we should not be teaching children to have contempt for one another.

At the same time, a conversation deadens instantly when the activities or advice of someone outside the immediate discussion is constantly brought in. “My mother says; well my sister always; well my aunt does it this way; well Jane Smith down the street always…” It’s always a show stopper because how does anyone compete with the ghostly mother, sister, aunt, or Jane down the street? Why is what we are saying not good enough that some anonymous voice must be brought into the conversation? This is confusing to adults, and much more confusing to children. At the same time, older people have the bad habit of contributing “When I was young,” and the truth is it’s competitive, and will chase younger less experienced women from a conversation so fast, it’s like someone blew the take cover whistle!

The highest form of discussion includes ideas. We spend our school youth trying to understand the ideas of parents, teachers, experts, thinkers, and famous people. When we are adults, we can apply those ideas to our life. If they are good ideas, they will give us impetus to move in one direction or another. Children need ideas that they can understand. Ideas are the least spoken of in discussions because they are the hardest to speak about. Many people are not concerned with ideas because they spend most of their lives concerned about things and who is doing what to whom, and that’s a shame because ideas are the fun part of life.

David’s question was really a lead into an idea about shapes, about how it works, about people and how they live, how they accomplish the great feat of building an igloo and keeping it habitable. David is six. David asks all kinds of questions because he is thinking and wondering. David does not gossip, and David does not list his toys, David shares and is thoughtful.

Ideas are about life, about behavior, about achievement, about understanding. Ideas pull collectors into the contributers corner. Ideas lift the human heart out of the mundane and the unimportant and pushes the mind to work, to achieve, to answers and solve problems. Ideas leave possessions and gossip in the dust where they belong.

Think about what you showed your child today by your own conversation. If you don’t know how to change lesser habits, try asking your child, “What do you think of ….” It can be anything. Your child will need to practice too. It’s a family effort. Enjoy it.

Robynn sent this. It’s really fun reading.

BOSTON – A 50-ton bowhead whale caught off the Alaskan coast last month had a weapon fragment embedded in its neck that showed it survived a similar hunt — more than a century ago.

Embedded deep under its blubber was a 3½-inch arrow-shaped projectile that has given researchers insight into the whale’s age, estimated between 115 and 130 years old.

“No other finding has been this precise,” said John Bockstoce, an adjunct curator of the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Calculating a whale’s age can be difficult, and is usually gauged by amino acids in the eye lenses. It’s rare to find one that has lived more than a century, but experts say the oldest were close to 200 years old.

The whale had a bomb lance fragment lodged a bone between its neck and shoulder blade. The fragment was likely manufactured in New Bedford, on the southeast coast of Massachusetts, a major whaling center at that time, Bockstoce said.

It was probably shot at the whale from a heavy shoulder gun around 1890. The small metal cylinder was filled with explosives fitted with a time-delay fuse so it would explode seconds after it was shot into the whale. The bomb lance was meant to kill the whale immediately and prevent it from escaping.

The device exploded and probably injured the whale, Bockstoce said.

“It probably hurt the whale, or annoyed him, but it hit him in a non-lethal place,” he said. “He couldn’t have been that bothered if he lived for another 100 years.”

The whale harkens back to far different era. If 130 years old, it would have been born in 1877, the year Rutherford B. Hayes was sworn in as president, when federal Reconstruction troops withdrew from the South and when Thomas Edison unveiled his newest invention, the phonograph.

The 49-foot male whale died when it was shot with a similar projectile last month, and the older device was found buried beneath its blubber as hunters carved it with a chain saw for harvesting.

“It’s unusual to find old things like that in whales, and I knew immediately that it was quite old by its shape,” said Craig George, a wildlife biologist for the North Slope Borough Department of Wildlife Management, who was called down to the site soon after it was found.

The revelation led George to return to a similar piece found in a whale hunted near St. Lawrence Island in 1980, which he sent to Bockstoce to compare.

“We didn’t make anything of it at the time, and no one had any idea about their lifespan, or speculated that a bowhead could be that old,” George said.

Bockstoce said he was impressed by notches carved into the head of the arrow used in the 19th century hunt, a traditional way for the Alaskan hunters to indicate ownership of the whale.

