Please Teach the Children

There is so much focus on the education of our children regarding academics, I fear that we are failing them in the education of life. (I am not saying the academic education should be diluted in anyway). The attached report shows that all kid's through the 12th grade are eating much more than the daily allowance of sugar and saturated fats. Even more concerting is that most of the food eaten represents "empty calories." This is the grain desserts, soda, and pizza our kids love. http://www.adajournal.org/article/S0002-8223(10)01189-2/abstract

I often hear that it is the schools responsibility to educate our kids academically, but when it comes to eating and social skills it is the parents responsibility. Well, I agree with this to a point except for the fact that our kids spend 6-8 hours a day at school. Who is responsible to feed them well during this time? The schools! I am still mind-boggled that we cannot serve healthy food in our primary schools. The excuse is that kids won't eat healthy. I don't agree... If you give them a choice, they will probably take the familiar unhealthy foods, but if the schools eliminate them, there will really be no alternative. They are hungry, they will eat.

Please get rid of the unhealthy food in our primary schools and educate them wholly. Not just academically, but socially and responsibly.

I know, food cost again...

Yup! Food prices are going up, up, and away... But this time it does not have to do with a shrinking economy or the weak value of the dollar a la 2008. Nor does it have to do with soaring energy prices a la 2007. This time it has to do with hoarding inventory of such items like corn and cereal grain. Recently, we heard about Moscow placing a limit on exports of their grains; recognizing the recession well in advance of the actual moment. Credit to their economists their... They were widely scolded by many countries and the U.N. for this behavior as well.

Looks like they had the right idea... The U.S. and Africa have begun exporting less grains in anticipation of a world-wide shortage. What does this mean to us? Higher costs of course! I know it seems like doom and gloom from 2008 and 2009, but I am going to take a more optimistic approach. Americans have a unique quality to tighten up when the going gets rough. Think about the energy prices in early 2007 when oil was well over $100 per barrel. We tightened up our consumption and drove the prices down to the $50s. I believe this will be yet another example of the conservation that seems to be inherent in the American psyche. Therefore, prices will certainly spike for a short while, but once the inventory becomes too great and expensive to keep hoarded, that inventory will be unleashed and prices will drop again precipitously.

As responsible administrators, it is our duty to turn away as much as possible from "short-supply"items whilst waiting for the prices to drop. We have proven as an industry that we can do this over and over again. Now we have to do it again!

David