Whaling has always been a prominent source of food for Alaskans, and is monitored by the International Whaling Commission. A hunting quota for the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission was recently renewed, allowing 255 whales to be harvested by 10 Alaskan villages over five years.

After it is analyzed, the fragment will be displayed at the Inupiat Heritage Center in Barrow, Alaska.

Here is an update from the Indiana Association for the Education of Young Children. These are Bill History Reports concerning Schools. They may or may not be of interest to all, but they do have some interesting information.

HB1092 School starting and ending dates. (Ruppel)
Digest
Prohibits public schools and accredited nonpublic schools frombeginning student instructional days for the school year before August 17 of a year
and from extending the school year beyond June 7 of the following year, beginning with the 2009-2010 school year.
Date Action
01/08/2008 H: Author Added William ‘Bill’ J. Ruppel
01/08/2008 H: Co Author Added Robert J. Bischoff
01/08/2008 H: 1st Reading Assigned Education

HB1184 Scholarships for teachers. (V. Smith)
Digest
Establishes the call me mister scholarship program and fund: (1) to encourage and promote qualified African American male teachers to pursue a career in teaching in accredited schools in Indiana; (2) to enhance the number of individuals who may serve as role models for minority students
in Indiana; and (3) to rectify the shortage of African American male teachers teaching in accredited schools in Indiana. Requires the state student assistance commission to administer the fund. Makes an appropriation.
Date Action
01/10/2008 H: Author Added Vernon G. Smith
01/10/2008 H: Co Author Added William A. Crawford
01/10/2008 H: 1st Reading Assigned Education
01/16/2008 H: Committee Sched 8:30 AM Room 156C Education
01/17/2008 H: Committee Action Pass Amend(10-0) Education
01/17/2008 H: Co Author Added Robert W. Behning
01/17/2008 H: Co Author Added Gregory W. Porter

SB0002 School board elections at general election time. (Becker, Lubbers, Merritt)
Digest
Requires that school board members selected by election must be elected at general elections. Repeals obsolete statutes.
Date Action
01/08/2008 S: Author Added Vaneta Becker
01/08/2008 S: Author Added Teresa S. Lubbers
01/08/2008 S: Author Added James W. Merritt, Jr.
01/08/2008 S: Co Author Added Dennis K. Kruse
01/08/2008 S: Co Author Added Mike Delph
01/08/2008 S: Co Author Added Edward E. Charbonneau
01/08/2008 S: 1st Reading AssignedLocal Government and Elections
01/16/2008 S: Committee Action Pass(6-4) Local Government and Elections
01/17/2008 S: Committee Report do pass, adopted

SB0038 School year. (R. Meeks)
Digest
Allows student instructional days for public schools and nonpublic schools that have voluntarily become accredited (excluding year-round
schools) to begin after September 1 of a year and end before June 1 of the following year.
Date Action
01/08/2008 S: Author Added Robert L. Meeks
01/08/2008 S: 1st Reading Assigned Education and Career Development

SB0069 Parental leave for school conferences. (Errington)
Digest
Requires the employer of a parent to provide paid leave to the parent for school conferences when the conferences cannot be scheduled during the
employee’s nonworking hours. Provides for enforcement by the commissioner of labor.
Date Action
01/08/2008 S: Author Added Sue Errington
01/08/2008 S: 1st Reading Assigned Pensions and Labor

SB0080 Length of school year. (Ford)
Digest
Extends the minimum number of student instructional days from 180 days to 200 days by the 2011-2012 school year. Makes corresponding
changes to a provision concerning the failure to conduct a minimum number of student instructional days. Provides for the continuation of
collective bargaining agreements that specify a lower number of student instructional days than required under the amended statute.
Date Action
01/08/2008 S: Author Added David C. Ford
01/08/2008 S: 1st Reading Assigned Education and Career Development
01/17/2008 S: 2nd Author Added Teresa S. Lubbers

SB0234 Public school transfers. (Kenley)
Digest
Establishes a public school transfer program that allows the parent of a student to request a transfer for the student to enroll in: (1) a different public school in the student’s base school corporation; or (2) a public school in a different school corporation. Provides an allocation of public funds for transfer students between the base school corporation and the receiving school corporation, and provides that a transferring student’s
parent is responsible for transportation and any additional costs. Allows school corporations to enter into an interlocal agreement under which students whose legal settlement is in one school corporation may attend school in the other school corporation. Allows a student who has legal settlement in one school corporation and whose parent owns property for which the parent pays property tax in another school corporation to
attend school in the latter school corporation without transfer tuition being charged. Requires a school corporation to provide notice to parents concerning the publication of the school corporation’s annual performance report and concerning the right of students to transfer out of schools
that fail to perform adequately.
Date Action
01/08/2008 S: Author Added Howard “Luke” Kenley
01/08/2008 S: 1st Reading Assigned Education and Career Development

SB0248 Scholarship granting organization tax credit. (Drozda)
Digest
. Provides a state tax credit to a taxpayer that makes a contribution to a scholarship granting organization for use by the scholarship granting organization in a scholarship program
to provide scholarships to eligible students. Defines “eligible student” as an individual who: (1) has legal settlement in Indiana; (2) is between five and 22 years of age; (3) either has been or is currently enrolled in a participating school; (4) is enrolling in kindergarten or was previously enrolled in a public school; and (5) either: (A) has an annual household income of not more than 300% of the federal income poverty level; or (B) received
a scholarship as an eligible student in the immediately preceding school year. Sets forth a process for the department of state revenue to certify a scholarship program administered by a scholarship granting organization.
Date Action
01/10/2008 S: Author Added Jeff Drozda
01/10/2008 S: 1st Reading AssignedEducation and Career Development
01/16/2008 S: Committee Sched 3:00 PM Room 431 Education and Career Development
01/16/2008 S: Committee Action PassAmend(6-4) Education and Career Development
01/17/2008 S: Committee Report amend do pass, adopted

For those of you who are reading this this morning, we are on a two hour delay. That means I’ll be at school about 8:45 to open and feed the animals. School will open at 9:00.

Snow days are exciting for kids. For a child, there is a real mystery and innocence about snow, and it’s a real pleasure just to see the snow fall. I remember as a child growing up in coastal California that we never got to see snow. The only time we got to see it snow was when we were traveling in the mountains. One year we were going “up to the snow” and we were in a blizzard crossing Donner Pass. It was very exciting to watch my enormous father inching his body under the car to fasten the chains which, of course, fell of in five seconds. Remember, in California they measure snow in feet not inches.

These are blessed days. It’s been cold but not so cold the kids can’t go out a couple of times a week. Then it’s indoor play the rest of the week. We’ve noticed that on this schedule, there are no colds, no runny noses, no “drip.” We’re delighted.

We enjoyed Japan Day and the kids really loved International Feast. Many of them visited the buffet table several times. The favorite was the Nigerian Chicken Soup. Thanks to Zoey’s friend for bringing it. Thanks to all the parents who brought the delicious dishes. It was a pleasure to have you for lunch.

Sharing is an important part of learning to go to school. Learning what I must share and what is mine alone builds character. The ability to say, “No, that’s mine, and you can’t share it,” and understand the difference between selfishness and self preservation is a key to living well. We don’t share many personal things we’ve used like tissues, and gum, and forks and underwear, but we do share ideas, laughter, jokes, good times and our selves.

I bought a solitaire game last week. It’s a one child game, and the children are learning that it’s a watch for many, do for one game. It’s been a very good lesson that my hands don’t always have to touch what you are doing.

This is our kick off week for the geography of countries. We’ve looked at where the poles are and the equator, and we’ve looked at North and South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia as areas, and now we’ll fly from one place to another to study particular countries. I can see it in the eyes of the older children that they understand space and difference.

We will offer a waffle breakfast early today, and follow it up with a late lunch of soup, bread and fruit for those of you who want to know how we do this. Nutrition is very important to us.

Drive carefully today, and we’ll see you about 9:00.

We had a very busy week last week. We worked on a theme of sharing. We talked about what we do and don’t have to share. Some of it was a real eye opener to some of the children. Most children believe they have to share everything. At the Garden School, we don’t believe that’s true. We gave some pretty funny examples of what one just doesn’t share – like tissue!

We brought our teddy bears to school on Wednesday to share verbally with our friends what we like, who we feel secure with and what kinds of things we love. We shared lunch with our friends and bears on blankets through the school – like a picnic. I think we all enjoyed it.

On Friday, we shared a little privacy by wearing our jammies to school. It was a nice day, and we went outside in our jammies which was especially fun.

This week we are doing a Japan Day – today. We’ll talk about Japan, find it on the map, discover how to get there from here, look at some pictures, fold some paper, eat some shrimp tempura, some teriyaki beef, a baked salmon and some carrots and noodles – all with chopsticks! We’ll eat some apples and oranges as well. It is Japanese Day!

It’s 5:30, and it’s snowing! Perhaps it will continue and the children will get some snow play!

On Tuesday, we’ll have International Feast. That’s an exchange of international foods with parents. It’s a mommy or daddy and me day. Parents can bring a foreign dish for four to share. We will play some games and launch our – where in the world is…

We’re beginning to see that post holiday jump in the classrooms. Miss Amy’s class is copying sentences off the board. This gives the children a real feel for letter writing, and they are so proud of what they can do.

In Miss Kelly’s class, the dominoes are quickly falling on the reading. The class is split between the readers and the non readers. Before Christmas, only two children were reading. It’s an achievement for both Miss Kelly and her kids.

In our little class of threes and fours, we are learning to listen. We are polishing knowing how to count, to recognize colors, numbers, shapes and letters and answer questions. It’s a split between those who know and those who don’t.

We are also enjoying new toys and new games.

Here’s an article published in the Evansville Courier. I don’t usually read the Courier, in fact I never read the Courier. Having worked for the Courier faithfully for 15 years, I was suddenly and for no other reason than ( from the lips of an editor) “We no longer have room in our paper for children,” dropped. I wrote a last column which was re-written by the staff to make me look like I was quitting writing. It was dishonest and mean spirited and just plain wrong to try to bring my writing career to an end, and there was really no reason for it. If that’s how they treat their faithful writers, then I don’t want to read their paper, discuss their paper, be shown articles, use them as a reference, a source or a point in discussion. It’s about that simple.

But here’s an exception to a rather unimportant rule:

I glean from the article that according to the paper, providing an early childhood place is a rather laughable idea. At least they are consistent.

Paying for education

The Issue: Goal is to keep changes ‘tax neutral.’ Our View: Without an increase, strategic agenda will be more acceptable.

With all the candidates squawking about the need for universal childcare; with the city wide discussion about what early childcare should offer the child; with parents wondering what children need and how much this is going to cost, it’s a difficult project to put it all into perspective and make sense out of what we hear on TV, read in the newspaper, or glean from friends.

As someone still in the trenches of early childhood work some 36 years, I will say the best thing I’ve ever heard concerning early childhood is from my school partner, Edith St. Louis. She says of our students, “Take a child from where ever he is as far as he can go.”

To elaborate: take a child on his first day with you, watch him, spend time with him, find out his weaknesses and his strengths, and then take him through the channels and hurdles of learning to the last day you have him in your care. Give him everything you can, physically, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, and morally.

It’s a covenant; it’s pact; it’s a promise; it’s a daily endeavor that begins in the beginning on that first day and stays with a child his entire life. A child should be able to return to his preschool or kindergarten teacher when he’s grown and say, “Thank you for caring about me.” He should remember because the early childhood years are first and probably most important building blocks there are in a child’s formation.

We hear a lot about development. I like to use the word formation. Development revolves around the idea that there is a standard, and we should jump into the box that contains that standard. I would like to think that more than adopting a standard, a child will create a standard for himself that always remains out of the box. That his formation will include much more than standards and that his formation will aways be precious to him and continue forever.

We hear a lot about developmentally appropriate. I like to use the word discovery. We are geared as early childhood professionals to channel activities into certain sphere of learning that “Is not out of the range (box) of what is appropriate – developmentally.” I like to think children discover during their days and through their discoveries, they learn much more than what is expected and even, at times, appropriate.

We hear a lot about outcome. I like to use the word input. Anyone can expect a predictable outcome for children. He will know his letters at 5; will know his math facts at 7; will know how to write his name at 6. With a little input, a child can do any of these things when he’s good and ready. But he won’t know he can if he’s not introduced to the possibilities. If he doesn’t get paper and pencil, how will he know he can write his name clearly at three? He won’t know he can read at four if he’s not taught.

And there is the real word – taught. A teacher will teach and teach and teach repeating the same thing over and over and over. Finally, a child will understand. In a class full of eager minds and unprogrammed thought, there will always be a domino effect. One child will have a breakthrough, and then another, and then another until every child understands that which has been taught and consider it learned. It’s a teacher’s joy.

We hear a lot about school readiness. The question is: Is a child ready to go to school and is the school ready to receive him. It seems to me that any respectable early childhood place should not even have to ask the first part of the question. It should be the first and primary goal of any school to both make a child ready, and then receive him.

So what’s a fair range of “I can do’s” a child should have accomplished when leaving an early childhood place? He should know about himself, about his family, about where he lives, about his state and country. He should be able to pledge the flag. He should know how to address another child, a teacher, his parents, an authority figure, and a stranger if need be. He should know how to listen, how to be quiet long enough to understand a story, a joke, a directive or even pray. He should know how to follow directions, how to ask a question, how to answer in turn, how to play a game, put a puzzle together, sit at a table, draw a picture, understand numbers from 1-100 and how to sound out words. He should be able to sing a song, stand in line, pick up his own mess, wash his hands, eat with a fork, and go to the toilet unattended.

These are just a few of the many things that build a child’s formation in early childhood. So when you listen to the great debates about universal childcare, think about these things – especially the idea that teachers take a child as far as he can go. That’s what we’re voting for, looking for and paying for – nothing less.

Everyone posts the top ten something. Here’s something I got from Spark People

1. Carl’s Jr. Western Bacon Six Dollar Burger I’m an East Coast kind of guy, but I realize there are no boundaries when it comes to bad foods. So, for this review, I took the advice of 19th Century newspaper editor Horace Greeley who urged, “Go west, young man, go west.”

The Western Bacon Six Dollar Burger will gun you down with 1,130 calories (600 from fat), 66g fat (100% of your Daily Reference Value), 28g saturated fat (140% DRV), 150mg cholesterol, 2,540mg sodium (110%DRV), 83g carbs, and 47g protein.

I’m beginning to understand why it’s called the Wild West! Sorry boys, but I’ll take the 3:10 to Yuma… and then the next plane to good old Philly, land of cheese steaks and soft pretzels over this one!
2. Pizza Hut Double Deep Pizza These Double Deep Pizzas are handcrafted by loading an entire pizza with twice the toppings of a medium pizza, plus 50% more cheese and then wrapping the crust over the top to hold all the toppings in.

I tried two slices of the Meaty variety. According to the Pizza Hut Website, I also opted for 1,160 calories, 72g fat (110% of your recommended Daily Value), 28g saturated fat (140% DV), 3g trans fat, 200mg cholesterol, 3,980mg sodium (166% DV), 62g carbs, and 62g protein.

In all fairness, the suggest serving is one slice (1/8 the medium pie) but who eats a single slice? Not me.

3. El Monterey XX Large Chimichanga While shopping at Wal-Mart here in Northeastern Pennsylvania, I noticed Spicy Red Hot Beef & Bean Chimichangas in a cooler near the deli. They looked suspiciously like my 3-for-a-buck burritos of yesteryear—only bigger and a tad more costly.

While a standard burrito wraps a filling of meat, beans and/or cheese in a flour tortilla, a chimichanga is a meat-filled tortilla…deep-fried.

The key words “deep-fried” may explain why my mushy 10-ounce XX Large Chimichanga did a Mexican fat dance on my diet to the tune of 920 calories, 57g of fat (15g saturated, 1g trans fat), 40mg cholesterol, 1,140mg sodium, 83g carbs, and 22g protein.

Ay, caramba! It’s a good thing I only had one.

4. Denny’s Meat Lover’s Scramble As Mr. Bad Food, I’ve seen plenty of bad nutrition numbers in my day. But I never saw anything as heart-stopping as what I found on the Denny’s Website one day.

It was my stomach that turned upside down when I checked out the nutrition numbers for Denny’s Meat Lover’s Scramble. Denny’s could be charged with “salt with a deadly weapon” for serving a breakfast entree that packs an unbelievable 4,170mg of sodium! (The Recommended Daily Allowance for sodium is 2,400mg.)

The Meat Lover’s Scramble will also shake you down with 1,280 calories, 71g of fat (21 saturated, 0 trans), 565mg cholesterol (the RDA is 300mg), 103g carbs and 54g protein (RDA is 50). By the way, the RDA for fat is 65 grams, so you are taking in more than a day’s fat, cholesterol and sodium in a single meal!

So if you find yourself at a Denny’s and someone recommends a scramble, take my advice and scramble for the door!

5. Hardee’s Country Breakfast Burrito The word burrito sounds like a term for a little burro. If you don’t want to make an ass of yourself—by scarfing down 60 grams of fat with your first meal of the day—then steer clear of the Country Breakfast Burrito at Hardee’s.

The king-sized breakfast burrito is cobbled together from two omelets, five hashrounds (their cutesy version of hashbrowns), cheddar cheese, and sausage gravy. The omelets that fill out the tortilla each contain two eggs, crumbled sausage, diced ham and bacon bits.

Now, if you’re hungry for 920 calories, 23 grams of saturated fat, and nearly 2,000 milligrams of sodium for your morning meal, dig in!

6. KFC Chicken & Biscuit Bowl The clever cooks at KFC devised a way to toss together an entire chicken dinner in a single bowl. According to the KFC Website, the new bowls are “a blend of mouth-watering KFC flavors and textures all layered together.”

A blend…a jumble…a clutter…Call it what you will. But after checking out the nutrition facts, I call the Chicken & Biscuit bowl a great way to flock up your diet!

Their nutrition guide says that the Chicken & Biscuit dish will bowl you over with 870 calories, 44g of fat (11 saturated, 4.5 trans), 60mg cholesterol, 2,420mg sodium (101% of your recommended daily amount), 88g carbs, and 29g protein.

7. Starbucks Double Chocolate Chip Frappuccino Blended Crème When is a coffee drink not a coffee drink? When it comes with calories and frothy extras you’d expect to get with a milkshake! Oh, and when it doesn’t even include coffee! Case in point: The 24-ounce (that’s Venti-sized in Starbucks lingo) Double Chocolate Chip Frappuccino Blended Crème served up at your local Starbucks.

This drink is made from rich chocolate, chocolate chips and milk, and is blended with ice, and topped with whipped cream (optional), and chocolate drizzle.

With 670 calories, 22g of total fat, (12g saturated fat; 0.5g of trans fat), and 107g of carbs, it only sounds like a coffee drink. The 12 grams of saturated fat is equal to the saturated fat you get in a McDonald’s Quarter-Pounder with Cheese… but the sandwich packs 160 fewer calories than the Frappuccino!

8. Pizza Hut P’Zone
It takes two hands to handle a Pizza Hut P’Zone. The problem is—according to the nutrition info on their website—it should also take two people! Yes, despite the fact their TV ads showed a bunch of hungry guys chowing down on whole P’Zones, each super-sized dough pockets of meats, cheeses and sauce is considered TWO SERVINGS.

The nutrition numbers… doubled for those of us who consider the P’Zones one-meal wonders:

P’Zone Classic: 1,220 calories, 46g fat, 22g saturated fat, 2g trans fat, 130mg cholesterol, 2,700mg sodium, 144g carbs, 8g fiber, 60g protein.

P’Zone Pepperoni: 1,260 calories, 48g fat, 22g saturated fat, 2g trans fat, 140mg cholesterol, 2,980mg sodium, 140g carbs, 6g fiber, 64g protein.

P’Zone Meaty: 1,380 calories, 58g fat, 26g saturated fat, 2g trans fat, 160mg cholesterol, 3,460mg sodium, 144g carbs, 8g fiber, 70g protein.

9. Wendy’s Baconator
The term “Baconator” sparks images of an action flick featuring a leading man with a terribly thick Austrian accent. But if you’re planning on ordering Wendy’s newest blockbuster, think again. I can picture it now: A seatbelt-straining drive-thru customer grabs his grease-stained bag of beef, bacon and fried potatoes, and before driving off to feast upon his Baconator, he shouts to the drive-up window jockey, “I’ll be bawk…for my defibrillator paddles!” Then, just before he zooms out of earshot, the server leans out of her window and yells back at him: “Hasta la vista, flabby!”

OK, so it’s poor scriptwriting. But it’s also poor dining to indulge in this Wendy’s double cheeseburger on steroids. The Baconator boasts two beef patties, two slices of cheese and SIX slices of bacon! Do yourself a favor and terminate your urge to order this beast of a burger.

The nutritional numbers for the 10-ounce Baconator: 830 calories, 51g of fat (22g saturated, 2.5g trans fat), 170mg of cholesterol, 1,920mg of sodium, 35g of carbs, and 57g of protein.

10. Denny’s Extreme Grand Slam Ads for Denny’s Grand Slam breakfasts used to feature the tagline, “$2.99…Are you out of your mind?!” Now that the restaurant chain has launched ads for its new Extreme Grand Slam—a breakfast platter piled high with three strips of bacon, three sausage links, two eggs, hash browns and three pancakes—they might want to change it to, “You’re ordering a Denny’s Extreme Grand Slam…Are you out of your freakin’ mind?!”

The Denny’s Website urges customers to “fall in love with breakfast all over again.” It then offers up its latest line of “Breakfast Cravers” platters—dishes packed with the artery-clogging goodness of not-so-lean meats. Cases in point: The Meat Craver’s Breakfast and the Steak and Cheese Omelette.

The nutritional numbers for the 21-ounce Extreme Grand Slam: 1,160 calories, 64g of fat (17g of saturated fat), 560mg of cholesterol, 3,750mg of sodium, 102g of carbs, 4g of fiber, and 45g of protein.

There you have it—my picks for 2007’s Best of the Worst…or should I say, The Worst of the Worst! Have a Happy and Healthy 2008!

So what does a child really need for lunch?

The United States Department of Agriculture Child and Adult Food Program says that for lunch a 3-5 year old child needs 1.5 ounces of protein, 4 ounces of fruit and or vegetable, 1 ounce of enriched or whole grain bread, and a cup of milk.

The optimist looks at that and says: baked chicken, corn on the cob, fresh apples, a whole grain fun muffin and a cup of milk.

The pessimist looks at that and says: frozen pizza, French fries, applesauce.

So who cares? Few parents and providers really do care, and that’s what is causing a nation of obese and unhealthy kids. False ideas that salty snacks are better than sweet snacks, that juice boxes are a good way to add a fruit to a child’s diet, and that fast food is a good option to anything at home is driving high blood pressure and diabetes into many children’s lives. Today’s child is accumulating more calories in a day than ever before and most of it comes from snacks.

One of my favorite children once told me that his favorite lunch was grilled cheese and cheese puffs. When you consider that the sandwich was probably white bread, the cheese was “peal and eat” oil based cheese, and it was probably served with a fruit “drink” you are talking about a potential lunch menu that has fewer nutrients than cat food. The sad part is, this child could really eat.

Lunch is a very important part of a child’s basic health. A child between 1-3 should eat about 1300 calories a day. A child who is 4-6 should eat about 1800 calories per day. When you consider the totals at the end of the day, you might get just the right amount of calories, but when you put junk calories into one category and nutrition calories into another category, and you total both categories, what exactly is your child eating? Is it even healthy? Is there really room for treats, or is the meal the no-nutrition treat all by itself?

Let’s take a look at this little boy’s grilled cheese lunch and compare it with the same lunch but with some better options. Let’s first look at the bread. When you weigh bread, the more fiber the bread has the heavier it is. One ounce of white bread is twice as large as an ounce of multi-grain. Good, you say, I can eat more for less. Perhaps. But the real question is how many slices of white bread will you or your child need to feel full? Will your child eat 2 sandwiches for a total of 400 bread calorie slices. Would he have been just as full eating one slice of multi grain bread for a total of 100 calories?

Now let’s consider the bread. Bread is supposed to fill you up, and it’s supposed to act as a cleansing agent while it’s being digested. It absorbs impurities that get into your system and then clean sweeps the colon. Eating bread is a really terrific part of your diet unless you eat white bread. White bread does not have the fiber to cleanse. It actually causes your system to back up, to clog, and in an article I read recently, white bread can actually cause cancer because it doesn’t leave the system; it stays and stays.

So when making that grilled cheese sandwich for your child, consider your bread carefully. When you do, you will begin to see that most children only need one slice.

Now let’s look at the cheese. When you save money on bread, it’s time to spend a little more on cheese. The cheese that’s wrapped in plastic individual sheets is cheese food not cheese. What’s wrapped is actually not that different from the wrapper. Plastic leaches into the food. There is a high sugar and salt content to give flavor to the unreal food. Cheese food has the nutritional value of cooking oil because that’s about what it is. Cheese must say “Cheese” to be a genuine food.

When using real cheese, buy the slices that are a little thicker. Most of these will measure out at 1 ounce. For lunch a child needs 1.5 or 2 slices. This allows the child to really taste the cheese. Cheese has about 88 calories per ounce. Cheese food has 141 per ounce. So with real cheese, you really are getting more for your money and spending a lot fewer calories.

Now, the go alongs. Let’s see the difference between cheese puffs and say apples. Cheese puffs average about 160 calories for an ounce and an ounce fits into the palm of your hand. Cheese puffs are high in salt and have no nutritional value. They are a body clogger much like white bread. They give a child a false sense of full that leaves quickly and they send blood pressure up for uneven behavior problems.

An apple, on the other hand, probably weighs 4 ounces has 55 calories. Half an apple fits the USDA food program and has a lot of potassium, fiber and good power building carbohydrates. An apple offers a child energy without offering a momentary rush of excited behavior with a crash a few minutes later. Apples are good carbohydrates that allow a slower digestion pattern and stay with a child a longer time.

Adding the other components the USDA Child Care Food Program requires means adding another fruit or vegetable. Let’s offer carrot sticks. For every baby carrot stick a child eats, it’s four calories.

Now for the final crunch – milk vs. juice drink:

Milk is an essential food for bone and brain development. A cup of 2% white milk has 138 calories. A juice box contains about the same calories – 140 calories and has a lot of the wrong kind of sugar.

Let’s look at the two lunches:

2 ounces of white bread at 200 calories
2 slices of cheese food at 280 calories
1 ounce of cheese puffs at 160 calories
1 juice box at 140 calories

Total calories: 780 with little food value

1 ounce of multi-grain bread at 100 calories
2 slices of cheese at 170 calories
1/2 an apple at 30 calories
10 carrot sticks at 40 calories
1 cup milk at 130 calories

Total calories : 470 with a lot of food value

Considering all this, the question still remains – what about the need for 1800 calories?

By eating nearly 500 calories three times a day, a child still has room for a sweet or two or an extra helping or even an option like a bowl of soup without the thought that the child is eating too much.

By eating 780 calories at every meal, a child is way over his count, and when he adds that sweet or extra or bowl of soup, he is putting on enough calories to send him into the danger zone.

And speaking of sweets, lots of parents are down on sweets and sugar because they are afraid their children will be fat. By looking at what you are really serving a child, the question of obesity can’t be blamed on a few cookies. It can be blamed on the neglect of food components, the idea that all food is equal, and that constant stop for a fast food lunch is not a bad thing because it’s convenient. That lunch of six chicken nuggets at a calorie count of 320, and 150 calories for the potatoes that usually go with, and a soda at 147 calories is about 617 calories.

The average cookie has fewer than 100 calories. So compare the average cookie to cheese puffs or other high salt crackers or snacks. Ounce for ounce cookies are a better treat and have lots less salt. Cookies packed with added fiber like oats and raisins, apples, and made with whole wheat flour are probably better for a child than a lot of neglectful meals.

When feeding children lunch the idea is to assemble real food, and keep in mind that fresh is always better than canned, real is always better than imitation, and low salt is preferable to high salt.